How do coaches work with clients showing signs of burnout?

Abstract

This paper explores approaches coaches are undertaking with ‘burnout’ clients and uses constructivist grounded theory to help address a paucity of coaching related literature. Analysis of interviews with six coaches, with a range of different qualifications, identified categories which were strengthened with other academic literature. The findings emphasise how supervision is central to the ‘burnout’ self-care of the coach and client. In addition, the way in which coaches are tailoring the coaching contract as they diagnose burnout is incorporated. It is proposed that a coaching approach to burnout is respectful of professional boundaries and can complement counselling and/or psychotherapy.

Keywords

burnout coaching supervision mental health boundaries

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bachkirova

(2016) The self of the coach: Conceptualization, issues, and opportunities for practitioner development. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research 68 (2) 143-156

10.1037/cpb0000055

Bachkirova

Baker

(2019) Revisiting the issue of boundaries between coaching and counselling. in Palmer

Whybrow

(eds) Handbook of coaching psychology: A guide for practitioners 2nd Milton Park: Routledge 487-499

Berger

(2015) Now I see it, now I don’t: Researcher’s position and reflexivity in qualitative research. Qualitative Research 15 (2) 219-234

10.1177/1468794112468475

Brennan

Wildflower

(2018) Ethics and coaching. in Cox

Bachkirova

Clutterbuck

(eds) The complete handbook of coaching 3rd London: Sage 500-517

Bryant

(2009) Grounded theory and pragmatism: The curious case of Anselem Strauss. Forum: Qualitative Social Research 10 (3) 1-38

10.17169/fqs-10.3.1358

Byrne

B.M.

(1994) Burnout: Testing for the validity, replication, and invariance of causal structure across elementary, intermediate, and secondary teachers. American Educational Research Journal 31 (3) 645-673

10.2307/1163231

Cavanagh

M.J.

Buckley

(2018) Coaching and mental health. in Cox

Bachkirova

Clutterbuck

(eds) The complete handbook of coaching 3rd London: Sage 451-464

Charmaz

(2014) Constructing Grounded Theory 2nd London: Sage

Charmaz

(2017) Constructivist grounded theory. The Journal of Positive Psychology 12 (3) 299-300

10.

Ciuk

Latusek

(2018) Ethics in qualitative research. in Ciesielska

Jemielniak

(eds) Qualitative methodologies in organization studies Cham: Palgrave Macmillan 195-213

11.

Crowe

T.P.

Oades

L.G.

Deane

F.P.

et al (2011) Parallel processes in clinical supervision: Implications for coaching mental health practitioners. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring 9 (2) 56-66 https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/cc3ad337-ca62-44fc-a015-8dd38bf4b9fb/1/

12.

EMCC (2019) Global code of ethics https://emccuk.org/common/Uploaded/20files/Global-Code-of-Ethics-v2-2.pdf

13.

Fennah

(2019) Career coaching. in Palmer

Whybrow

(eds) Handbook of coaching psychology: A guide for practitioners 2nd Milton Park: Routledge 381-393

14.

GALLUP (2020) Americans' mental health ratings sink to new low https://news.gallup.com/poll/327311/americans-mental-health-ratings-sink-new-low.aspx

15.

Grant

A.M.

Cavanagh

M.J.

(2018) The solution-focused approach to coaching. in Cox

Bachkirova

Clutterbuck

(eds) The complete handbook of coaching 3rd London: Sage 35-51

16.

Grimley

(2018) The NLP approach to coaching. in Cox

Bachkirova

Clutterbuck

(eds) The complete handbook of coaching 3rd London: Sage 184-198

17.

Hawkins

(2018) Coaching supervision. in Cox

Bachkirova

Clutterbuck

(eds) The complete handbook of coaching 3rd London: Sage 434-450

18.

Hicks

McCracken

(2014) The dreaded drama triangle. Physician Leadership Journal 1 (1) 62-65

19.

Holton

(2007) The coding process and its challenges. in Bryant

Charmaz

(eds) The sage handbook of grounded theory London: Sage 265-289

20.

HSE (2020) Work-related stress, anxiety or depression statistics in Great Britain, 2020 https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/stress.pdf

21.

ICF (2020) Code of ethics https://coachfederation.org/code-of-ethics

22.

Iordanou

Hawley

Iordanou

(2017) Values and ethics in coaching Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

23.

Jackson

Cox

(2018) Developmental coaching. in Cox

Bachkirova

Clutterbuck

(eds) The complete handbook of coaching 3rd London: Sage 215-230

24.

Joseph

(2018) The person-centred approach to coaching. in Cox

Bachkirova

Clutterbuck

(eds) The complete handbook of coaching 3rd London: Sage 52-65

25.

Kiazad

Seibert

S.E.

Kraimer

M.L.

(2014) Psychological contract breach and employee innovation: A conservation of resources perspective. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 87 (3) 535-556

10.1111/joop.12062

26.

Ladegård

(2011) Stress management through workplace coaching: The impact of learning experiences. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring 9 (1) 29-43 https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/fac78dad-2d0a-4006-ae00-14a54778dc79/1/

27.

Lee

(2018) The psychodynamic approach to coaching. in Cox

Bachkirova

Clutterbuck

(eds) The complete handbook of coaching 3rd London: Sage 3-16

28.

Lee

R.T.

Ashforth

B.E.

