THE BOOK - “A Guide to Coaching and Mental Health - the recognition and management of psychological issues”

For coaching to continue to progress towards the status of profession many steps must be taken. One of these is for coaches and trainee coaches to check that they have the knowledge, skill and personal commitment to recognize psychological issues with their clients and then make appropriate choices on how the coaching should progress.

Understanding ‘when not to coach’ warrants inclusion in every coach’s skill set.

Not only is it not appropriate to continue coaching or mentoring some people who have psychological problems, it can be dangerous to all parties, coach, client and sponsoring organization. But, not all mental health issues are barriers to coaching. The coach, coach trainer, supervisor do not need to learn how to diagnose - in fact, it’s more important that they don’t try, but it is important for them to be aware of what might be happening and to listen for what is not being said.

THE BOOK - “A Guide to Coaching and Mental Health - the recognition and management of psychological issues” by Andrew Buckley and Carole Buckley will be published on September 5th 2006 in the UK and be available about six weeks later in the USA (other areas depend on distribution) as the third book in the Essential Coaching Skills and Knowledge Series by Routledge.

Priced at £14.99 / $26.95 for the paperback and £45.00 / $80.00 for the hardback, this text is an ideal introduction to the recognition and management - from a coaching, mentoring and other non-medical perspective - of psychological and mental health issues. The book covers the background, questioning, ethical considerations and discussion of the steps to be taken once a client has shown signs of mental illness.

More information can be found at

You can also order/pre-order now from Amazon and Routledge ( www.routledge.com )

This text will provide the knowledge that is needed by all coaches and coaching supervisors to be able to judge when not to coach.

But, knowledge is only half the story - specific training, using the principles outlined in A Guide to Coaching and Mental Health, will help ensure that trainee and more experienced coaches will not fall foul of a code of ethics and good practice by working when other treatment is indicated or working beyond their personal competence.

THE TRAINING - ‘Recognising psychological issues in coaching’. Andrew Buckley has designed a one-day training programme that, in conjunction with the book, will ensure that coaches have an understanding of the wide-ranging signs of mental illness, how to explore and question clients and what to do, in the best interests of the client, the coach and any sponsoring organisation. This training can be booked for your training course. Alternatively look out for publicity on an open training course near you - e-mail if you would like to be sent information on these training courses when it is published. At present this is only available in the UK.