Book Review
Title: Developmental Coaching: Working with the Self
Author: Tatiana Bachkirova
Publisher Open University Press
ISBN 978 0335 23855 2
Usefulness ****
This complex, inspiring book is split into two main sections written for two of Dr Bachkirova’s “mini- selves”, the “inquiring one” and the “practical one”. In the first section she takes us through three beautifully researched “stories of the self” that articulate with each other to provide the theoretical material for her comprehensive model of developmental coaching. I was fully engaged with her thinking, although on occasion I found myself hungry for an even more comprehensive range of inputs.
Her practical approach to developmental coaching is outlined in part two, and I was enthralled by her chapters on its key principles and mechanisms, in particular her descriptions of organic and non-organic change.
In the latter part of the book she introduces us to a flexible model of ego development from unformed, to formed, to reformed, to “coaching for the soul”, with a series of suggestions for practical coaching applications. However, despite her requesting the opposite, it is difficult not to see these stages as linear; it doesn’t sit easily with my own perception of development as cyclical.
In all, this has been a truly exciting read, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to look at their coaching practice in a new and stimulating way.
Edwina Love Lawrence is lead consultant at Justesse Executive Coaching
www.justesse-executive-coaching.co.uk