Edited by Dr Trish Turner
Chapter 8: The psychological lens: from clinical psychologist to coach
By Dr Andrea Giraldez-Hayes
This chapter explores how training and professional identity as a clinical psychologist shapes the transition into coaching. Drawing on interview data from dual-trained practitioners, it examines the psychological lens through which many clinical psychologists approach coaching, highlighting both the expertise they bring and the assumptions they may need to revisit. Themes include how psychological formulation, a focus on diagnosis, and a sense of professional responsibility can carry into coaching relationships, often in ways that unconsciously constrain client agency.
The chapter does not offer a linear model for transition but instead surfaces a series of tensions: between insight and action, expertise and emergence, structure and spontaneity. Through reflective prompts and practitioner voices, readers are invited to examine their own habits of mind and stance. The chapter ultimately encourages a reorientation towards a coaching identity that draws on psychological depth while embracing a more collaborative, future-focused way of working.
Biography
Andrea is Course Director for the MSt in Coaching at the University of Cambridge. She is a Chartered Psychologist (BPS), psychotherapist (BACP), coaching psychologist (BPS), EMCC Master Practitioner, ICF Professional Certified Coach, and an EMCC and BPS-registered supervisor. Her career spans academic leadership, private practice and consultancy.
Before joining the University of Cambridge, Andrea was Programme Director for the MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology at the University of East London. She is an associate editor for Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, the International Coaching Psychology Review, and the International Journal of Coaching Psychology. Andrea’s research explores wellbeing arts, creative and arts-based approaches to coaching, and the complex boundaries between coaching and psychotherapy.