Antoine de Saint Exupéry, French writer and aviator (1900-1944) stated that ”The meaning of things lies not in things themselves, but in our attitudes towards them”.

By exploring our attitudes to events rather than focusing excessively on the events themselves, we can understand better why we react in some self-and-goal-defeating ways that we do.

Maybe this is the heart and soul of this brain focused approach that we know as cognitive behavioural coaching (this is not identical to the Cognitive Coaching℠ practised in the US which is generally used within the teaching profession).

Cognitive Behavioural Coaching derives from the work of two leading cognitive behavioural theorists, researchers and therapists: Aaron Beck, who founded Cognitive Therapy and Albert Ellis, who developed Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy.

Since we are coaches and not therapists we can define Cognitive Coaching as “a collaborative, goal directed endeavour using multimodal learning methods to help individuals develop their capabilities and remove any psychological blocks that interfere with this process” (Neenan and Palmer 2012).

In this edition we explore some thoughts and share some opinions on cognitive coaching and hope to stimulate your interest.

In the light of recent tragic events across the globe it will be a difficult Holiday Season for many. From all of us at WCM, we hope that you will spend this Holiday Season with those who give meaning to your life and that you will show that in your attitude towards them.