OBCAMS

Peak Experience, Peak Performance and Flow are three constructs, grouped together by McInman and Grove (1991) as ‘peak moments.’

In this workshop, drawing on our book on this topic (Weijers & Cox, 2025), we’ll look at all three constructs and see how they apply in our lives. Do they have a purpose and if so, what is it?  What has been your experience of peaks, or flow, or peak performance in coaching or in other areas of your life?

Peak experience has been defined as a particular state of consciousness achieved through self-actualisation. Maslow, who first studied peak experiences describes them as "rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generate an advanced form of perceiving reality and are even mystic and magical in their effect upon the experimenter" (Maslow, 1964:245).

Csikszentmihalyi (1990) claimed that, in flow, we are in control of our psychic energy and everything we do adds order to consciousness.  Flow happens within sequences of activities that require skill, often requiring highly disciplined mental activity or strenuous physical exercise, ‘flow does not happen without the application of skilled performance’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990: 54).

Privette (1983), the originator of peak performance  argued that pivotal to the inner processes of peak performance was the self in full, clear focus on both object and the self.  In a meta-analysis she identified the commonalities and differences of these three “constructs,” distinguishing them initially as ‘peak experience (intense joy), peak performance (superior functioning), and flow (intrinsically rewarding experience)’ (1983: 1361).

Speakers

Kay Weijers - I’m in the crone stage of my life and look back with joy at my accomplishments as a former professional flautist, advertising sales executive, business owner, sales trainer, coach and coaching supervision. My thesis, ‘Peak moments: the experience of coaches’ is integral to my knowledge and approach to my life now as an author. Elaine has been a massive source of inspiration and support, not only during my years at Oxford Brookes as my supervisor, but as my co-author for our book ‘Valuing Peak Experience in Everyday Lives’. I am now challenged with a solo project, ‘Peak-like Experiences in Sex and Music’, to be published in November 2026, again by Routledge.

Elaine Cox – I am an honorary research fellow at Oxford Brookes and have a PhD from Lancaster University. I have written many journal articles, chapters and books, including Coaching Understood (published by Sage). As well as working with Kay on Valuing Peak Experience, I also co-authored Braver Leaders in Action (Emerald), Relationship Coaching (Routledge) and Doing Coaching Research (Sage). Right now I am co-editing the 5^th edition of The Complete Handbook of Coaching, and I am Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, shortly to be a Sage Journal.

About the book

Valuing Peak Experience in Everyday Lives: Insights from Positive and Transpersonal Psychology was published by Routledge in March 2025. It includes interviews with a range of people who had experienced peaks in different contexts. As well as vignettes from participants, each chapter begins with  a review of existing peak experience literature from the fields of music, religion, writing, nature, education, therapy, coaching, the creative arts, risky adventures, sport, and love, sex and relationships.

In 90 minutes Carlos will explain the 3 components of successful communication for coaches. 

He will provide his audience with the clarity and the purposefulness effective communication requires. And he will do so through a 3 step process on how to implement those components in meetings, presentations, speeches, interviews and conversations. 

Carlos is a Progress Coach specialized in Public Speaking and Time Management. 

With 16 years of professional experience in Publishing in Oxford, Cambridge and London and 9 in international coaching, he helps individuals and businesses simplify time management and improve public communication to make more progress, faster. 

He holds a degree in journalism from the University of Valencia and an Advance Diploma in Coaching from the University of Oxford.

Group coaching is emerging as a powerful and distinctive modality at the intersection of coaching, adult learning, and group dynamics. In this seminar, Dr Erek Ostrowski will show how group coaching differs from team coaching and other collective learning interventions, and why it’s increasingly relevant in today’s complex organizations. Drawing on theory and empirical insights, he introduces five group-level forces—Exchange, Vicarious Learning, Connection & Belonging, Role Flexibility, and Peer Accountability—that enhance learning and transformation in groups. He also presents the Six Capabilities of Group Coaches, a capabilities-based framework for leading group coaching with rigor and agility. Participants will consider how group coaching meets fundamental human needs—meaningful connection, shared purpose, reflective space—and discuss implications for research, education, and organizational practice.

