The AC Podcast

174: Addressing Mental Health Concerns in Coaching

In this Episode

Anne Calleja, Carol Whitaker and Dearbhalla Baveira join host, Maxine Bell, in the first episode of our Exploring Mental Health in Coaching series. Our three guests are all part of the AC Mental Health special interest group, focused on creating educational content and best practice resources for coaches and supervisors.

In this episode, Anne, Carol and Dearbhalla introduce what mental health means, what mental illness is, and the role of coaches or supervisors, along with some practical tips for your and your clients in supporting mental health wellbeing. They discuss the fears, challenges and issues faced by coaches and supervisors and encourage the coaching profession to be curious, brave and informed when dealing with mental health.

Emergency Contact Numbers:

• WhatsApp Global Resources for Suicide Prevention
• Samaritans UK: Tel: 116 113 – Emergency helpline and suicide support
• Samaritans Ireland Tel: 116 123
• SHOUT - Text SHOUT TO 85258 - A UK-based emergency mental health text helpline
• UK Helplines
• Find a Helpline Worldwide – just type in your country and topic

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You Will Learn

• How basic coaching skills can be used to recognise, identify and support clients having mental health issues
• The importance of reflective practice and supervision in understanding your own competency, capability and capacity as a coach
• The ethical dilemmas a coach may face when dealing with mental health issues

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Guest Bios

Anne Calleja has over 35 years’ experience in Business, Education and Leadership Development, and holds an MSc in management science. She is an AC Accredited Executive Coach and Master Coach Supervisor and an accredited and registered (BACP, UKCP, BSCH) practising psychotherapist and clinical supervisor. She supervises cross-professionally (coaches and therapists and therapeutic coaches).

 

Anne is the AC Supervision Lead for Engagement and Development, helped to develop the AC Supervisor Accreditation Scheme, developed the Virtual Friday Reflection Groups and Supervision Special Interest Group; set up and leads the AC Mental Health Well Being Interest Group and co-created the strategy to provide resources to support coaches and supervisors when mental health issues arise in their practice.

 

Carol Whitaker is the of Director of Whitaker Consulting. She is an AC Accredited Master Coach Supervisor and has over 15 years’ experience supervising both 1-1 and Groups including Oxford Brookes University Students doing their MA in Coaching and Mentoring Practice, ILM7 Executive Coaching PG Cert. Her portfolio covers coaching, team/group coaching and coach supervision, mentoring and facilitation. Carol has co-authored two 5*rated books, ‘Coaching Supervision: A practical guide for Supervisees’ (2016) and ‘Peer Supervision in Coaching & Mentoring: A versatile guide for Reflective practice’ (2018). Both published by Routledge and the Peer Supervision Chapter in Coaching & Mentoring Supervision: Theory and Practice 2nd Edition (2021).

 

Dearbhalla Baveira is a leadership coach and coach supervisor, accredited with the AC. Dearbhalla is passionate about three things: feeding the female leadership pipeline, helping future fit leaders to show up in a complex world and reflective practice for conscious coaches.

 

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