Hey, Leading Coaches…how do you feel about this press release that came out last week? What do we think about coaching being linked with a psychiatric hospital, no matter how well respected? What impact will that have on your marketing efforts?
McLEAN HOSPITAL LAUNCHES FIRST INSTITUTE OF COACHING
Belmont, MA—With an extraordinary $2 million gift from the Harnisch Foundation, McLean Hospital recently launched the Institute of Coaching, the first-of-its-kind center for coaching-related research, practice and education. The goal of the center is to advance excellence in research and practice within the bourgeoning field of coaching.
Coaching is a professional practice designed to optimize human potential and performance in diverse arenas including leadership, healthcare and public service. According to Institute Director Carol Kauffman, PhD, a psychologist at McLean and a professional coach, “coaching is a remarkable change process that has often been thought of as a self-help method without established best practices. The goal of the Institute is to provide a solid scientific foundation of coaching based on good science, good research and good practice. Evidence-based coaching will transform the field by giving coaches and clients more and better choices of best practices.”
The Institute will advance the field of coaching through five centers of excellence, including research, education, applied positive psychology, health coaching and executive and leadership coaching. The Harnisch Fund for Coaching, established with a $2 million gift, will fuel coaching-related research by awarding grants for high-quality scientific coaching studies. The Institute’s research center will also disseminate empirically supported best practices, including peer-reviewed studies.
Ruth Ann Harnisch, a philanthropist and certified professional coach, chose to fund coaching research at McLean after listening to the stories of researchers at the first-ever International Coaching Research Forum organized by Kauffman in 2008. “They talked about the challenges they faced as serious academics attempting to do peer-reviewed, respected coaching research. It became clear to me that a respectable academic home for coaching would be a game-changer for the field,” she said.
Establishing the Institute at the world-renowned, Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital was a good fit, according to Harnisch. Known for its cutting-edge research and world-class professionals, McLean has been studying and practicing coaching-related disciplines for years. “There is a growing interest in positive psychology, of which coaching is an integral part,” said Philip Levendusky, PhD, director of Psychology, at McLean. “Increasing evidence shows that coaching can have a positive impact on healthcare delivery in terms of lifestyle changes, medication compliance and a host of other changes that reap big rewards for patients and the healthcare system. In her gift to establish the Institute of Coaching, Ruth Ann Harnisch has made a significant commitment to the coaching profession and to improving the lives of individuals.”
U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks McLean Hospital the nation’s top psychiatric hospital. McLean is an affiliate of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and a member of Partners HealthCare. For more information about McLean Hospital, visit www.mclean.harvard.edu. For more information about the Institute of Coaching, visit www.instituteofcoaching.org
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Adriana Bobinchock
Director, Media Relations
McLean Hospital
115 Mill Street
Belmont, Ma 02478-9106
Phone: 617-855-2110 Fax: 617-855-2120
abobinchock@partners.org
http://www.mclean.harvard.edu
Lifestyle Center
November 2, 2009 at 1:29 am
According to Glenn Plaskin’s Life Coaching Special Report , “Anthony Robbins fathered life coaching before it was a popular trend. Lifestyle Center
Carol Kauffman
November 2, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Hello – I’m Carol Kauffman the Director of the Institute of Coaching.
Thank you for putting this on your site and for raising such an important question. It is one we have grappled with here quite a bit.
Marketing is a topic dear to my heart, and is obviously very important to each of us who makes our living as a coach. The Institute is working to support coaches by taking the latest academic and research breakthroughs and delivering these to the to the real world of coaching where they can be put into effect. Access to this level of information can also help coaches describe their services with a level of sophistication that provides the kind of edge we would want in a hyper competitive marketplace.
Serious investigation into coaching, providing solid, academic ROI and clear understanding of how and why it works, is not only useful to the individual, but to the entire field. This was Ruth Ann Harnisch’s vision, and behind her choice to award $100,000 annually in coaching research grants and to create the Foundation of Coaching, which now resides at Harvard as the Institute of Coaching.
Please visit our website, http://www.InstituteofCoaching.org and give us feedback on how we are managing these challenges.
Suzi Pomerantz, Community Instigator & Resident Networking Maven
November 2, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Thank you for your comment, Carol! Ruth Ann is quite the visionary, and such an amazing benefactor of coaching worldwide! I’m particularly interested in what distinctions, if any, the Institute will draw between research for coaching in organizations (business, leadership, executive, team) versus the broader industry of coaching that includes life coaching and other non-business interventions? That is a central distinguishing factor for this Leading Coaches’ Community, and to the extent that you’ll be doing anything specifically relevant to those of us who coach in organizations, I’d love to personally invite you to join this community (https://leadingcoachescenter.com/join-us) and engage in conversation with us. Likewise, if the Leading Coaches’ community can support the work of the Institute, we’d love to explore collaborative opportunities.
Suzi Pomerantz, Community Instigator & Resident Networking Maven
November 5, 2009 at 9:02 am
There’s a post on Coaching Commons that gives more background about the founding of this Institute, you can read it here: http://coachingcommons.org/featured/taking-coaching-to-the-ivy-league-the-institute-of-coaching/.
“The Institute, Kauffman says, will advance the field of coaching through five “centers of excellence”—research; education; executive and leadership coaching; health coaching; and applied positive psychology.”