Institute of Coaching - Life Coaching

Integration: The Power of Being Co-Active in Work and Life

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

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Summary:

The Institute is pleased to present books published by Fellows and Sponsors.

We live in a world of both profound separation and deep longing for connection. In this book, Ann Betz and Karen Kimsey-House explore not only the historical and spiritual history of our disconnection and its cost to individual and societal well-being, but also provide a compelling, neuroscience-based argument for how to make the next “great turning” of human development: becoming more integrated human beings. They invite you to accompany them through a road map to integration by exploring in detail the Co-Active model, originally used by coaches, but with practical application to business, parents, teachers, and anyone with a desire to be more effective, connected, and whole. Richly illustrated with true stories of integration in action, as well as current research in neuroscience, this book provides a guide to reaching our full potential within ourselves, with each other, in groups and organizations and with society at large.

"As an attempt to evoke transformation and evolve consciousness, this book succeeds thoroughly and creatively. You will find it profound, inspiring, practical, soulful and hopeful, and it will leave you breathless and excited for the adventure that awaits you."
-Miriam Linderman, CPCC, ACC

Content Type:

Book Summary

Coaching Specialty:

Leadership, Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Life Coaching

Resource Content Type:

Book

The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Kegan, Robert

Summary:

The Evolving Self focuses upon the most basic and universal of psychological problems--the individual's effort to make sense of experience, to make meaning of life. According to Robert Kegan, meaning-making is a lifelong activity that begins in earliest infancy and continues to evolve through a series of stages encompassing childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The Evolving Self describes this process of evolution in rich and human detail, concentrating especially on the internal experience of growth and transition, its costs and disruptions as well as its triumphs.

At the heart of our meaning-making activity, the book suggests, is the drawing and redrawing of the distinction between self and other. Using Piagetian theory in a creative new way to make sense of how we make sense of ourselves, Kegan shows that each meaning-making stage is a new solution to the lifelong tension between the universal human yearning to be connected, attached, and included, on the one hand, and to be distinct, independent, and autonomous on the other. The Evolving Self is the story of our continuing negotiation of this tension. It is a book that is theoretically daring enough to propose a reinterpretation of the Oedipus complex and clinically concerned enough to suggest a variety of fresh new ways to treat those psychological complaints that commonly arise in the course of development.

Content Type:

Book Summary

Coaching Specialty:

Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Life Coaching, Development, Adult Development

Resource Content Type:

Book

Books on Meaning

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Institute of Coaching

Summary:

This is a short list of books on the meaning of life by Victor Frankle and Dr Paul Wong specifically selected for the MasterClass on Coaching for Meaning and Purpose.

Article Content:

Books by Dr. Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that both he and others in Auschwitz coped (or didn't) with the experience. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. The sort of person the concentration camp prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only those who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who made a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph. Frankl came to believe man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. This outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the art of living.

The Unheard Cry for Meaning: Psychotherapy and Humanism

In our age of depersonalization, Frankl teaches the value of living to the fullest.

Upon his death in 1997, Viktor E. Frankl was lauded as one of the most influential thinkers of our time. The Unheard Cry for Meaning marked his return to the humanism that made Man's Search for Meaning a bestseller around the world. In these selected essays, written between 1947 and 1977, Dr. Frankl illustrates the vital importance of the human dimension in psychotherapy. Using a wide range of subjects--including sex, morality, modern literature, competitive athletics, and philosophy--he raises a lone voice against the pseudo-humanism that has invaded popular psychology and psychoanalysis. By exploring mankind's remarkable qualities, he brilliantly celebrates each individual's unique potential, while preserving the invaluable traditions of both Freudian analysis and behaviorism.

Books by Dr. Paul Wong

Paul T. P. Wong, PhD, C.Psych, is Professor Emeritus of Trent University and Adjunct Professor of Saybrook University’s Clinical PhD Program. He is a Fellow of APA and CPA, and President of the International Network on Personal Meaning (www.meaning.ca) and the Meaning-Centered Counselling Institute. Editor of the International Journal of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy, he has also edited two influential volumes on The Human Quest for Meaning. A prolific writer, he is one of the most cited existential and positive psychologists. The originator of Meaning Therapy and International Meaning Conferences, he has been invited to speak worldwide

The Human Quest for Meaning: Theories, Research, and Applications

The first edition of The Human Quest for Meaning was a major publication on the empirical research of meaning in life and its vital role in well-being, resilience, and psychotherapy. This new edition continues that quest and seeks to answer the questions, what is the meaning of life? How do we explain what constitutes meaningful relationships, work, and living?

