Coaching and Mentoring: A Critical Text

by Simon Western

Coaching is often discussed as if it is a new ′profession′ without adequate attention to how it has evolved, what underpins its practice or its training methods. Situating coaching in a wider social and historical context, Coaching and Mentoring that contemporary ′coaching theory′ is more a collection of models and approaches mostly transferred from psychotherapy theory. Coaching claims to liberate creativity but can also entrap us by individualizing social experience. This vital new book brings a fresh and critical perspective on coaching and mentoring, challenging its normative assumptions and narratives, and proposing an ethical and emancipatory approach that takes it beyond instrumentalism and individualism.

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012