Bridget Jelley
Working toward culturally competent coaching psychology in Aotearoa New Zealand
Keynote presented by Bridget Jelly. (Contributors: Black, J., Forsyth, S., Jelley, B., Kennedy, B., McCormick, I., Prideaux, D., Stiles-Smith, B.)
Despite several decades of movement toward increasingly multicultural societies, coaching psychology competency frameworks using Western epistemology within dominant Western societies have been developed with limited explicit attention to culture. This may be functional for the culturally numeric majorities, but is not optimally inclusive of cultural out-groups, especially indigenous cultures and would not be acceptable in New Zealand. Aotearoa is unique in having Te Tiriti o Waitangi / The Treaty of Waitangi as a founding document of the nation, and although its observance has fallen far short of the expectations embodied in the Treaty, it represents both an aspirational goal and an imperative. Coaching psychology in Aotearoa New Zealand currently inhabits something of a no-man’s land without clear preparation pathways or national standards beyond generic competencies for the practice of psychology. The New Zealand Coaching Psychology Special Interest Group have embarked on an ambitious project not only to develop a locally appropriate competency and professional recognition framework, but to do so upon a te Tiriti foundation. Although issues specific to Māori and New Zealand may not translate directly for other countries, examination of the New Zealand experience may bring challenges and insights for a much wider application in coaching psychology.
Bridget Jelley, Director of Glia; a workplace psychology consultancy based in NZ and the UK is a psychologist specialising in workplace psychological health and safety. Bridget is the Chair of the NZ Coaching Psychology Special Interest group and is registered with the NZ Board of Psychologists. Workplace psychological health and coaching has been a passion of Bridget’s over the last 15 years and Bridget has run hundreds of sessions in NZ and overseas on wellbeing, resilience, burnout, psychosocial risk assessment, and management as well as mental health education and awareness for leaders. For Bridget, psychological health and safety is a crucial topic in the workplace and making this important area of work-life accessible and not intimidating for organisations and their people is a huge passion. So Bridget likes to explore psychological health and safety at work in different ways in order to encourage people to lean into psychological health in an empowering, motivating, and sustainable way. Over the years, coaching has become a perfect vehicle for these goals. A seasoned conference speaker, Bridget loves to bring not only knowledge and practitioner experience to her presentations but also a sense of humour and realness so that everybody can get something valuable out of what she has to share.
Stewart Forsyth has wide experience as an Executive Coach developing individual and team capability in professional and leadership roles.
Jonathan Black is a Chartered Organisational Psychologist (Ngati Mutunga o Wharekauri) based in the Hawkes Bay. He has worked in both public and private sectors over his 25+ year career to date. His current professional interests are performance psychology, leadership and occupational health.
Barbara Kennedy PhD is an executive coach and consulting psychologist with educational, clinical and organisational experience. Her current interests include supervision and ethics.
Iain McCormick PhD, an executive coach, trained initially in clinical psychology, then completing a PhD in work stress. His research and practice interests include reflective practice and schema coaching.
Benita Stiles-Smith, PhD, MSN, is a clinical coaching psychologist with background in public and private trans discipline health care and education, and special interest in supervision and training of health care providers.