Neuroscience-Informed Coaching Practice
Chapter
First Online: 30 September 2021
1814 Accesses
Abstract
Neuroscience provides coaches with a compelling lens through which to view their coachee’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours. However, enthusiasm for integrating neuroscience into coaching often outpaces the coach’s knowledge of the subject matter. In addition, there is no empirical evidence for the use of neuroscience within positive psychology coaching (PPC) per se. To address these concerns, this chapter considers the lessons learned from two disciplines which have scrutinised the opportunities and limitations of translating neuroscience into practice: educational neuroscience (EN) in the classroom setting and psychoeducation (PE) in the mental health setting. Opportunities exist for the thoughtful development of neuroscience-informed coaching practice including (i) the development of neuroscience-informed content for coaching conversations (the ‘what’), (ii) the development of neuroscience-informed structures or tools for the delivery of coaching (the ‘how’), and (iii) validation of coaching efficacy using neuroscience technology (e.g. testing how coaching ‘works’). Attention needs to turn towards the training of coaches in how to assess, understand and integrate neuroscientific research to ensure the continuation of evidence-based coaching practice.
References
Allen, S. (2019). Positive neuroscience. A white paper prepared for the John Templeton Foundation by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. February. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31464486.
Anderson, M., & Della Sala, M. (2012). Neuroscience in education: An (opinionated) introduction. In S. Della Sala & M. Anderson (Eds.), Neuroscience in Education. The good, the bad and the ugly (pp. 3–12). Oxford University Press.
Ardern, J. B. (2015). Brain2Brain: Enacting client change through the persuasive power of neuroscience. Wiley.
Bailey, R. P., Madigan, D. J., Cope, E., & Nicholls, A. R. (2018). The prevalence of pseudoscientific ideas and neuromyths among sports coaches. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(May), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00641.
Barrett, L. F. (2020). 7 1/2 lessons about the brain. Houghton Mifflin.
Bernstein, A., & Hock, M. (2019, April). The brain science behind business. Harvard Business Review Special Issue.
Bossons, P., Riddell, P., & Sartain, D. (2015). The neuroscience of leadership coaching: Why the tools and techniques of leadership coaching work. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Bowers, J. S. (2016). The practical and principled problems with educational neuroscience. Psychological Review, 123(5), 600–612.
Boyatzis, R. E., & Jack, A. I. (2018). The neuroscience of coaching. Consulting Psychology Journal, 70(1), 11–27.
Brann, A. (2017). Neuroscience for coaches how to use the latest insights for the benefit of your clients (2nd ed.). Kogan Page.
Brosnan, C., & Michael, M. (2014). Enacting the ‘neuro’ in practice: Translational research, adhesion and the promise of porosity. Social Studies of Science, 44(5), 680–700.
Bruer, J. T. (2016). Where is educational neuroscience? Educational Neuroscience, 1, 237761611561803. https://doi.org/10.1177/2377616115618036.
Busa, J., Harrison, J., Chappell, J., Yoshinaga-Itano, C., Grimes, A., Brookhouser, P. E., Epstein, S., Mehl, A., Vohr, B., Gravel, J., Roush, J., Widen, J., Benedict, B. S., Scoggins, B., King, M., Pippins, L., Savage, D. H., Ackermann, J., Gibson, A., … Mason, P. (2007). Year 2007 position statement: Principles and guidelines for early hearing detection and intervention programs. Pediatrics, 120(4), 898–921.
Butterworth, S. (2010). Health-coaching strategies to improve patient-centered outcomes. JAOA• Supplement 5 (The Whole Patient), 110(4), 12–14.
Cesario, J., Johnson, D. J., & Eisthen, H. L. (2020). Your brain is not an onion with a tiny reptile inside. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(3), 255–260.
Im, S.-h., Cho, J. Y., Dubinsky, J. M., & Varma, S. (2018). Taking an educational psychology course improves neuroscience literacy but does not reduce belief in neuromyths. PLoS One, 13(2), 1–19.
Dekker, S., Lee, N. C., Howard-Jones, P., & Jolles, J. (2012). Neuromyths in education: Prevalence and predictors of misconceptions among teachers. Frontiers in Psychology, 3(Oct), 1–8.
Duenyas, D. L., & Luke, C. (2019). Neuroscience for counselors: Recommendations for developing and teaching a graduate course. The Professional Counselor, 9(4), 369–380.
Dweck, C. (2015). Carol dweck revisits the ‘growth mindset.’ Education weekly.
Ekhtiari, H., Rezapour, T., Aupperle, R. L., Paulus, M. P., States, U., Program, N., & States, U. (2018). Neuroscience-informed psychoeducation for addiction medicine: A neurocognitive perspective Hamed. Progress Brain Research, 239–264.
Franklin, G., Carson, A. J., & Welch, K. A. (2016). Cognitive behavioural therapy for depression: Systematic review of imaging studies. Acta Neuropsychiatrica, 28(2), 61–74.
