The use of coaching strategies within the field of social work

The rapidly growing field of coaching has permeated a variety of social science disciplines over the last 40 years, including social work. Because social work continues to evolve in its service to diverse populations with wide-ranging needs, its flexibility has allowed for the inclusion of a variety of progressive treatment approaches such as coaching. To better document the empirical prevalence of coaching approaches by social work professionals, the primary objective of the present study is to identify the extent to which social workers use coaching strategies in their work with families. Furthermore, the research explores whether or not social workers identify these strategies as coaching strategies and if social workers consider themselves to be ‘coaches’. Using a mixed-methods research design, online survey data were collected from (n = 171) social workers and social work students who serve youth and families. Results indicated that social workers recognise the techniques they use as coaching techniques, although they do not consider themselves to be coaches.