Module manager: Dr Charity Brown
Email: psccbr@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2026/27
Successful completion of all pass for progression modules in Level 2 of: BSc Psychology or MPsyc, BSc Advanced Psychology, BA Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Thought (and its International and Industrial variants) or BSc Psychology with Education (and its International and Industrial variants)
This module is not approved as a discovery module
Coaching psychology is increasingly used in many areas, including workplace and leadership development, health and wellbeing, education, and personal growth. Coaches use focused and purposeful conversations to help people identify and work towards the personal or professional goals that are meaningful to them. They use psychological theory and research to guide how they work with their clients. In this module, you’ll take an experiential, hands-on approach to learning about coaching psychology. You will explore key psychological approaches, models, and research that shape effective coaching in real-world practice. You’ll also learn how professional skills, behaviours, and ethical decision-making are integral elements of effective coaching. Throughout the module, you will take part in practical peer-coaching activities, where you will be a coach, a coachee, or an observer. Structured reflection upon these experiences will help you connect theory to practice, and develop practical evidence-based recommendations for coaching professionals.
This module helps you build a strong understanding of the psychological foundations of coaching psychology, including the key approaches, models, and research that make it distinct from generic coaching. You will explore how these ideas shape professional skills, behaviours, and ethical decision-making in real coaching practice. The focus is on critically evaluating theory and evidence and learning how to communicate these concepts clearly for a practitioner audience.
To help you achieve this, the module uses:
• Interactive workshops where you will explore, discuss, and apply psychological approaches, models, and research relevant to coaching psychology.
• Experiential, hands-on activities including your participation in and observing of peer-to-peer coaching, where you can see how coaching approaches, skills and professional behaviours work in practice and understand the role of ethical frameworks in supporting safe and effective coaching.
• An authentic assessment task where you will create a video guide for coaching practitioners, an opportunity to translate complex ideas and your structured reflections into clear, practical, evidence-based recommendations.
This approach ensures you develop strong academic knowledge while also gaining the confidence to apply evidence-based insights in ways that reflect real-world coaching practice and can inform a practitioner audience.
On successful completion of the module you will be able to:
1. Critically evaluate psychological theory and research underpinning coaching psychology, and reflect on their application in practice.
2. Critically analyse the role and importance of professional skills and behaviours in coaching psychology.
3. Justify the importance of ethical principles for maintaining professional standards in coaching practice.
On successful completion of the module you will be able to:
4. Communicate key coaching concepts clearly for a practitioner audience, using psychological theory, research evidence, and reflective insights from experiential learning.
5. Develop clear, evidence-based arguments that support the significance of professional skills and behaviours, tailored for coaching practitioners.
6. Design practical recommendations for coaching psychologists by applying theory, research, and ethics.
Topics may include (but are not limited to):
• Coaching approaches and philosophies (e.g., psychological foundations that inform different coaching styles).
• Coaching models, concepts and tools (exploring frameworks used to structure and guide coaching conversations).
• Skills and behaviours (such as active listening, questioning, rapport building, trust, empathy, and working in a non-judgemental way).
• Ethical standards and professional practice (including ethical frameworks, contracting the coaching relationship, reflective practice and supervision).
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workshop | 8 | 2 | 16 |
| Seminars | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Private study hours | 132 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 18 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 150 | ||
Reading for each workshop 8 x 5 hours, a total of 40 hours
Independent literature searches and reading, 35 hours
Preparation for coursework support seminar, 2 hours
Coursework preparation, 55 hours
During the workshops, the module leader will share and discuss illustrative examples of practitioner-focused guidance, and work through reflective processes that students can adopt when reflecting on coaching practice, supporting students to develop and refine their own ideas in relation to the assessment task. Formative feedback from the module leader therefore takes place through discussion activities, worked examples, question and answer opportunities, and whole-group feedback. A 2 hour face-to-face assessment seminar further supports formative feedback, with students bringing drafts and engaging in guided activities to evaluate how their work maps onto the assessment criteria, and identify and plan improvements prior to submission.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Video Guide for coaching psychologist practitioners. | 100 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Summative assessment will take the form of a piece of coursework. You will be asked to create a 15-minute (maximum time) video guide for coaching psychologists on a topic of your choice relating to the module content. The video should clearly explain your topic and provide practical, evidence-informed recommendations for coaching practice. You will also integrate structured reflection based on your participation in, or observation of, peer-to-peer coaching activities to illustrate how theory and research connect to real-world practice. This authentic assessment reflects professional work in coaching psychology and will test your ability to communicate complex ideas clearly and critically, use psychological theory and evidence, and consider professional skills and ethics. A resit will take the same form.
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 22/05/2026
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