nm u Ottawa L'Universit<5 canadienne Canada's university mn FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTDOCTORALES U Ottawa POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES !,'University oanadienne Canada's university William Courville AUTEUR DE LA THESE / AUTHOR OF THESIS Ph.D. (Religious Studies) GRADE/DEGREE Department of Classics and Religious Studies FACULTE, ECOLE, DEPARTEMENT / FACULTY, SCHOOL, DEPARTMENT Coach, Therapist, or Spiritual Director?: An Analysis of Discourse about Spirituality as Used in Professional Coaching TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS N. Goldenberg DIRECTEUR (DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS SUPERVISOR CO-DIRECTEUR (CO-DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS CO-SUPERVISOR EXAMINATEURS (EXAMINATRICES) DE LA THESE/THESIS EXAMINERS P.Beyer T/Trost_ P. Piovanelli K. Raab Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Coach, Therapist, or Spiritual Director?: An Analysis of Discourse about Spirituality as Used in Professional Coaching William J. Courville Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the PhD degree in Psychology of Religion Department of Classics and Religious Studies University of Ottawa © William J. Courville, Ottawa, Canada, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-59507-7 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-59507-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduce, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par ('Internet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada Acknowledgments This thesis has been in the making for 26 years. During that time, many friends and colleagues have encouraged and pushed me to finish. They know who they are and I would like to acknowledge all of them here. In particular there is one person, Bob Jerome, without whom this project would never have become a reality. I thank him for his generous encouragement and unflagging support. I dedicate this thesis to him. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgments ii Abstract vi Introduction 1 Chapter 1. Cross-Disciplinary and Cross-Methodological Foundations of Professional Coaching 6 Chapter 2. Delineating Professional Coaching: From Etiology to Definition 16 Looking for Theories 18 Traveling the Coaching Route 20 The Definitional Challenge 35 Roots and Antecedents 40 Sources in Philosophy: Ontology, Epistemology, Ethics, and Phenomenology 41 Theories in Adult Education: Andragogy and Experiential Learning 45 Roots in Psychology: Depth, Developmental, and Humanistic Psychologies 48 Coaching Models and the Psychological Paradigms 52 Approaches to Professional Coaching 56 Variations of Professional Coaching 60 Coaching and other Interventions 63 Coaching Versus Therapy 63 Coaching Versus Training, Consulting, and Mentoring 66 iii Towards a New Understanding of Professional Coaching 69 Chapter 3. The Spirituality Discourse 73 Attempts to Characterize "Spirituality" 75 Lucy Bregman: The "Glow" 75 Daniel Helminiak: Theology and Science 84 Jeremy Carrette and Richard King: Selling Out 86 Implications of the Spirituality Discourse 88 Spirituality or Psychology? 91 Explicit Discourse about Spirituality 103 Implicit Discourse about Spirituality 109 Roots in the Perennial Wisdom Traditions 110 Application of Spirituality Discourse to Professional Coaching 113 Antecedents in Traditional Theories of Psychology of Religion 117 Coaching and Spiritual Direction 120 Leadership Coaching as a Spirituality Discourse 124 Chapter 4. Spiritual Intelligence: Enlarging the Discourse 130 The Concept of Multiple Intelligences 133 IQ: Cognitive Intelligence 137 EQ: Emotional Intelligence 138 SQ: Spiritual Intelligence 145 Danah Zohar's Clarification of Spiritual Intelligence 149 iv Neurological Processes 150 Psychological Processes 161 The Debate: Is Spirituality an Intelligence? 165 Spiritual Intelligence in Professional Coaching 169 Chapter 5. Psychology of Religion and Its Relationship to Business 174 Psychology of Religion: Mapping the Terrain 175 Traditions of Research 180 The Link Between Psychology and Religion 182 Appropriation of Spirituality for Psychology 184 Psychology and Capitalism: Abraham Maslow's Motivational Model 186 Professional Coaching: Expanding the Relationship 197 Chapter 6. Summary and Conclusions 201 Bibliography 211 v Abstract Professional coaching, a hybrid intervention melding western therapeutic counseling and spiritual traditions, has recently emerged as a new phenomenon in executive development. The dissertation makes four broad points: first, that the field of professional coaching has developed little theory of its own and is in need of academic theorizing; second, that professional coaching plays a significant role in personal and professional development; third, that there is a definite spiritual dimension - both explicit and implicit - to professional coaching, and fourth, that psychology of religion is uniquely positioned to serve as an academic home for the conceptualization and theorization of the field. To make these points, the thesis demonstrates that professional coaching has antecedents, in both form and structure, in depth psychology, humanistic psychology, pastoral counseling, and spiritual direction. It traces the history and development of spiritual discourse in professional coaching, showing that the application of ancient wisdom and other spiritual traditions was eventually "psychologized" and appropriated by traditional psychology for application to business and professional development. It explores coaching methods, models, concepts, and theories to show how the language of spiritual discourse is intertwined with therapeutic language as an integral part of the vocabulary of professional coaching. It illuminates both the explicit and implicit spiritual discourse found in professional coaching and suggests that making what is often an implicit discourse explicit might re-frame how practitioners and clients see themselves and the work they are doing. It discusses the concept of "spiritual intelligence" and vi corresponding research that attempts to link spirituality and neuroscience and considers its implications for professional coaching, executive development, and psychology of religion. And finally, this thesis demonstrates that the study of the interrelationships among psychology, spirituality, and business has a long tradition in the field of psychology of religion and suggests that professional coaching can be seen as an extension of that research. It proposes that the field of psychology of religion can contribute to the development of established and emerging professional coaching approaches by providing a set of methodologies with which to further develop knowledge of the psycho-spiritual processes involved in purposeful change. vu 1 Introduction Professional coaching has emerged as a new phenomenon in the fields of executive development and personal growth and may include many types of coaching interventions: executive coaching, business coaching, personal coaching, life coaching, feedback coaching, integral coaching, leadership coaching, and spiritual coaching, among others. Most professional coaching interventions draw heavily on psychological techniques. Recently, however, in their efforts to describe professional coaching, coaching practitioners and clients have begun to use language that—explicitly or implicitly—relates to religious discourse. Such discourse, because it is not directly linked to specific religious traditions, such as Christianity, Buddhism, or Judaism, can be usefully termed "spiritual." This use of spiritual discourse exemplifies what Lucy Bregman (2006) described as including those concerns or dimensions of humanity, which in earlier decades were the domain of existential philosophy and humanistic psychology. It covers the territory of