It was a pleasure to be invited to speak at one of the online ‘In Conversation’ events hosted by the Positive Psychology Summit UK. My name is Tia and I’m a positive psychology coaching psychologist who is passionate about supporting people to live better lives and achieve that sweet spot between performance and wellbeing.
I’ve been coaching for many years but in a more focused capacity for the last 5 years. Having completed a masters in applied positive psychology and coaching psychology, one of the things I have also thoroughly enjoyed is researching what works and what doesn’t work in coaching. So much so that I have enrolled to do a PhD and am continuing to research in this area (specifically exploring coaching as an intervention for diversity and inclusion in organisations). In my practice, it’s important to me that I base my approach on evidence and not just what I think or feel might be best for my client based on my own experiences. I humbly believe and recognise that works for me is not necessarily what will work for another person. I’m equally an advocate of applying research to practice – since I feel the very point of doing research is to create some kind of impact in the world!
So it was wonderful to have this opportunity to share the findings of research completed on coaching individuals working from home during the pandemic. I carried out this research after I completed my masters, in collaboration with a talented research team at the University of East London; including Margaret Barr, Alexandra Fouracres, Charlotte Brown, Corinne Holden, Cornelia Lucey and Philippa Thomas, under the leadership of Professor Christian van Nieuwerburgh.
When the pandemic hit us, I vividly recall participating in lively whatssap conversations with professional peers in the coaching field to explore what role coaching had to play in supporting people as they navigated the challenges of lockdown, social isolation, working from home, losing jobs, home-schooling, dealing with critical illness… the list goes on. The other point of debate was what place does positive psychology have – with its misconstrued reputation as “happyology” – in coaching people through this time?
As researchers, our team decided to get together to empirically explore the answer to this question. The experience of completing this research alongside my colleagues is something I will look back on and recall fondly. During a time of extreme uncertainty and disruption, somehow our team came together and worked in flow, seamlessly integrating and pooling our talents to answer the research question; what is the experience of employees who receive positive psychology coaching while working from home during the pandemic? We identified five core themes; valuing opportunity for safe reflection; increasing awareness; alleviation of negative emotions; feeling re-energised by identifying a way forward; and renewed confidence. In these cases, there was clearly a place for positive psychology coaching and the participants reported positive benefits from the experience.
The research our team completed was qualitative in nature, an interpretative phenomenological analysis that went very deep - with six employees of a UK based financial services firm to truly get to the heart of their experience of the coaching and give them a voice. Because of the small sample size, the results cannot be generalised to a broader population but the value is in a systematic, objective and rich interpretation and understanding of what the experience was like. It was great to further explore what the research means through this event, with other positive psychology practitioners in the field, who shared their own thoughts and experiences of coaching through Covid. It was also useful to explore with participants in the conversation, some experts in this area; the role that therapy or clinical interventions have to play in supporting people through the pandemic and to acknowledge that positive psychology coaching is not intended to replace this. This event was the perfect setting to continue a “conversation” on this topic and share further experiences and it felt very much like an intimate, fire-side chat thanks to the warm hosting of Cat, Andrew and Jane.
During the pandemic, I have been providing coaching to employees both through my own private practice and through a consulting organisation I work for – Bailey and French – who apply positive psychology solutions to the workplace. Bailey and French have continued to thrive during the pandemic and rapidly designed and implemented a progressive, unique wellbeing coaching programme for one of their client organisations, leveraging Seligman’s PERMA model of wellbeing as a tool and framework. In my own coaching, I applied the model of Psychological Capital (also known as HERO - Luthans et al., 2007). Feedback from participants I coached was overwhelmingly positive and aligns with the message from several key positive psychology researchers such Lea Waters, Jane Dutton, Barbara Fredrickson and more (2021), that positive psychology can “buffer, bolster and build” mental health during a pandemic.
Having completed this piece of research, I personally felt a renewed energy and sense of purpose in what I do – knowing that I could play my part in supporting people through these challenging times as a positive psychology coach. So thank you to all who attended, participated and shared in the conversation; and thank you to Jane, Andrew and Cat for the opportunity. See you at the next one!
Tia Moin
Positive Psychology Coaching Psychologist
The full study can be accessed here if anyone is interested to read more:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353998505_Experience_of_positive_psychology_coaching_while_working_from_home_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic_an_Interpretative_Phenomenological_Analysis
References:
Luthans, F., Avolio, B. J., Avey, J. B., & Norman, S. M. (2007). Positive Psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. Personnel Psychology, 60, 541-572.
Seligman, M. E. (2012). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. Atria Paperback.
van Nieuwerburgh, C., Barr, M., Fouracres, A. J. S., Moin, T., Brown, C., Holden, C., Lucey, C., & Thomas, P. (2021). Experience of positive psychology coaching while working from home during the covid-19 pandemic: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2021.1897637
Waters, L., Algoe, S. B., Dutton, J., Emmons, R., Fredrickson, B. L., Heaphy, E., Moskowitz, J. T., Neff, K., Niemiec, R. Pury, C. & Steger, M. (2021). Positive psychology in a pandemic: buffering, bolstering, and building mental health. The Journal of Positive Psychology. DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2021.1871945