The answers, as the eminent scholars and practitioners who contributed to this text find, are neither simple nor straightforward. While seeking to clarify subjective vs. objective meaning in 21 new and 7 revised chapters, the authors also address the differences in cultural contexts, and identify 8 different sources of meaning, as well as at least 6 different stages in the process of the search for meaning. They also address different perspectives, including positive psychology, self-determination, integrative, narrative, and relational perspectives, to ensure that readers obtain the most thorough information possible. Mental health practitioners will find the numerous meaning-centered interventions, such as the PURE and ABCDE methods, highly useful in their own work with facilitating healing and personal growth in their clients. The Human Quest for Meaning represents a bold new vision for the future of meaning-oriented research and applications. No one seeking to truly understand the human condition should be without it.

Additional books in German

Schlieper-Damrich, R., Kipfelsberger, P., & CoachPro, N. 2008. Wertecoaching. Beruflich brisante Situationen sinnvoll meistern. Bonn: Managerseminare Verlag.
Kipfelsberger, P. 2012. Wertecoaching nach Viktor E. Frankl. In T. S. Eberle, & S. Spoun (Eds.), Durch Coaching Führungsqualitäten entwickeln. Kernkompetenzen erkennen und fördern. Zürich: Versus Verlag

Content Type:

Book Summary

Coaching Specialty:

Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Life Coaching, Meaning, Career Coaching

Resource Content Type:

Book

Matters of Mind: Mindfulness/Mindlessness in Perspective

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Langer, Ellen

Summary:

The dual concepts of mindfulness and mindlessness are described. Mindfulness is a state of conscious awareness in which the individual is implicitly aware of the context and content of information. It is a state of openness to novelty in which the individual actively constructs categories and distinctions. In contrast, mindlessness is a state of mind characterized by an overreliance on categories and distinctions drawn in the past and in which the individual is context-dependent and, as such, is oblivious to novel (or simply alternative) aspects of the situation. Mindlessness is compared to more familiar concepts such as habit, functional fixedness, overlearning, and automatic (vs controlled) processing. Like mindlessness, these concepts concern rigid invariant behavior that occurs with little or no conscious awareness. The primary difference is that mindlessness may result from a single exposure to information. When information is given in absolute (vs conditional) language, is given by an authority, or initially appears irrelevant, there is little manifest reason to critically examine the information and thereby recognize the ways it may be context-dependent. Instead, the individual mindlessly forms a cognitive commitment to the information and freezes its potential meaning. Alternative meanings or uses of the information become unavailable for active cognitive use. Automatic vs controlled processing, while seemingly most similar to mindlessness/mindfulness, are orthogonal to them. One can process information in a controlled but mindless manner, or automatic but mindful. Related concepts like scripts, set, expectancy, labels, and roles direct behavior, but these too may be enacted mindlessly or mindfully. The major consequences of mindlessness/mindfulness are discussed with respect to their relevance for overt behavior (competence), memory, and health. Finally, the relationship between traditional notions of consciousness and mindfulness is briefly examined. 0 1992 Academx Press, Inc.

Citation:

CONSCIOUSNESS AND COGNITION 1, 289-305 (1992)

Content Type:

Journal

Coaching Specialty:

Health / Well-being, Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Mindfulness, Life Coaching, Health and Wellness

Resource Content Type:

Journal

2012 Video Interviews with Karen Kimsey-House and Carol Kauffman PhD discuss the science behind coaching

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Summary:

Karen Kimsey-House, CEO of The Coaching Training Institute, and Carol Kauffman, Executive Director of the Institute of Coaching, discuss the coaching profession, the efficacy of the Co-Active Model, and connect science to the practice of Co-Active coaching.

Author:

Kimsey-House, Karen

Content Type:

Video

Coaching Specialty:

Positive Psychology, Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Life Coaching

Masterclass: Science and the Core Assumptions of Coaching

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Summary:

This MasterClass explores the science behind the four cornerstones in coaching:

1. People are naturally creative, resourceful and whole
2. Dance in the moment
3. Focus on the whole person
4. Evoke transformation

We have provided a diagram, videos, research abstracts that support the science behind this model below in the Related Resources section.