Erek J. Ostrowski, PhD, PCC, is a leadership and organizational coach, educator, and researcher whose work connects theory and practice in coaching. He serves as Faculty Chair of the Leadership and Organizational Coaching concentration at the University of Pennsylvania, where he develops and teaches graduate courses in coaching psychology, adult learning, and reflective practice. His teaching combines humanistic psychology, systems thinking, and experiential learning to prepare coaches to work systemically and lead learning and change within complex organizational settings.

Erek is the founder of Verve Coaching, which creates and delivers evidence-based, purpose-driven coaching programs across various sectors including healthcare, financial services, education, and non-profit leadership. A certified coach supervisor through Oxford Brookes University, he also mentors coaches and educators dedicated to research-informed practice. His upcoming book, The Capable Group Coach: Bridging Knowledge and Practice for Transformative Learning and Change in Groups (Ostrowski, 2025), combines two decades of scholarship and practice into a capabilities-based framework for developing group coaches.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is reshaping the workplace—and with it, the coaching profession. Video-based coaching and AI-powered agents are rapidly gaining ground, challenging traditional notions of connection, presence, and effectiveness.

In this engaging session, Dr. Brajesh Bajpai draws on his doctoral research to explore the real-world implications of digitalisation for executive coaches. He introduces the Four-Winged Framework©, to facilitate a discussion on Digital Presence for executive coaches.

Dr Brajesh Bajpai, is an accomplished Executive Coach accredited as EMCCSenior Practitioner, who holds a Doctorate in Coaching & Mentoring from Oxford Brookes University, a Coaching Diploma from the University ofCambridge, and an MSc in Executive Coaching, from Ashridge (HULT University). 

He brings a fifteen-year coaching experience with over 500 clients across diverse industries and countries. 

There has been a surge of interest in team coaching in recent years. However, it is still invariably described as an emergent process, particularly when compared with one-to-one coaching. Team coaching is a challenging activity with the highs and lows much more extreme and magnified than for one-to-one coaching. It is also highly demanding of the coach since there is the need to manage simultaneously the coaching process and the interactions of team members.

Drawing on Gill’s doctoral research, this session will utilise the framework of the PiE Team Coaching ModelÒ, a model created during collaborative research with practising team coaches. The model presents team coaching as three distinct phases (Preparation, Intervention and Evaluation) with supervision running throughout an assignment, from start to finish, with a different foci of attention in each phase. 

The session will include breakout sessions enabling space for participants to discuss and reflect on their own practice.

Dr Gill Graves is a highly experienced executive coach, team coach and coach supervisor. Her work blends academic rigour with real-world application. She was awarded a Professional Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring by Oxford Brookes in 2020 with her research focussing on the experience of team coaching from the perspective of practising team coaches. Gill is accredited as a Master Practitioner Coach by the EMCC and is member of Faculty at Judge Business School, Cambridge University.    

Pursuing a Master’s or Doctorate while juggling professional and personal demands can feel like running a marathon. For neurodiverse individuals, it may be akin to running that marathon in a rhino costume. I will share strategies  developed during my doctoral journey that leverage my dyslexic strengths to navigate each stage of the research, from the literature review to writing the dissertation. I aim to catalyse a discussion that explores how our diverse thinking styles develop approaches to academic research that make the process more achievable. Whether neurotypical or neurodiverse, this session will provide insights and ideas to help you confidently design and complete research projects. 

Elizabeth has extensive experience in the coaching profession. She describes herself as a research practitioner with a profound interest in the connection between learning and development. As a mentor coach and supervisor, she partners with coaches to identify and address their personal and professional developmental needs to enhance the quality of their coaching offer. Elizabeth has navigated dyslexia and dyspraxia to achieve three Master degrees and a Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring. She was among the first accredited coach supervisors in the UK, is accredited by the EMCC and holds the ICF’s Master Certified Coach Credential.

This is the second session of the Challenging Conversations Series in which Tatiana Bachkirova invites a colleague from Oxford Brookes or further afield to discuss with her some contentious topics in the coaching world. Other participants have an opportunity to engage with both conversationalists to delve deeper into the issue in question.

For this session, Tatiana invites Joanna Molyn to have a robust conversation addressing the multiple perspectives generated by the topic of the use of AI in coaching.

