Coaching has recently become an area of interest for psychologists, as evidenced by the Masters of Coaching Psychology being offered by at least one Australian university.  The Australian Psychological Society has formed an interest group for coaching psychology to promote research and discussion of the emerging area.

This does not mean that all coaches are psychologists, nor does it mean that all psychologists could be effective coaches.   Coaching psychology appears to be moving towards becoming a recognised branch of the profession, such as organisational psychology and sports psychology, as is the case in the UK.

Given the complex nature of both psychologist and coach it is difficult to provide a simple description of the differences between the two roles, however, one key difference is that traditional psychological counselling has long focussed on the root of the problem to be resolved, whereas coaching has a tendency to place more emphasis on the desired outcomes or goals.

Organisational psychology is concerned with the behaviour of people at work.  Organisational psychologists are trained to understand the theories underpinning many workplace issues, such as:

• Change management
• Workplace safety
• Facilitating individual change
• Workplace training needs
• Psychometric assessments and assessment centres
• Performance, motivation and organisational commitment
• Organisational culture
• Development and validation of workplace survey tools
• Career lifecycles
• Mediation and conflict management