ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at the politics of coaching and starts by defining what we mean by politics and helps the reader understand that the topic of politics is not the real world but representations of that world by individuals and groups. The chapter looks at one of the findings of the author’s PhD research and that was how those hostile to NLP use their political power to identify very poor practice in NLP and then make generalisations to the whole of NLP practice to portray it in a very poor light. This finding came primarily from coding responses of those who do not practice NLP and are not familiar with it, but complaining about this pattern was a distinguishing feature of the NLP expert’s identity. The chapter explores three specific examples. The chapter concludes with an exploration of the extent to which coaching psychologists meet their own strict standards of evidence using RCTs and calls for a reconciliation of left and right brain, technique and skill.