318: Good Girl Deprogramming: Psychology, Gender and Conditioning in Coaching with Michelle Minnikin

In the second episode of our Psychology in Coaching series, host Lucy Whitehall sits down with organizational psychologist Michelle Minnikin, author of Good Girl Deprogramming, to discuss how psychology informs coaching, particularly around gender roles and conditioning. Ten years ago, Michelle burned out after years of trying to change organizations from the inside. Her next move was to build a practice around what corporate life had denied her: autonomy, freedom and fun.   The women who come to her, often in their thirties to sixties and long practiced at being useful, agreeable and available, say some version of "I don't know who I am. I don't know what I want. I don't know what I need." Michelle explains how her ADHD diagnosis helped her recognize her own "good girl" conditioning, and how she now supports women to identify the conditioning that has been holding them back and regain their autonomy. Sometimes that means asking questions about childhood: What did you love doing? What made you angry? Where did you find joy? Sometimes it means handing over a book, a podcast or a talk to explore between sessions. Michelle jokes that her love language is giving people homework, but the assignment is an invitation, not an obligation. It is a fine balance between non-directive practice and guidance, while preserving client choice. She stresses the importance of naming the psychology you are using when contracting with clients and is clear about where coaching ends and when a client may need signposting to a therapist.   Michelle also challenges the idea that women need fixing. She is sceptical of leadership programs that train women to be more confident and then send them back into the conditions that made confidence feel risky, so she works with women, their managers and wider teams. For men, she offers "Model Man Conditioning" coaching, helping them recognise their own gender conditioning. The expectations differ, she says, but nobody is outside the water they are swimming in. In this candid, open conversation, Lucy and Michelle address the impact of gender conditioning on individuals, relationships, organizations and society. It is a reminder for coaches not to ignore it with their own clients.   You will learn:   ·       Why its important to be transparent about the approaches you use when contracting ·       To recognize when an issue needs therapeutic support and signpost accordingly. ·       Gender conditioning shapes everyone, so support women, men, managers and organizations rather than expecting women to change alone.   "I struggle to understand how you would say, I'm not going to use psychology in coaching. It's humans! And if you aren't using psychology, how deep a transformation can you support your clients with?"   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-psychology-in-coaching-gender-conditioning-contracting

In this first episode of our podcast series, Psychology in Coaching, host Lucy Whitehall talks with psychologist and coach Dr Hayley Lewis about how psychology shapes coaching practice. Hayley's journey runs from occupational psychology and organisational development at the BBC to executive coaching. She shares how her sketch-note summaries aim to make psychology accessible to the public, and how one of them ended up in Adam Grant's book, Think Again, after she mistook his publisher's emails for phishing. Her story opens a wider conversation about impostor feelings, and why self-doubt can signal that we are learning or stepping into unfamiliar territory.   Lucy and Hayley explore how coaches can draw on psychological knowledge without needing to be psychologists, and why curiosity, humility and attention to individual context matter when applying theory and research. Hayley reflects openly on supervision and the coach's use of self as an instrument, including how it helped her recognise her own rescuing tendencies. They also discuss coach wellbeing, adapting how explicitly psychology is used with clients, and psychological safety as the ability to face discomfort while preserving the relationship.   The conversation closes with an important note of caution. Hayley explains that psychological concepts used without suitable training and supervision can harm clients, and why she is learning about somatic coaching but does not yet feel ready to use it in her practice. This is a thoughtful listen for any coach who wants to use psychology well and responsibly.   You will learn ·       Impostor feelings can signal learning. Self-doubt often appears when we are in unfamiliar situations, which makes it a cue for growth rather than evidence of inadequacy. ·       Know yourself to coach well. Reflective practice and supervision help coaches spot personal patterns, such as the urge to rescue, before they shape the coaching room. ·       Curiosity and humility will help you become a self-aware and a student of psychological theory in your practice     "I think a really good understanding, not surface understanding, a really good dive into an understanding and learning of key psychological theories and concepts can be really helpful in coaching."   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-psychology-in-coaching-theory-practice-ethics  

