Relational coaching: taking the coaching high road

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to articulate and elaborate on the practice of “relational” coaching, and to suggest that there are significant implications for coaching practice, in particular the need for coaches to risk themselves by engaging their whole person in what is an unpredictable and intimate process. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is to draw on perspectives from psychology, neuroscience, sociology, complexity science and philosophy, which all imply or suggest the centrality of relational dynamics in human interaction, and in particular an interaction in which the coach inevitably becomes a “significant other” for his or her client. Findings – The main conclusion of the paper is that the dynamic of the relationship between coach and client needs to be explicitly attended to, as it is the main means through which change takes place in two key respects; first, because it serves as an analogue of the dynamical patterns which tend to configure a client's relationships in their work context and, second, because the quality of embodied resonance between the coach and client has been shown to be the main factor in effective coaching outcomes. Originality/value – These findings are generally understood in the field of psychotherapy in particular, but much less so in the field of coaching. The findings arising from the particular synthesis of these perspectives in the context of coaching is original, and their potential implications for coaching are believed to have considerable potential value.