Family Coaching: An Emerging Family Science Field

Abstract

Although there is a rich history of collaboration and distinction among family practitioners, to remain progressive, the domains of family practice must continue to evolve based on the current practices of family professionals. Recently, family coaching (FC) has captured the professional attention of practitioners as another collaborative yet distinct field in family science. FC seeks to foster the achievement of family-identified goals through a process-driven relationship between a family and professional coach. In this article, the authors introduce FC and explore it as an extension to the domains of family practice model. In addition, the authors offer results from a nationwide sample of family practitioners (N = 180) regarding their experiences and opinions of FC to further substantiate the field's progression.