This episode is part of our 'A Day in the Life' series, where we talk to coaches about their real lives and businesses. What happens when creativity, personal story and deep self-reflection find their way into coaching? In this warm, honest conversation, our host Maxine Bell, talks with Paul Williamson, Group Head of Talent Development at ATG Entertainment.  He has designed acclaimed in-house leadership development programmes, helped to build a successful internal coaching faculty, and coached leaders at all levels within the organization. Paul traces his path from a creative childhood filled with art, drama and storytelling, through management roles, to becoming a qualified coach. Like many people, he was steered toward more 'sensible' career paths, but his creative instincts never left him, and he came to see creativity as a powerful tool for transformation.   Central to Paul's practice is Childhood Story Work, the approach pioneered by Dr Sarah Hill. He explains how looking at your own childhood story and its influences can reveal surprising connections between early narratives and present-day behaviour, work he describes as "transformational for me personally." Paul sees his role as creating a safe container for deep exploratory work, one that invites people to call on "all aspects of who they are, including their creativity." Drawing, music, imagery and metaphors help clients move beyond intellectual defences and into deeper layers of meaning.   Running through the conversation is the question "Who am I?", which Paul returns to throughout his work and his own life. It shapes how he shows up as a coach, from his shift away from structured models like GROW towards a more intuitive, emergent style, to his commitment to self-care, supervision and reflective practice. For Paul, the goal is genuine connection: finding out "what lights up their soul."   You will learn: ·       Understanding the early narratives that shape us can reveal the influences behind present behaviour and empower clients to change limiting narratives and create real transformation. ·       The importance of creating a safe container for creativity and deeper, exploratory work. ·       The power of asking 'Who am I?' and 'How do I want to coach?'     'I think if you can encourage people to step into that childlike space of wonder and possibility, you can start to get wonderful results.'   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel_day-in-the-life-of-coaches-childhood-storywork-creativity

In this final episode of our series: AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching, we step back from individual perspectives and ask what all these conversations might be telling us about coaching itself. Rebecca Rutschmann, co-founder of Viva la Coaching, researcher, educator and long-standing explorer of the space between coaching and technology, joins host, Smaranda Dochia, to consider whether AI is forcing the profession to become clearer about what coaching is really here to do.   Together they explore what should remain distinctly human, why people choose to work with another human being in coaching, and what we want technology to support rather than replace. Rather than framing AI as something to embrace or resist, the conversation is about engaging with curiosity, maturity and agency, and making deliberate choices about how we use it.   It's a conversation about finding our core, and about what AI may be asking the coaching profession to become next.   You will learn:   ·       New capabilities are pushing us to revisit what coaching is for, who it can reach and why people value working with another human. ·       It's not a choice between embracing or resisting AI but staying informed, curious and deliberate about how you use it ·       Build strong roots in who you are and what you value, with enough curiosity to explore what is becoming possible.     "You need your North Star; you need your core. As long as you have roots, you can also fly. That's something my parents taught me very early. You need roots to hold you tight, and you need wings to fly."   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-what-AI-asks-of-coaching

AI coaching is moving fast, but the evidence hasn't quite caught up with the excitement. In episode 9 of our AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching series, host Smaranda Dochia sits down with Professor Nicky Terblanche, Professor in Leadership Coaching at Stellenbosch University Business School in Cape Town, South Africa, where he leads the master's and PhD programmes in leadership coaching. Nicky began his career in electronic and software engineering before moving into coaching and applied psychology and has been researching AI coaching since well before generative AI arrived on the scene.   The conversation centres on a key distinction: 'AI in coaching' versus 'AI coaching' itself, and why the field still needs clearer definitions and professional boundaries. Nicky brings the research into focus, sharing findings that AI coaching can be effective for goal attainment, but has yet to show the same results when it comes to areas like stress, wellbeing, and resilience: the deeper developmental terrain where skilled human coaches still lead. They also explore whether AI should even aspire to imitate a human coach, why coaching methodology matters when evaluating a platform, cultural bias in AI coaching tools, and how AI might ultimately raise the bar for human coaching rather than simply replace it.   Throughout, one message keeps returning: keep an open mind, but remain critical and ask for evidence. Nicky's research suggests a more nuanced picture than either the hype or the anxiety around AI coaching would have us believe - AI coaching can already support outcomes like goal attainment and offers real value through its scale, cost, and accessibility, reaching people who might otherwise have no access to coaching at all. But when it comes to deeper transformation, human coaching still holds its ground. Nicky's closing challenge lingers too: perhaps we're worrying too much about AI replacing coaches, and not enough about what it means to outsource our thinking to technology over time.   You will learn:   ·       'AI in coaching' and 'AI coaching' aren't the same thing. The field still lacks clear definitions and professional boundaries, and getting this distinction right matters for standards and accreditation. ·       AI coaching if far off from replacing human coaches but it does have value in it's scalability and reach. ·       The real risk may not be replacement - it's outsourcing thinking:  what happens to our critical thinking and capability when we lean too heavily on technology to do it for us.     "AI coaching is not competing with human coaching, but it can be incredibly scalable and helpful to millions of people who would never otherwise have any coaches."   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-AI-coaching-research-service

