Coaching: A process of personal and social meaning making

Abstract

In this article, coaching shall be presented as a specific form of conversational process between a coach and a focus person – the coachee – with the aim to give the focus person a developmental space and thereby the possibility for reflection and renewed understanding: (1) about his/her own experiences in relation to a specific context; and (2) about specific relationships, co-ordinated actions with others and about the processes of negotiation in a specific social situation. Theoretically, the ambition is to combine a phenomenological and experience-based perspective with a social constructionist-relational perspective. Both approaches base their ideas on concepts of meaning. It is the aim of the author to integratethese two approaches both theoretically and in regard to their applicability in the coaching process.