Karen Kimsey-House, CEO and Founder, CTI and Carol Kauffman, PhD and Director of the Institute of Coaching, discuss the art and the science behind coaching.

Watch this video to understand the bridge metaphor to frame your own coaching practice:

Did you know your natural intuitve thinking aligns with a research mindset? Watch the video to find out how coaches are scientists at heart:

Why is it important to understand scientific theory and how does positive psychology support the CTI model? Watch the video to find out:

Content Type:

Premium Resource Type

Coaching Specialty:

Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Life Coaching, Co-Active Coaching, Coaching Basics

2012 Video Interviews with Karen Kimsey-House and Carol Kauffman PhD,discussing the science behind coaching

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Kimsey-House, Karen

Summary:

Carol Kauffman, executive director of the Institute of Coaching and Karen Kimsey-House, CEO of the Coaching Institute have made three short videos around the Coaches Training Institute model and how science and a researcher's mindset can help you in your coaching practice.

Article Content:

1. Understand the bridge metaphor to frame your own coaching practice. Learn more in this 1:35min video:

2. Did you know your natural intuitve thinking aligns with a research mindset? Find out how coaches are scientists at heart (1:50 minutes):

3. Why is it important to understand scientific theory and how does positive psychology support the CTI model? This 6-minute video gives you a quick overview:

Content Type:

Video

Coaching Specialty:

Positive Psychology, Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Life Coaching

MasterClass: Tapping Your Creative Brainsets with Shelly Carson PhD

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Carson, Shelley

Summary:

Virtually all aspects of life in this rapid-change climate of the 21st century require creative responses. Enhancing clients’ natural creative abilities is an important goal in coaching, and coaching itself requires creativity. This MasterClass introduces ways you can use the results of neuroscience research to improve your clients’ – and your own! - natural creativity. Brain imaging studies have shown that highly creative people employ different brain activation states (or “brainsets”) during specific stages of the creative process. By learning to mimic these brain activation states, to move flexibly between them, and to enter them at the right time, you can increase your ability to generate and implement creative ideas. In this session we will cover:

Why creativity is so important
The basic stages of the creative process
The difference between deliberate and spontaneous idea generation
The CREATES Brainsets Model
Four Brainsets that are essential to coaching
Tips for enhancing creativity

Watch the video clip below of Shelly Carson as she discusses brainsets:

Article Content:

Research Articles on Creativity

Journal article: Carson, Shelley, et al. (2003). Decreased latent inhibition is associated with increased creative achievement in high-functioning individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(3), 499-506.

Abstract: Reductions in latent inhibition (LI), the capacity to screen from conscious awareness stimuli previously experienced as irrelevant, have been generally associated with the tendency towards psychosis. However, "failure" to screen out previously irrelevant stimuli might also hypothetically contribute to original thinking, particularly in combination with high IQ. Meta-analysis of two studies, conducted on youthful high-IQ samples, demonstrated that high lifetime creative achievers had significantly lower LI scores than low creative achievers (r effect size = .31, p = .0003, one-tailed). Eminent creative achievers (participants under 21 years who reported unusually high scores in a single domain of creative achievement) were 7 times more likely to have low rather than high LI scores, χ²(1, N = 25) = 10.69, φ = .47, p = .003. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Journal article: Dietrich, Arne. (2004). The cognitive neuroscience of creativity. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 11(6), 1011-1026.

Abstract: This article outlines a framework of creativity based on functional neuroanatomy. Recent advances in the field of cognitive neuroscience have identified distinct brain circuits that are involved in specific higher brain functions. To date, these findings have not been applied to research on creativity. It is proposed that there are four basic types of creative insights, each mediated by a distinctive neural circuit. By definition, creative insights occur in consciousness. Given the view that the working memory buffer of the prefrontal cortex holds the content of consciousness, each of the four distinctive neural loops terminates there. When creativity is the result of deliberate control, as opposed to spontaneous generation, the prefrontal cortex also instigates the creative process. Both processing modes, deliberate and spontaneous, can guide neural computation in structures that contribute emotional content and in structures that provide cognitive analysis, yielding the four basic types of creativity. Supportive evidence from psychological, cognitive, and neuroscientific studies is presented and integrated in this article. The new theoretical framework systematizes the interaction between knowledge and creative thinking, and how the nature of this relationship changes as a function of domain and age. Implications for the arts and sciences are briefly discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Journal article: Mednick, Sarnoff. (1962). The associative basis of the creative process. Psychological Review, 69, 220-232.

