Epistemological reflections on the complexity sciences and how they may inform coaching psychology

It is exciting to see in ‘Coaching Psychology Coming of Age: The challenges we face in the messy world of complexity’ that a complexity approach is explored in relation to how it may contribute to the development of the research and practice of coaching psychology. The paper sets out a particular interpretation of a complexity approach to making sense of the social world and argues that ‘if coaching psychology is to come of age’ it needs to go beyond being informed by traditional linear models to incorporating complex styles of thinking and modelling. While I am enthusiastic about how a complexity approach could inform coaching psychology, from my perspective, some of the discussion of complexity and the implications of taking a complexity perspective to coaching psychology as discussed in the paper are misleading. Over the past 14 years I have been thinking and writing about implications and applications of complexity science for understanding social and cultural life and I continue to find explanatory value in complexity as an interpretive framework. So, while I am not a coaching psychologist, I am interested in the ways by which the authors engage complexity concepts. In this response, in the spirit of continuing the process of setting a foundation for critical reflection on utilising complexity in coaching psychology, I begin by offering a brief conceptual introduction to complexity that elaborates upon that given in ‘Coaching Psychology Coming of Age’. The appropriateness of a complexity approach for coaching psychology and some implications of taking a complexity perspective to coaching psychology are then discussed. Following this I raise my concerns about some of the ways that complexity is brought to coaching psychology in the paper. I conclude my response with a brief discussion of issues to consider in utilising complexity in coaching psychology