Questions we might explore together with participants:

• What are the problems in considering ‘AI coaching’ as a replacement for human coaching?
• Does the name ‘AI coaching’ matter?
• Is ‘augmentation of human coaching by AI’ worth the fuss? What do we lose and what do we gain?
• What is a responsible stance for any organisational coach towards the so-called ‘AI revolution’ and what are the implications?

Background reading if you wish:

• Bachkirova, T. (2024). Why coaching needs real intelligence, not artificial intelligence. Philosophy of Coaching: An International Journal, 9(2), 6-15. 2. Why Coaching Needs Real Intelligence, Not Artificial Intelligence, http://dx.doi.org/10.22316/poc/09.2.02
• Bachkirova, T. & Kemp, R. (2024). ‘AI coaching’: democratizing coaching service or offering an ersatz? Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2024.2368598

Building Mental Resilience: Navigating Thoughts and Emotions with the Clarity Compass. This 90-minute session provides an experiential opportunity to develop skills that support mental health, foster personal growth, and strengthen overall resilience using the Clarity Compass and Clarity Cards. In today’s environment, stress, self-doubt, and overwhelm are common experiences, yet can often be left unmanaged. This session will introduce participants to the four quadrants of the Clarity Compass and the 40 Clarity Cards, offering a hands-on approach to navigating challenging emotions and thoughts. Through guided activities and reflective exercises, participants will learn how to identify their emotional states, shift between them mindfully, and use these insights to improve focus, well-being, and performance.

Dr. Lindsay Foreman is an experienced positive psychology coach and practitioner, passionate about human development. An Oxford Brookes graduate with a background in corporate leadership, she applies evidence-based practices to support individuals, teams, and global organizations. Lindsay is the creator of the Clarity Cards, an innovative tool designed to enhance reflective practice and emotional insight, fostering both personal and professional growth. Committed to mentoring and facilitating impactful conversations, she draws on her extensive experience working with diverse groups in corporate and business settings. Beyond her work in the UK, Lindsay is currently navigating the PPK2K project, a global motorcycle journey gathering perspectives on what it means to live a good life and what intentional activities can make the biggest difference in our lives and communities. With a blend of academic rigour and real-world application, Lindsay empowers others to navigate their personal and professional paths with greater clarity and self-awareness.

In these conversations Tatiana is inviting colleagues from Oxford Brookes and further afield to open up critical discussions around tricky and hitherto neglected topics for the coaching world. Other participants will have an opportunity to engage with Tatiana and her guest to delve deeper in the issue in question. 

What is the purpose of organisational coaching? In opening this series Tatiana invited Peter Jackson to partner with her to explore an apparent absence of clarity in relation to this purpose. There will be an opportunity to consider the implications of this situation for organisational coaches and to consider potential steps to address the issue. 

Professor Tatiana Bachkirova is Professor of Coaching Psychology in the International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies at Oxford Brookes University. As an academic her works involves supervising doctoral students, teaching coaching supervisors an academic writing. As a practitioner she supports coaches through individual and group supervision. In her over 70 research articles, book chapters and books and in her many speaking engagements she aims to explore most challenging issues of coaching as a service to individuals, organisations and wider societies. 

Dr Peter Jackson is director of the International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies at Oxford Brookes University (UK) and Principal Lecturer in Coaching & Mentoring. He has taught on the MA programme in Coaching & Mentoring Practice since 2004, the Centre’s professional development programme in Coaching Supervision since 2014 and more recently on the professional doctorate in Coaching. He has published on reflective practice, coaching supervision and physicality in coaching. His coaching practice has historically had a focus on the challenges of general management and the dynamics of individual change within organisations. His current interest is primarily supervision.

Alexandra J.S. Fouracres will present this event where she will help you to understand why avoiding cybersecurity may leave your client data up for grabs and your business as an easy target.

Join us in this interactive session on how making cybersecurity part of your business strategy optimizes its success. Through a deep dive into one type of cyber threat, we will look at why coaches need to upskill on cybersecurity to protect client data.

Thereafter we will look at how the ramification of cyberattacks can be far reaching – considering together some of the visible and less visible impacts on both coach and coachee.