(1996) A meta-analytic examination of the correlates of the three dimensions of job burnout. The Journal of Applied Psychology 81 (2) 123-133

10.1037/0021-9010.81.2.123

29.

Leech

N.L.

Onwuegbuzie

A.J.

(2007) An array of qualitative data analysis tools: A call for data analysis triangulation. American Psychological Association 22 (4) 557-584

10.1037/1045-3830.22.4.557

30.

Lempert

L.B.

(2007) Asking questions of the data: Memo writing in the grounded theory tradition. in Bryant

Charmaz

(eds) The sage handbook of grounded theory London: Sage 245-264

31.

Maher

Hadfield

Hutchings

De Eyto

(2018) Ensuring rigor in qualitative data analysis: A design research approach to coding combining NVivo with traditional material methods. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 17 (1) 1-13

10.1177/1609406918786362

32.

Maslach

Jackson

S.E.

(1981) The measurement of experienced burnout. Journal of Occupational Behaviour 2 (2) 99-113

10.1002/job.4030020205

33.

Maslach

Jackson

S.E.

Leiter

M.P.

(1997) The Maslach burnout inventory manual 3rd Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press

34.

Maslach

Jackson

S.E.

Leiter

M.P.

(2018) The Maslach burnout inventory manual 4th Menlo Park: Mind Garden, Inc

35.

Maslach

Leiter

M.P.

(2016) Understanding the burnout experience: Recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry 15 (2) 103-111

10.1002/wps.20311

36.

Maslach

Schaufeli

W.B.

Leiter

M.P.

(2001) Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology 52 (1) 397-422

10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397

37.

Mills

Bonner

Francis

(2006) The development of constructivist grounded theory. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 5 (1) 25-35

10.1177/160940690600500103

38.

MIND (2020) Mental health facts and statistics https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/statistics-and-facts-about-mental-health/how-common-are-mental-health-problems/

39.

Mind Garden (2019) Maslach burnout toolkit https://www.mindgarden.com/184-maslach-burnout-toolkit

40.

Morse

(2007) Sampling in grounded theory. in Bryant

Charmaz

(eds) The sage handbook of grounded theory London: Sage 229-244

41.

Moustakas

(1990) Heuristic research: Design, methodology, and applications London: Sage

42.

Oades

L.G.

(2016) Coaching for wellbeing at work. in van Nieuwerburgh

(eds) Coaching in professional contexts London: Sage 199-211

43.

Pines

A.M.

(1993) Burnout: An existential perspective. in Schaufeli

W.B.

Maslach

Marek

(eds) Professional burnout: Recent developments in theory and research London: Taylor & Francis 33-52

44.

Polkinghorne

(2005) Language and meaning: Data collection in qualitative research. Journal of Counseling Psychology 52 (2) 137-145

10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.137

45.

Ponterotto

J.G.

(2005) Qualitative research in counseling psychology: A primer on research paradigms and philosophy of science. Journal of Counseling Psychology 52 (2) 126-136

10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.126

46.

Ryan

G.W.

Bernard

H.R.

(2003) Techniques to identify themes. Field Methods 15 (1) 85-109

10.1177/1525822X02239569

47.

Saunders

M.N.K.

Lewis

Thornhill

(2019) Research methods for business students 8th Harlow: Pearson

48.

Schaufeli

W.B.

Enzmann

Girault

(1993) Measurement of burnout: A review. in Schaufeli

W.B.

Maslach

Marek

(eds) Professional burnout: recent developments in theory and research London: Taylor & Francis 199-215

49.

Shirom

(1989) Burnout in work organizations. in Cooper

C.L.

Robertson

I.T.

(eds) International review of industrial and organizational psychology 1989 Chichester: Wiley 25-48

50.

Shirom

Melamed

(2006) A comparison of the construct validity of two burnout measures in two groups of professionals. International Journal of Stress Management 13 (2) 176-200

10.1037/1072-5245.13.2.176

51.

Spinelli

(2018) Existential Coaching. in Cox

Bachkirova

Clutterbuck

(eds) The complete handbook of coaching 3rd London: Sage 81-94

52.

St John-Brooks

(2018) Internal coaching. in Cox

Bachkirova

Clutterbuck

(eds) The complete handbook of coaching 3rd London: Sage 295-311

53.

Strübing

(2007) Research as pragmatic problem-solving: The pragmatist roots of empirically grounded theorizing. in Bryant

Charmaz

(eds) The sage handbook of grounded theory London: Sage 580-601

54.

Suddaby

(2006) What grounded theory is not. Academy of Management Journal 49 (4) 633-642

10.5465/amj.2006.22083020

55.

Thorne

(2000) Data analysis in qualitative research. Evidence-Based Nursing 3 (3) 68-70

10.1136/ebn.3.3.68

56.

Watts

Cavett

Dudney

(2016) Supervision for learning. Coaching in professional contexts London: Sage 213-225

57.

Wiener

(2007) Making teams work in conducting grounded theory. in Bryant

Charmaz

(eds) The sage handbook of grounded theory London: Sage 293-310

58.

Willig

(2008) Introducing qualitative research in psychology 2nd Maidenhead: Open University Press, McGraw-Hill Education

59.

World Health Organization (2019) Mental health, evidence and research https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/burn-out/en/

60.

Xanthopoulou

Bakker

A.B.

Demerouti

Schaufeli

W.B.

(2009) Reciprocal relationships between job resources, personal resources, and work engagement. Journal of Vocational Behavior 74 (3) 235-244