Abstract: An associative theory of creative thinking has been outlined. Differences between high creatives and low creatives have been predicted along specified dimensions. Predictions have been made regarding the effect on the creative process of some experimentally manipulable variables. The associative definition of the creative process has taken the operational form of a test. Some preliminary research with this test is described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Journal article: Peterson, Jordan. & Carson, Shelley. (2000). Latent inhibition and openness to experience in a high-achieving student population. Personality and Individual Differences, 28(2), 323-332.

Abstract: Latent Inhibition (LI) is an attentional phenomenon in which repeated pre-exposure to a stimulus that is not reinforced retards future associability to that stimulus. LI adaptively allows the individual to categorize stimuli as relevant or irrelevant to goal attainment at a level below that of conscious awareness. Previous research has linked reduced LI with psychopathological conditions, such as acute schizophrenia and elevated scores on the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Psychoticism Scale. The authors examined whether reduced LI would be related to Openness to Experience, a dimension of P. T. Costa and R. R. McCrae's (1992) Five Factor Model of Personality, due to the association of Openness with flexible cognitive categorization. 91 16–35 yr old college students served as Ss. The correlation between LI and Openness among high-achieving individuals was substantial and highly significant even when other relevant aspects of personality were held steady. Reduced LI may impart cognitive advantages in certain personality configurations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Content Type:

Premium Resource Type

Coaching Specialty:

Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Life Coaching, Creativity, Neuroscience

Institute Premium Resources:

MasterClasses

Becoming a Professional Life Coach: The Art and Science of a Whole-Person Approach

IOC Admin — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 17:34:48 +0000

Author:

Williams, Patrick

Summary:

An update to the coach training bestseller.

The profession of life coaching is more necessary than ever in this time of pandemic-related uncertainty, the shift (in some cases, permanent) to remote learning and working, and the constant change that accompanies world events. With his best-selling Therapist as Life Coach, Patrick Williams introduced the therapeutic community to the career of life coach, and in the first and second editions of Becoming a Professional Life Coach, he and Diane S. Menendez covered basic principles and strategies for effective coaching.

Full of new information on the neuropsychology of coaching, the third edition of Becoming a Professional Life Coach explores the neuropsychology behind coaching; specialties in the field, such as trauma and addiction coaching; coaching amid post-pandemic global stress; coaching virtually; navigating emotions in coaching; and achieving transformational coaching by addressing the whole person. It takes readers step-by-step through the coaching process, covering all the crucial ideas and strategies for being an effective, successful life coach. This book is one-stop shopping for beginner and advanced coaches alike. Other topics include: coaching the whole client: mind, body, emotions, spirit; post-pandemic global stress; and the importance of professional coaching competencies.

Buy on Amazon

Content Type:

Book Summary

Coaching Specialty:

Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Life Coaching

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Resource Content Type:

Book

Grief Unleashed: Moving from the Hole in Our Hearts to Whole-hearted

IOC Admin — Fri, 19 May 2023 18:35:33 +0000

Author:

Bell-Laroche, Dina

Summary:

“I’m sorry for your loss.” This platitude is too often used to offer solace to the bereaved. And while its intention is often altruistic, it has the subtext of, “I hope you will be back to normal soon.” However, after suffering through a significant life loss, there is no going “back to normal.”

Sadly, our death phobic and loss illiterate society tends to shy away from real conversations about dying, death, and loss. As Dina points out, we accumulate life losses from the moment we are born. These losses can weigh us down if we don’t find healthier ways to metabolize them. In Grief Unleashed, Dina helps us to reimagine a new relationship with loss. She has been grieving the death of her sister for over twenty-one years and has found healthy and healing ways to adjust, heal, and thrive.

Throughout this book you will find “grief wisdoms” and many anecdotes and helpful ideas to better companion others. Its main message is to help the bereaved feel less isolated by normalizing what has too often been pathologized. Grief Unleashed offers a compelling invitation to acknowledge our grief, to trust in the process, and in so doing, to find renewed meaning.

Buy Online

Content Type:

Book Summary

Coaching Specialty:

Positive Psychology, Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Grief, Positive Psychology, Life, Life Coaching

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Resource Content Type:

Book