Concluding the session – we return to empowering ourselves, through a dive into the data we hold as coaches and how we consider future accounts around storing and deleting it (small group exercises)

Alexandra J.S. Fouracres is a cybersecurity manager in addition to working as a coaching psychologist and academic. Her career spans over 20 years’ of leadership experience in financial services, fraud prevention and currently cybersecurity. Alexandra holds a MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology from the University of East London. She is a published researcher and author of Cybersecurity for Coaches and Therapists: A Practical Guide for Protecting Client Data, published by Routledge books.

How can coaches help clients improve their communication? Organizations often prescribe a group workshop, or a series of videos with information on how to communicate effectively. Yet studies show the results of this approach are short-lived, and less effective than hoped. How can coaches look beyond the surface issues of communication problems, to support clients’ underlying needs? How can we nurture the roots of effective communication?

We’ll explore examples involving physicians and healthcare executives, and discuss broader coaching applications. Through interactive exercises, we’ll examine successful techniques based on intrinsic motivation and generative insight, to support behaviour change in communication habits.

Pamela Nemecek specializes in communication and wellness coaching for physicians and healthcare executives. She is a Fellow at the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, with an MBA in Coaching, Mentoring and Leadership from York St. John University. She holds credentials in Mental Health Literacy for Coaches, Professional Development for Physicians, and Executive Education & Communication from Stanford University. Her research and coaching programs centre on Physician Communication and Wellness Support, and Executive Leadership Support, currently in place at more than 30 hospitals and clinics in the United States.

What are we doing when we give feedback as part of the coaching process? While the feedback industry is a billion-dollar industry and considered by many as an ‘essential’ part of their coaching practice, surprisingly little substantive research exists on the experience of those engaged in feedback conversations – either as a recipient or a provider.

Drawing on her doctoral research, Alison Maxwell will highlight the varying approaches to feedback provision she found amongst coaching practitioners, and the potential ethical and practical issues raised. The session will challenge participants to examine their own practice and beliefs in relation to this often ‘taken for granted’ aspect of our work with clients.

Dr Alison Maxwell is a practising business and leadership coach, team coach and coach supervisor with over 3500 hours of professional experience. She supervises students on the Oxford Brookes MA in Coaching and Coaching Supervision programmes. She is also an Associate Fellow at Said Business School at Oxford University and an Associate Fellow of the Association for Coaching. Her research interests include the use of feedback for leader development, coaching self-esteem issues and the boundaries between coaching and therapy. She is a member of the BPs and is an accredited as a Master Executive Coach by the AC.

Harvard research has shown that the human mind wanders about 47% of the time. Mindfulness raises awareness of thoughts, feelings and sensations by intentionally placing attention on the present moment, without judgement. Greater awareness can help coaches in becoming more present and focused during their coaching encounters, which can enhance the rapport and connection with their coachees.

This session will introduce the participants to theoretical concepts and experiential mindfulness practices that can help coaches in maintaining focus while becoming more aware of mental and physical signals in coaching. Mindful awareness can enrich the coaching process by providing access to additional details about the self and others. The session will also illustrate how the cultivation of mindful attitudes, such as openness and non-judgement, can mitigate subconscious biases and stereotyping, and create a more inclusive coaching environment. Mindful attitudes like kindness and self-compassion can further support coaches in their reflective practice and enhance their wellbeing.

Eike is a consultant, coach and co-founder of the Oxford Coaching Partners. She supports her clients during times of uncertainty and change in their professional and personal life. Eike has a passion for wellbeing and regularly facilitates experiential coaching workshops and mindfulness training. She has a master’s degree in Coaching and Mentoring Practice, is an accredited EMCC senior practitioner, a licensed career counsellor and qualified in mindfulness based cognitive therapy with the Oxford University Mindfulness Centre. Her MA dissertation focused on how mindfulness training can support coaches and their practice.

For further information about Eike’s mindfulness programmes or coaching workshops please contact her on LinkedIn, or find her at Oxford Coaching Partners

It is a widely accepted model that coaching interventions follow objectives set by the organisational sponsor. But it turns out that organisational coaching interventions rarely follow a straight line between problem and solution. So what can we learn from an analysis of the winding paths that coaching interventions take? Dr Peter Jackson will discuss some of the findings from research carried out with Tatiana Bachkirova and some reflections on what this might mean for coaches and buyers of coaching services.