GBD 2016 Neurology Collaborators. (2019). Global, regional, and national burden of neurological disorders, 1990–2016: A systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2016. The Lancet Neurology, 18(5), 459–480.
Grant, A. (2015). Coaching the brain: Neuro-science or neuro-nonsense? The Coaching Psychologist, 11(1), 31–37.
Grant, A. (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 & Mentoring, 14(1), 74–85.
Grant, A., & O’Connor, S. (2019). A brief primer for those new to coaching research and evidence-based practice. The Coaching Psychologist, 15(June).
Green, S., & Palmer, S. (2019). Positive psychology coaching. Science into practice. In S. Green & S. Palmer (Eds.), Postive psychology coaching in practice. (pp. 1–20). Routledge.
Grospietsch, F., & Mayer, J. (2019). Pre-service science teachers’ neuroscience literacy: Neuromyths and a professional understanding of learning and memory. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 13(February).
Grover, S., & Furnham, A. (2016). Coaching as a developmental intervention in organisations: A systematic review of its effectiveness and the mechanisms underlying it. PLoS One, 11(7), 1–41.
Gucciardi, E., Jean-Pierre, N., Karam, G., & Sidani, S. (2016). Designing and delivering facilitated storytelling interventions for chronic disease self-management: A scoping review. BMC Health Services Research, 16(1).
Han, D. Y., & Chen, S. H. (2014). Reducing the stigma of depression through neurobiology-based psychoeducation: A randomized controlled trial. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 68(9), 666–673.
Hickok, G. (2009). Eight problems for the Mirror neuron theory of action understanding in monkeys and humans. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21(7), 1229–1243.
Horvath, J. C., & Donoghue, G. M. (2016). A bridge too far–revisited: Reframing Bruer’s Neuroeducation argument for modern science of learning practitioners. Frontiers in Psychology, 7(Mar), 1–12.
Johnson, K. K., Bennett, C., & Rochani, H. (2020). Significant improvement of somatic symptom disorder with brief psychoeducational intervention by PMHNP in primary care. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association.
Kelley, P., Lockley, S. W., Kelley, J., & Evans, M. D. R. (2017). Is 8:30 a.m. still too early to start school? A 10:00 a.m. school start time improves health and performance of students aged 13–16. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11(Dec).
Kelley, P., & Whatson, T. (2013). Making long-term memories in minutes: A spaced learning pattern from memory research in education. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7(Sep), 1–9.
Kirby, A., Woodward, A., Jackson, S., Wang, Y., & Crawford, M. A. (2010). A double-blind, placebo-controlled study investigating the effects of omega-3 supplementation in children aged 8-10 years from a mainstream school population. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 31(3), 718–730.
Laske, O. E. (2006). From coach training to coach education: Teaching coaching within a comprehensively evidence based framework. Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 4(1), 45–57.
Lenhard, F., Vigerland, S., Andersson, E., Rück, C., Mataix-Cols, D., Thulin, U., Ljótsson, B., & Serlachius, E. (2014). Internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy for adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder: An open trial. PLoS One, 9(6).
Li, Y., & Bates, T. C. (2019). You can’t change your basic ability, but you work at things, and that’s how we get hard things done: Testing the role of growth mindset on response to setbacks, educational attainment, and cognitive ability. Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 148(9), 1640–1655.
Lukens, E. P., & McFarlane, W. R. (2004). Psychoeducation as evidence-based practice: Considerations for practice, research, and policy. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 4(3), 205–225.
Macdonald, K., Germine, L., Anderson, A., Christodoulou, J., & McGrath, L. M. (2017). Dispelling the myth: Training in education or neuroscience decreases but does not eliminate beliefs in neuromyths. Frontiers in Psychology, 8(Aug), 1–16.
MacKay, I. (2020). The swiss cheese respiratory virus pandemic defence. Twitter. https://twitter.com/MackayIM/status/1319901144836026368
Martinez-Conde, S., Alexander, R. G., Blum, D., Britton, N., Lipska, B. K., Quirk, G. J., Swiss, J. I., Willems, R. M., & Macknik, S. L. (2019). The storytelling brain: How neuroscience stories help bridge the gap between research and society. The Journal of neuroscience: the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 39(42), 8285–8290.
McCabe, D., & Castel, A. (2008). Seeing is believing: The effect of brain images on judgments of scientific reasoning. Cognition, 107, 343–352.
McKay, S. M., & Kemp, T. (2019). Neuroscience and coaching. A practical application. In S. Green & S. Palmer (Eds.), Positive Psychology Coaching in Practice. (pp. 57–70). Routledge.
Meppelink, C. S., Van Weert, J. C. M., Haven, C. J., & Smit, E. G. (2015). The effectiveness of health animations in audiences with different health literacy levels: An experimental study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17(1), e11.