Across workplaces, AI tools are being introduced at remarkable speed. Licenses are being purchased, productivity gains are anticipated, and employees are being encouraged to experiment. But access to AI is not the same as knowing how to work with it well. In episode 8 of our AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching series, host Smaranda Dochia sits down with James Varnham, who brings 26 years of experience in learning, workforce development, and AI adoption, to unpack what's actually happening inside organizations as AI moves from experimentation to daily practice. They dig into the gap between leadership ambition and employee readiness, the rise of shadow AI and the data security risks it creates, and why generic, one-size-fits-all training rarely builds the kind of AI literacy organizations need.   The conversation centres on a key distinction: knowing how to use AI is not the same as knowing how to collaborate with it. True AI literacy means understanding when AI adds value, how to steer and question its output, and where human critical thinking has to stay firmly in the driver's seat. James and Smaranda also explore the growing role of coaching in this shift—not as a way to help people feel better about AI, but as a space to think clearly about what to delegate, what to protect, and how to hold onto judgment, agency, and a sense of human worth as the technology evolves around them. They also turn to the question of employee wellbeing, including how AI adoption can quietly erode confidence when people feel uncertain about what's expected of them or fear being left behind. James makes a pointed case for AI coaching tools too: their scalability makes coaching more affordable and able to reach far more people than human coaching alone ever could. But he's equally clear about their limits—organizations and individuals both need to learn where an AI coach's usefulness ends and where a human coach needs to step in. Ultimately, this episode reframes what "successful" AI adoption should even mean. Rather than measuring it by how much AI gets used, James and Smaranda suggest the better measure is what happens to human capability because of that use—whether people are growing sharper and more confident, or quietly ceding judgment to the machine.   You will learn:   ·       What real AI literacy means – understanding that using AI isn't the same as collaborating with it. ·       Adoption of AI in organizations is outpacing readiness and wellbeing needs attention too. James shares tips on how to bring AI into a workplace with a reminder that AI will involve continuous learning. ·       AI coaches make support more affordable and accessible at scale but knowing when to hand off from an AI coach to a human one is essential.     "We're still very, very immature when it comes down to, as I said, organizational adoption of AI."   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-organizations-workplace-AI-literacy

AI has brought new urgency to questions the coaching profession has wrestled with for years: what is coaching, what value does it create, and what kind of practitioner should coach education produce? In episode 7 of our series, AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching, host Smaranda Dochia talks with Jonathan Reitz, a coach and coach educator with nearly three decades of experience, about his unexpected path from broadcasting into coaching and what that journey taught him about the profession's evolving identity.   Jonathan draws a sharp distinction between coach training, which transfers skills, and coach education, which reshapes the practitioner's identity, ethics, and self-awareness. He argues that meaningful development doesn't happen in the classroom alone: it comes from a blend of focused instruction, field experience, deliberate practice, community reflection, and a wider circle of trusted support. As AI tools increasingly position themselves as "coaches," he makes the case that providers and professional bodies carry an institutional responsibility to prepare adaptable, reflective practitioners, not just add an AI module to existing curricula.   The discussion also digs into the practical and ethical terrain coaches now have to navigate: GDPR-level data handling, client-controlled recordings, one-year deletion policies, and the difficulty buyers face in measuring coaching ROI. Jonathan's view is that coaches should aim for AI augmentation or redefinition of their practice - never inversion, where the coach hands off genuine cognitive engagement to a tool. Even coaches who choose not to use AI themselves, he notes, need enough fluency to understand the language and developmental world their clients now inhabit.   You will learn:   ·       AI and coaching bots have forced a reckoning on defining coaching ·       Coach education beats training, and it belongs in the field with practice and community ·       Ethics and AI fluency are the differentiators. There are foundations of responsible practice that must be in place before AI fluency can start     "I think the advent of some of the AI tools that are in the world right now have forced us to say, hey, with these AI tools now calling themselves coach, what is it that they're doing that I also do? And what is it that I do that they are not doing?"   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-coach-education-definition-ethics  