Peter has been an active practitioner, researcher and a member of the Oxford Brookes coaching & mentoring team for 20 years. His research has focused on embodiment, reflexivity and supervision and he has edited two major collections: 'Coaching Supervision: Theory & Practice' (with Tatiana Bachkirova) and 'Doing Coaching Research' (with Elaine Cox). Things that distract him include a motorbike, an accordion, and a greyhound/saluki cross called Ted.

Rachael Hanley-Browne MA, Executive, Board, and Systemic Team Coach; Supervisor; Executive Development Consultant and EMCC UK President. Rachael graduated from Oxford Brookes in 2020. Her specialism is working with leadership teams and boards in technology, engineering, scientific and manufacturing businesses. Often PE backed. Also, in creating internal team coaching capability within organisations. She is currently contributing a chapter on Endings in Team Coaching for a book which is due for publication in 2023. She is also a daughter, a big sister, a wife, an exiled Geordie, and an adopted Londoner. A lover of jazz, art, architecture, and islands.

Should we coach Board Directors? What is actually their role and what issues do they face?

Although there are many reasons to assume that coaching could be an obvious instrument to help non-executive directors increase their performance, the coaching discipline has not dedicated a great deal of research to this field or offered any frames of reference to practitioners aspiring to work with this group.

Franklin has used a grounded theory approach to shed more light on the coaching of Board directors and has come up with some interesting findings around why the approaches used for top executives are not fully applicable to board directors You will have the chance to work on two mini cases and dive deeper into the realities of board work.

Franklin is a passionate development guide and educator in Executive leadership. He works with senior leaders in a wide range of companies around the world. His clients typically seek him out for questions related to: Strategy Acceleration, Leading Change, Making the Executive Transition and Boosting Executive Teams. In his role as Adjunct Professor of Leadership and Corporate Governance at INSEAD business school, Franklin has taught in many programmes, among others the Advanced Management Programme, Transition to General Management and the Global Executive MBA. In addition Dr. Vrede partners with major INSEAD clients to create customised development solutions for their leadership cadre. Recent engagements include KBC Bank, Cargill, Vaillant and Dassault Systèmes. Franklin holds a Doctorate degree from Oxford Brookes University and a Masters in Organizational Development from Tilburg University in The Netherlands, In addition he completed The Coaching & Consulting for Change programme at INSEAD.

Franklin has been a board member himself and prior to his academic career, has gained business experience in a variety of industry sectors. He has held senior positions in companies like Royal Dutch Shell, ABN-AMRO Bank and Cisco Systems.

Franklin is a Dutch citizen based in Amsterdam and is the proud father of two daughters. Next to his lifelong fascination for leadership, he is passionate about philosophy, opera and contemporary art.

Traditional Mentoring has arguably served to maintain the status quo rather than facilitate a shift in perspectives. It has been used widely in organisations particularly in service of the Diversity agenda and in its purest form with limited impact, potentially getting in its own way. Reciprocal (dialogic) mentoring is having success in creating deeper understanding of difference, as demonstrated through this research. Taking a Social Constructionist approach Sue will share some of her findings and her reflections on the possibilities it holds for shifting our growing binary approach to opinion. Her session will include breakouts to experiment with a dialogic mindset.

Dr Sue Round has more than 25 years’ experience of the full spectrum of people development across multiple sectors, including Aviation, Telecoms, Retail, Financial Services and Energy. She has led large, complex global teams with responsibility for Learning in all its aspects, Leadership Development, Talent Management and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Sue has a master’s degree from the University of Surrey and holds a Doctorate from Oxford Brookes University. She is an accredited coach and a Fellow of the CIPD. She has served on the UK Government’s Employee Engagement Task Force and on the Boards of the Learning Skills Improvement Service and Working Chance. In 2021 Sue was named as one of “HRs Most Influential” and appointed to the Board of the CIPD.

Her pro bono work includes: the Silverline service for older people and the Samaritans. She is now a partner in Lodestar Talent. She lives in London, is a keen runner, has 3 children and 2 grandchildren.

• Coaching Distressed Physicians - Pamela Nemecek, 17 February 2023
• How coaches ‘show up’? - Rob Kemp, 18 November 2022
• An ethical exit strategy for dealing with unexpected incapacity and death - Eve Turner and David Lane, 28 October 2022.