Coaching to enhance resilience and wellbeing

This chapter discusses how coaching can aid in the identification and enhancement of these resources, and can enable individuals experiencing pressure to manage their stress more positively, enhance their wellbeing and increase resilience. The concept of resilience links strongly with areas of psychology such as clinical psychology, sport psychology and positive psychology. Resilience is generally understood as a person’s ability to take on pressure in a positive way and to recover from adversity. Coaches from a range of backgrounds can work with their coachees using techniques designed to enhance resilience, reduce stress and increase wellbeing and performance. These approaches include solution-focused coaching, cognitive-behavioural coaching, acceptance and commitment coaching and strengths-based coaching. The main aim of resilience coaching is to improve the balance of challenges with resources, both practical and psychological. The solution-focused approach to coaching is related to identifying and accessing external resources rather than trying to uncover psychological blocks.