Carol Kauffman, PhD ABPP PCC, Co-Founder and Director

Dr. Kauffman is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, a Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology and a Professional Certified Coach. She has been affiliated with McLean Hospital since 1978. She has a clinical and coaching practice, speaks internationally on coaching, and founded PositivePsychologyCoaches.com.

Margaret Moore (Coach Meg), BS, MBA, Co-Founder

Following 17 years in the biotech industry, Margaret founded Wellcoaches Corporation in 2000, the leading coach training school in healthcare. She is the lead author of the in-press Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Coaching Psychology Manual, and co-authored a Harvard Medical School CME program on coaching lifestyle change, catalyzing the launch of the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine by collaborator, Dr. Edward Phillips, at Spaulding/Harvard Medical School. Visit www.coach-meg.com.

Registration is open for the Coaching and Positive Psychology Initiative launch event, the Harvard Coaching Conference, Sept 26 -27, 2008 in Boston.

The Coaching and Positive Psychology Initiative, based at Harvard Medical School’s McLean Hospital, is dedicated to the vision of developing an academic foundation of coaching psychology.

For the field of coaching to thrive, it must be founded on solid psychological theory and evidence-based practice. While there are thousands of articles and hundreds of books on life and executive coaching, very few are based on the kind of research studies expected in the healthcare and medical world.

In recent years, positive psychology has exploded in academia. Hundreds of research studies, several new journals, and numerous textbooks have been published. New research is leading to guidelines on how to improve well-being and performance. This work offers much-needed empirical support for the profession of coaching.

The philosophy of coaching is closely aligned with positive psychology. Both focus on building on what is right with an individual, executive, or organization, rather than fixing what is wrong, e.g. weakness and pathology. As former APA president, Martin Seligman, describes, coaching is a natural vehicle to deliver positive psychology interventions.

The initial goals of the Coaching & Positive Psychology Initiative include:

1. Annual conference.

A Harvard Medical School coaching conference will be held in Boston at the Colonnade Hotel in September 26/27 2008 and will also publicly launch the new Coaching and Positive Psychology Initiative. This conference will be the first international gathering of prominent coaching psychologists in the United States who will help to articulate the state of the field, its potential, and the path forward.

The conference will bring together the international founding contributors to the field of coaching psychology to introduce physical and mental health professionals to the theory, research, applications and pragmatics of coaching psychology. Participants will learn from the seminal thinkers, coaches and authors who have contributed to the foundation of coaching psychology in a variety of domains, including executive work, life and peak performance, health and wellness, applied positive psychology and coaching research.

2. Coaching and positive psychology research laboratory: developing and testing interventions.

The research mission of this initiative includes assessing the effectiveness of coaching and positive psychology interventions with both clinical and non-clinical populations.

3. Global coaching research agenda.

An international research task force on coaching and positive psychology research applied to healthcare will be started. In parallel, a research advisory board of the Coaching and Positive Psychology Initiative will be formed and will be tasked with defining the coaching research mission.

4. The new, academic and peer-reviewed journal Coaching: The International Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice.

Publisher Taylor and Francis, through its subsidiary Routledge Press, have launched a new academic coaching journal, Coaching: International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice. Dr. Kauffman is the co-editor-in-chief. The journal enables the Coaching and Positive Psychology Initiative to serve as a hub to encourage, support and teach coaching research, with the goal of inspiring a new wave of studies that can form a foundation for evidence-based practices.

5. McLean education program.

McLean Hospital staff and trainees interested in learning coaching and/or positive psychology interventions are being offered seminars, tutorials or supervision.