In the sixth episode of our series, AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching, host Smaranda Dochia is joined by Iliana Grosse-Buening, author, speaker, adjunct professor and co-founder of Deeply Human Innovation, who brings a global perspective on the intersection of technology and wellbeing.  She widens the conversation on AI from harm prevention and compliance to a more demanding question: what does good look like? And what should good technology make possible for people's lives, relationships and communities?   Through the lens of deeply human innovation, digital wellbeing and human flourishing, Iliana asks whether technology helps people become more capable, connected, curious and able to shape their own lives. She examines the taken-for-grantedness of technology, the slow effects of engagement and attachment economies, and the risks of outsourcing thought, relationship and agency, alongside how organizations can avoid using AI wellbeing tools to individualise problems that are actually created by culture, workload, or power.   The conversation also foregrounds participation, community and the voices of young people in shaping technological futures. Regulation and responsible design matter, but people are not powerless while waiting for systems to change - coaches, leaders and organizations can still make choices that nourish relationships, expand agency and keep human and planetary flourishing at the centre of innovation. Iliana closes with an invitation to the upcoming Deeply Human Summit in Paris, which starts with the Global Youth Imagination Lab. Her passion for humanity creates an episode with a powerful call for action, based in hope and a belief in human potential.   You will learn:   ·       How can we create technology that truly help people flourish: become more capable, connected, and able to shape their own lives ·       Organizations must not individualise systemic problems through AI wellbeing tools that may mask issues rooted in culture, workload, or power ·       People don't need to wait for regulation; they can make choices today that protect human connection and flourishing     "AI is making us have to confront certain things, which, if we courageously address them, I think we would actually end up in a world that is more flourishing."   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-digital-wellbeing-human-flourishing

In episode 5 of our AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching series, host Smaranda Dochia talks with Lewin Keller, founder of CoachBot.ai, about what happens when you try to build professional coaching into an AI system rather than just bolting a coaching persona onto a chatbot. Lewin's own path into coaching started almost by accident at Google in 2015, and it left him with a simple question: why isn't coaching more accessible to people who aren't executives with corporate budgets? That question eventually led him to build CoachBot.ai. Lewin is refreshingly honest about the early stumbles. His first users loved the attention but kept asking why they should pay for questions when a general LLM would just hand them advice for free. That feedback pushed him to think harder about what actually makes a coaching bot different: not the model underneath, but the standards, boundaries, and structure built around it, so it knows when to ask and when to guide rather than defaulting to shallow, generic output. He's also candid about the fear running through the profession right now and pushes back on it in an interesting way: the risk isn't AI itself, but the design choices humans make around it, and coaches who stay curious and involved have far more influence over that than those who simply hope it goes away. What comes through most is a sense of responsibility rather than alarm. Lewin sees it as the profession's job to help people understand the difference between directive and non-directive coaching, what AI companionship actually is, and why so many people are drawn to it in the first place. For him, coaching still has something the world clearly needs, and AI, used thoughtfully, is a way to get more of that into more people's hands. You will learn: ·       A coaching bot earns that name through the professional standards, guardrails, and structure layered on top of the language model, shaping when it asks questions versus when it offers guidance. ·       Fear should be pointed at design choices human's make, not AI itself.  ·       Educating coaches is a professional duty, not optional extra – helping coaches move from basic AI literacy to AI maturity.  "This is the first LLM that actually behaves like a coach. Like it's not going directly into giving shallow generic advice. It's actually asking questions. It's setting goals. It's keeping boundaries."   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-responsible-coachbot-maturity

In episode 4 of our AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching series, host Smaranda Dochia sits down with Dr Malak Sadek, researcher and teaching associate at the University of Cambridge's Centre for Human-Inspired AI, to explore why conversational AI affects us so differently from other technologies. Conversation is already natural to us, so we never have to learn how to "use" a chatbot the way we'd learn a new app, and that ease is exactly what blurs the line between a fluent response and genuine understanding. Malak explains how design choices in tone, voice, and responsiveness shape trust, reinforce gender and racial biases, and lead people to attribute empathy, authority, or even relationship-like qualities to systems that have no lived experience or personal stake in the outcome. The discussion also touches on how repeated interaction with these systems may quietly shape behaviour, beliefs, identity, and the choices people make over time.   The conversation then turns to the values built into these systems by default. Malak makes the case that no version of "neutral" really exists: privacy settings, curiosity, playfulness, politeness, cultural assumptions, and commercial incentives are all design decisions that shape how an AI behaves, and many carry Western-centric assumptions that go unexamined. For her, responsible AI needs more than technical safety — it needs meaningful participation, cultural representation, and transparency about the values embedded in the system, so that design strengthens human agency rather than quietly eroding it. She closes with a challenge to coaches and other professionals: rather than resisting these tools, the more useful path is to understand their limitations well enough to guide clients through them.   You will learn:   ·       Fluency isn't understanding – coaches need to help clients see this distinction ·       No system is truly neutral: Every design choice — tone, defaults, privacy settings, cultural framing — embeds values, often Western-centric ones, and coaches should be aware of whose assumptions are shaping the interaction.   ·       Rather than avoiding AI tools, coaches and professionals are better placed to guide clients by educating them on AI's limitations.       "We have a very strong tendency to give human traits and human characteristics to things that aren't human beings just because they kind of either look human or they remind us of humans somehow. and obviously with LLMs this is on steroids now because they are actually behaving on the surface like, human beings."   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-conversational-AI-values-chatbots