Abstract/Summary

The use of mindfulness in the practice of coaching has gained interest over recent years amongst coaching professionals. Whilst there has been research to examine and understand its role and place in coaching practice, much remains yet to be examined with respect to its purpose and how mindfulness may be acquired, used in the practice of coaching and assure the quality thereof. The research presented in this dissertation provides three studies on how mindfulness in coaching is developed and acquired. The focus of the studies is on the experiences and perceptions of trainee-coaches learning mindfulness, experienced coaches using mindfulness and coach supervisors who use mindfulness in their supervision practice. Together, the studies provide a broad scope and an integrated examination of three major phases in the development, practice and improvement of mindfulness in coaching. The first study considers how mindfulness training impacts on post-graduate traineecoaches’ use of mindfulness. An increase in mindfulness in trainee-coaches was found for the majority (85%) after the training and a large majority (78%) found the training positive and beneficial. The importance of the training is presented in terms of devolvement of insights and mindfulness skills of attention, presence, empathy, selfregulation and non-judgment, the impact of which are fundamental in mindfulness coaching. The second study explores what mindfulness is from the experienced coach practitioner’ perspective and concludes that mindfulness is considered useful or beneficial in their coaching practice. Challenges concerning definitions and practices of mindfulness are noted, as are the coaches’ perspectives of what mindfulness is and how they think about and use it in practice. An enhanced operational definition and model are proposed for the development of mindfulness in coaching. The third study provides an important source to develop the use of mindfulness in coaching practice. Since coaching supervisors are well placed to offer impartial or independent views and help with respect to their supervisees’ use of mindfulness, they were included in the research. The challenges and applications for supervisors included mindfulness training to develop effective mindfulness coaching supervision. A coach supervisor interactive mindfulness framework is proposed to facilitate an understanding of the dynamics and content of the supervisor-supervisee relationship. Together the three studies provide an integration and discussion of the stages and their contributions to the development of mindfulness in coaching practice. The studies propose a more inclusive and nuanced approach for using mindfulness in coaching. Based on an integration of their Results, an enhanced operational definition and framework for mindfulness in coaching is proposed in Chapter 5. The contribution of the three studies offer a more integrated and realistic basis for the practice of mindfulness in coaching, a better understanding of the challenges for future mindfulness research and the wider implications of these for the coaching profession.