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FOR COACHES
The Duty of Care Coaches Owe
Themselves
Why supervision isn't optional — in the words of the bodies that set the
standards.
We ask a lot of ourselves as coaches. We hold other people's pressure, their doubts,
their blind spots, week after week. We rarely ask who holds ours.
That's not a rhetorical question. It's the reason supervision exists.
WHAT THE ASSOCIATION FOR COACHING SAYS
The AC is direct about this. Supervision isn't an optional extra for coaches who want
it — it's built into what good practice looks like. It's essential for anyone seeking AC
Coach Accreditation, and the AC encourages every coach to keep it going for as
long as they practise.
"Supervision is not a 'policing' role but a trusting and collegial professional relationship."
ASSOCIATION FOR COACHING · COACH SUPERVISION GUIDE
The AC frames supervision around three things: support, development, and
professional assurance. Support means having somewhere to put the personal and
emotional weight of client work, so you have the energy for the next session.
Development means having someone reflect your own practice back to you, so you
keep growing rather than plateauing. Professional assurance means checking your
work against what's accepted as good practice, and against the Global Code of
Ethics every AC member signs up to.
Put simply: supervision protects your clients by protecting you first.
WHAT THE ICF SAYS
The ICF has moved in the same direction, and recently made it explicit. Their own
definition describes coaching supervision as
"a dynamic and reflective process of collaboration, guidance and support"
INTERNATIONAL COACHING FEDERATION
— one that helps coaches develop personally, professionally, and ethically, not just
technically.
In 2025, the ICF updated its Core Competencies for the first time since 2019.
Competency 2, Embodies a Coaching Mindset, now explicitly includes working with
a coaching supervisor as part of what a good coach does. That's not a small addition.
It's the ICF saying, formally, that supervision is part of what "good" looks like — not
an extra for coaches who are struggling.
REFLECTING ON YOUR REFLECTIONS
Most coaches reflect. Good coaches build reflection into every session. But reflecting
on your own reflections — noticing your own patterns, your own reactions, the
client work that quietly follows you home — is much harder to do alone. It needs
someone else in the room. Someone who isn't your client, your peer, or your
competitor. Someone whose only job is to help you see what you can't see about your
own practice, from the inside.
That's the entire premise of supervision. Not fixing you. Not assessing you. Just
holding a space steady enough that the real material — the stuff you don't say out
loud anywhere else — has somewhere to go.
WHERE THIS LEAVES YOU
If you're AC or ICF accredited, or working toward it, supervision isn't a nice-to-have
you can circle back to later. Both bodies are telling you, in their own words, that it's
part of the job.
I'm a member of the Association for Coaching and the International Coaching
Federation, and an accredited Coach Supervisor. I hold supervision the way both
bodies describe it — protected, confidential, collegial, and built around you, not a
checklist. If you'd like to talk about what that could look like for your practice, I'd
like to help.
Martin Covill
© 2026 Mindful Coaching Today Limited · martin@mindfulcoaching.today
© 2026 Mindful Coaching Today Limited · martin@mindfulcoaching.today