Science & Critical Reflection in Coaching Psychology
Harnessing empirical evidence and critical thinking skills in evidence based coaching.
I found out recently that my application to become a Chartered Scientist has been successful. Being recognised as a Scientist feels important to me - I think because having evidence to guide what I do is something I value highly.
I’ve been reflecting on the role of science in coaching psychology, and along with that the role of critical thinking in evidence based practice. Let’s start by defining what science is. The Science Council in the UK have published the following definition.
Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.
Scientific methodology includes the following:
Objective observation: Measurement and data (possibly although not necessarily using mathematics as a tool)
Evidence
Experiment and/or observation as benchmarks for testing hypotheses
Induction: reasoning to establish general rules or conclusions drawn from facts or examples
Repetition
Critical analysis
Verification and testing: critical exposure to scrutiny, peer review and assessment
Science is not a special kind of magical knowledge. What is important is the process used to explore something. It should be methodical, replicable, and reflective in terms of the researcher’s process and biases. It’s that critical evaluation that has been on my mind a lot recently, both as a coaching practitioner and as a supervisor.
What is critical analysis and reflection, and how do you do it?
The British Psychological Society standards for Coaching Psychology refer to a number of critical thinking skills:
Critical reflective practice, which is about thinking critically about your development and growth as a coaching practitioner, and how you are applying information and knowledge in your practice.
Applied critical understanding of psychological knowledge, which is about being able to analyse and evaluate the theories, evidence, and information you use in your coaching practice.
Critical evaluation of the tools and skills within your coaching psychology practice. This means thinking about the evidence for a skill or tool you’re using and understanding the quality of evidence that supports it.
Critical analysis, discussion, evaluation and review of research, including the models used in practice, the findings of research, the impact of new developments, and directions for future research.
Why does the BPS care about these skills? I think it’s because of the strong link between critical skills and good evidence based practice in coaching.
The term ‘evidence based coaching’ refers to the process of using the best available information from empirical evidence, professional expertise, and the coaching context.
When coaches are evidence based in their practice, they think about what the right coaching approach (perhaps a theory or a model) is for their practice and for their clients. That might mean adapting their coaching practice for different contexts and clients. Science produces empirical knowledge that helps coaches understand what works, for whom, and when. It also helps coaches understand which approaches have been tested and shown to be both safe and effective. We can use that empirical evidence from science in addition to our professional expertise and understanding of the context to make good decisions on how to work with a client.
Do these critical and evidence based coaching skills feel useful to you? I think they are worth learning about, as the evidence we get from science increases our understanding of what is effective and safe, and evidence based practice guides us in the approach to use with any given client in any given context. These elements offer coaching practitioners a way of evolving their practice in line with the best knowledge we have and in a way that provides whatever their clients will benefit from most. However, I also think it can be difficult to get your head around new concepts, so if these are new for you then I hope this article makes them a little more accessible.
Putting the ‘critical thinking cap’ on can be hard, and it is a skill that you can develop through reflection and practice. Ultimately, science and evidence based practice support us, as coaching practitioners, to understand what will serve our clients best and to ensure what we do is both effective and ethical.
Prompts for critical reflection
Some of my supervision clients find it useful to have reflective prompts to help them get their ‘critical thinking cap’ on. I’ve summarised below some that I use - feel free to try them out in relation to your practice:
What am I doing and why am I doing it? Is this approach safe and effective? What do I know about how it works?
What theories am I using? Are they supported by evidence? How good is that evidence (e.g. is it coaching specific or coaching related)?
How does this coaching theory or intervention work? Is it supported by evidence, and has it been shown to be safe? What is the quality of that evidence?
How well does this work for me in my coaching practice? How well does it work for my client(s)?
How can I evolve my practice in light of what I have learned, or am learning?
How can I best adapt what I do to meet the needs of my client(s)? How can I develop and grow my practice to best serve my client(s)?
What are the ethical considerations here?
Interested in developing critical or evidence based coaching skills?
I created a short online training course in evidence based coaching for coaching practitioners, which you can access here.
If you’re interested in supervision, you can set up a chemistry call with me using the link here.
Some useful resources include:
The Science Council website - https://sciencecouncil.org/
The Division of Coaching Psychology website - https://www.bps.org.uk/member-networks/division-coaching-psychology
This paper provides a framework for evaluating the evidence for coaching Grant, A. M. (2016). What constitutes evidence-based coaching? A two-by-two
framework for distinguishing strong from weak evidence for coaching.
International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 14(1), 74.
This paper provides guidance for coaching researchers and practitioners who want to conduct quantitative coaching research Skews, R. (2020). How to design and conduct quantitative coaching intervention research. The Coaching Psychologist, 16(1), 41–52. https://doi.org/10.53841/bpstcp.2020.16.1.41