Meynen, G. (2016). Neurolaw: Recognizing opportunities and challenges for psychiatry. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 41(1), 3–5.
Miller, R. (2016). Neuroeducation: Integrating brain-based psychoeducation into clinical practice. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 38(2), 103–115.
Mobbs, D., Adolphs, R., Fanselow, M. S., Barrett, L. F., Ledoux, J. E., & Tye, K. M. (2019). Embracing our fear. Scientific American Mind, 36(6), 24–40.
Moore, M., & Jackson, E. (2018). Health and wellness coaching. In E. Cox, T. Bachkirova, & D. Clutterbuck (Eds.), The complete handbook of coaching (pp. 345–362).
O’Brion, A. (2015). Coaching psychology and neuroscience: Cross-disciplinary opportunities and challenges. The Coaching Psychologist, 11(1), 30–31.
O’Connor, C., Rees, G., & Joffe, H. (2012). Neuroscience in the public sphere. Neuron, 74(2), 220–226.
OECD. (2008). Understanding the brain: The birth of a learning science. New insights on learning through cognitive and brain science. OECD/CERI International Conference “Learning in the 21st Century: Research, Innovation and Policy,” 15.
Pereira Dias, G., Palmer, S., O’Riordan, S., de Freitas, S., Habib, L., Bevilaqua, M., & Nardi, A. (2015). Perspectives and challenges for the study of brain responses to coaching: Enhancing the dialogue between the fields of neuroscience and coaching psychology. The Coaching Psychologist, 11(1), 21–29.
Purves, D., Augustine, G. J., Fitzpatrick, D., Hall, W. C., LaMantia, A.-S., Mooney, R. D., Platt, M. L., & White, L. E. (2018). Neuroscience (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Reason, J. (2000). Human error: Models and management. British Medical Journal, 320(7237), 768–770.
Rock, D., & Page, L. (2009). Coaching with the brain in mind: Foundations for practice. John Wiley & Sons.
Schuepbach, W. M. M., Rau, J., Knudsen, K., Volkmann, J., Krack, P., Timmermann, L., Hälbig, T. D., Hesekamp, H., Navarro, S. M., Meier, N., Falk, D., Mehdorn, M., Paschen, S., Maarouf, M., Barbe, M. T., Fink, G. R., Kupsch, A., Gruber, D., Schneider, G.-H., … EARLYSTIM Study Group. (2013). Neurostimulation for Parkinson’s disease with early motor complications. The New England Journal of Medicine, 368(7), 610–622.
Scurich, N., & Shniderman, A. (2014). The selective allure of neuroscientific explanations. PLoS One, 9(9), 1–6.
SFN. (2018). A companion publication to BrainFacts. org and a primer on the brain and nervous system. In Society for Neuroscience (Vol. 8).
Sisk, V. F., Burgoyne, A. P., Sun, J., Butler, J. L., & Macnamara, B. N. (2018). To what extent and under which circumstances are growth mind-sets important to academic achievement? Two meta-analyses. Psychological Science, 29(4), 549–571.
Swart, T., Chisholm, K., & Brown, P. (2015). Neuroscience for leadership. Harnessing the brain gain advantage: Palgrave Macmillan.
Thomas, M. S. C., Ansari, D., & Knowland, V. C. P. (2019). Annual research review: Educational neuroscience: Progress and prospects. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 60(4), 477–492.
Weisberg, D. S., Keil, F. C., Goodstein, J., Rawson, E., & Gray, J. R. (2008). The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(3), 470–477.
Wilkinson, B. D. (2018). The limits of neuroscience in counseling: A humanistic perspective and proposed model. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, 57(1), 70–78.
Xia, J., Merinder, L. B., & Belgamwar, M. R. (2011). Psychoeducation for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 37(1), 21–22.
Further Reading
Brann, A. (2017). Neuroscience for coaches how to use the latest insights for the benefit of your clients (2nd ed.). Kogan Page.
Grant, A. (2015). Coaching the brain: Neuro-science or neuro-nonsense? The Coaching Psychologist, 11(1), 31–37.
Grant, A., & O’Connor, S. (2019). A brief primer for those new to coaching research and evidence-based practice. The Coaching Psychologist, 15(June).
McKay, S. M., & Kemp, T. (2019). Neuroscience and coaching. A practical application. In S. Green & S. Palmer (Eds.), Positive psychology coaching in practice. (pp. 57–70). Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Think Brain Pty Ltd, Allambie Heights, NSW, Australia
Sarah M. McKay
University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK
Sarah Smith
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Eclorev, Paris, France
Wendy-Ann Smith
École de Psychologues Praticiens, Paris, France
Wendy-Ann Smith
University of East London, London, UK
Wendy-Ann Smith, Ilona Boniwell & Suzy Green, &
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK
Wendy-Ann Smith & Ilona Boniwell &
Positran Ltd, Epone, France
Ilona Boniwell
The Positivity Institute, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Suzy Green