The Handbook of Knowledge-Based Coaching: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

ATTENTION, PURPOSE, AND NONJUDGMENT: JON KABAT-ZINN

In the late 1970s, Jon Kabat-Zinn, a molecular biologist working at the stress reduction clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, developed a program called mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Kabat-Zinn’s Full Catastrophe Living (1990) described the program in detail and gave countless readers access to the concept of mindfulness, and clear instruction in how to employ it in their everyday lives.

Three elements of Kabat-Zinn’s concept of mindfulness are especially relevant to reflective coaching practice: attention, purpose, and nonjudgment. The reflective practitioner is one who engages mindfully in the moment of practice, gathering a full spectrum of data on intentions, ...