A very happy new year to you all. I hope that you are returning to your work refreshed, restored and ready for what 2022 might bring.
It is 10 years since our first ever issue of Coaching Today was published and distributed, back in January 2012, and in that time, I have been honoured and privileged to meet and work with some amazing practitioners, some of whom have since become regular contributors to this journal.
As I reflect on the articles that have been published within these pages over the past 10 years, I can’t help but reflect on the changing landscape of therapeutic coaching practice within BACP and beyond. When I started in my role as Editor of this journal for a new BACP division, therapeutic coaching was in its infancy. The majority of members of this new coaching division were therapists or counsellors – existing BACP members – who were retraining as coaches or seeking ways to incorporate coaching into their therapy or counselling practice, and to do so ethically, safely and effectively with the support of BACP. Our readership and contributions reflected this demographic.
Since then, not only am I seeing more stories from experienced coaches who have been inspired to undergo training in counselling and psychotherapy (reflecting my own direction of travel), but I am reading contributions – and learning lessons – from practitioners of diverse professional backgrounds, including teaching and social work, who are developing unique models of integrated or dual practice, and who are working in increasingly diverse sectors and adapting these models to support a range of clients and client groups. Crucially, these include communities who would not traditionally have accessed coaching. I am proud to be able to give a platform to those pioneering practitioners, who are very often themselves part of the communities they seek to help, and who provide inspiration and education in equal measure.
Over the past 10 years, as our political landscape has shifted dramatically – along with the small matter of an ongoing global pandemic to contend with – BACP Coaching has continued to respond, adapt and innovate through the development of campaigns, initiatives and special interest groups, and Coaching Today continues to reflect this ongoing work. This would not be possible without the tireless dedication of the various BACP Coaching Executive teams I have worked with over the past decade, led by their Chairs in office at the time. It feels sad, as we celebrate our 10th anniversary, to be saying farewell to our current Chair, Carolyn Mumby, following her five years of diligent service to BACP Coaching, both as Chair and as Chair-Elect before that. I am immensely grateful for Carolyn’s grace and grit – especially during the past two years of the pandemic – for her creativity and determination, and for introducing me to some inspiring writers and practitioners over the years through her own contributions to this journal.
As ever, this 10th anniversary issue reflects the diversity of transformational therapeutic coaching, with contributions from established writers alongside emerging voices, mirroring the current social and political landscape and embracing the issues that are of increasing relevance in coaching today.
Diane Parker
coachingtoday.editorial@bacp.co.uk
