292: Ethics in Health and Wellbeing Coaching: A Provocative Deep Dive with Professor Aaron Jarden and Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener
Coaching Voices: The Association for Coaching PodcastShow Notes
In episode 4 of our Coaching for Health and Wellbeing series, hosts Ana Paula Nacif and Christian van Nieuwerburgh are joined by Professor Aaron Jarden and Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener for a rich, provocative conversation on what it truly means to practice ethically as a health and wellbeing coach. Rather than treating ethics as a set of rules to follow, the guests invite coaches to think of ethics as a set of principles that infuse every part of their practice — a way of being rooted in the character of the coach and a genuine commitment to doing right by clients. They challenge coaches to move beyond compliance and toward a deeper question: what kind of practitioner do you want to be?
A recurring theme is the tension between respecting client autonomy and the coach's responsibility to promote wellbeing. The panel explores the ethical considerations of sharing information, challenging unhelpful patterns, and holding a duty of care whilst staying in a coaching role. Importantly, the discussion pushes coaches to take their positive duty seriously, including having the courage to reflect on their inaction as well as take action. The conversation also touches on justice and fairness in how coaching services are structured and accessed, the critical role of transparent contracting that explicitly includes wellbeing as part of the discussion, and why a coach's own self-care may be a professional and ethical imperative.
The episode closes with a call for ongoing reflective practice and intellectual humility. Ethical perfection, the guests remind us, is a myth: most situations coaches face are grey areas. Ethics in health and wellbeing coaching is about showing up every day with integrity, humility, and a commitment to both your clients' and your own wellbeing. By moving beyond checklists and embracing a reflective, virtue-based approach, coaches can navigate the complex realities of practice with confidence and care.
You will learn:
· Ethics is a principled way of being, not a checklist: ethical coaching is about cultivating the character and values you bring to every client interaction.
· Autonomy and beneficence must be held in balance. Honouring a client's right to choose while actively doing good is one of the most nuanced challenges in health and wellbeing coaching.
· Coach self-care is an ethical responsibility. Your own physical and mental wellbeing it directly shapes your ability to show up with integrity for your clients.
"A better approach would be thinking about the virtues I want to instil in my practice and the way of being I want to approach things with."
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For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-coaching-for-health-and-wellbeing-ethics-contracting
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