הספר Sourcebook of Coaching History מתאר בפירוט רב את השורשים ההיסטוריים של מקצוע הקואצ'ינג, ואת חלקם של ה"חלוצים" בהחדרת מקצוע זה למקומות שונים ברחבי העולם. כותבת הספר מתארת את שרה כחלוצה ומובילה של תרבות הקואצ'ינג במזרח התיכון. הנה קטע מתוך הספר:

"As Margaret Krigbaum (2006, pers. com.) points out, the “Middle East has a much smaller coaching tradition, as they are busy worrying about things like war”. Sara Arbel, who graduated from Coach U in 2001 and is considered the first coach in Israel, agrees, saying “there is a sense of urgency to live the life we have, because we may be dead tomorrow” (Arbel, 2007, pers. com.). This is reflected in her coaching style, which is to hold the truth and get to the heart of the matter. Arbel describes her introduction to coaching in the 1990s through a friend in London who had just received a large brown envelope from Thomas Leonard, After reading the materials, she handed me the brown bulky envelope and said: ‘My Dear, this is about you’. I didn’t understand what it was all about, until I finished reading, from that moment on I fell in Love, the drums of my heart sounded ‘Hallelujah’ and my soul sung the songs of Glory, my spirit lifted up to the ceiling and out of the very large British living room. I knew that my life will not be the same; I knew that my calling finally found me (Arbel, 2007, pers. com.). When Arbel called Thomas Leonard, he was very excited to speak with someone from Israel, “the small country with a lot of noise” as he described it. Arbel was the first “foreign”-language student and communicated with Leonard over the years about her learning and reporting cross-cultural differences and issues of diversity. During this time Arbel closed several lucrative businesses, put all her energy, time and resources to study coaching, get involved in founding and developing coaching communities in Israel and the Middle East. As she describes this time Israel, the days were days between two Gulf wars, terror attacks and political turmoil, there was no knowing if you stay alive to next day; buses, shopping malls, cars, were blown up, days of grief and loss, stress and uncertainty, that was my everyday reality. I kept joining the classes and listening to the challenges of other students and couldn’t but envy them for having a normal quiet life where the challenges were the ‘clutter in the basement’, ‘normal relationship challenges’, ‘the pet that needs to be looked after’. I was sitting on my side of the globe crying because I couldn’t match the world I met on the other side of the line (Arbel, 2007, pers. com.)

Arbel invested a lot of effort to educate and expose the Israeli public to coaching, including being interviewed by the media. As she describes it, “The concept of coaching started to catch up with Israel. After incubating for years, the epidemic of coaching hit Israel as well, the opportunity was recognized, coaching schools and coaches were appearing on every corner, just like mushrooms after rain” )(Arbel, 2007, pers. com.)
To get a sense of Israel as a country and the state of coaching at the end of 2009, Arbel provides the following information
Israel being a very small country, almost as big as New Jersey [United States] in population and size, didn’t accept the concept of telephone coaching; the coach and coachee met one on one, in coffee shops and restaurants. Israel, being a very young country (in her early 60s) is characterized by a very diverse, colorful multicultural mosaic of different cultural and ethnic profiles. Diversity is the beauty and the strength of Israel as well as its challenge. Hebrew and Arabic are the leading languages and English is used by a large population. The total population is 6.5 million on the size of 8,500 square miles (22,000 square kilometers) – almost the size of New Jersey (Arbel, 2007, pers. com.)
Coaching has taken hold in Israel with between 60 to 80 coaching schools, and between 6,000 to 10,000 coaches, depending on whom you count. As in the rest of the world, there are those who have just printed a business card and decided to join the trend. The average profile of an Israeli client, as described by Arbel, is Throughout my coaching career in Israel I recognize an average profile of the Israeli client: he is on one hand in survival mode due to the constant state of war and threat, and on the other hand in constant state of celebrating life. The Israeli client is mostly ambitious, thriving on hope, trust in self, mostly in a positive and joyous state of embracing the good moments of life. The constantly challenging reality keeps the average client in a state of reality check as opposed to his comfort zone. This kind of high awareness provokes creativity and an endless search for outstanding originality, innovation, almost a childish striving to reinvent the wheel. They are fast runners for long distances, and yet not avoiding their constant readjustments to changing realities. If I needed to describe the profile of the average Israeli client I would say – entrepreneur (Arbel, 2007, pers. com.)
As the pioneer of coaching in Israel, the founding president of the ICF chapter since 2000 where in the early years it was only she, Arbel is now surrounded by an active professional group of coaches. As she sums it up – Israel has many coaching schools, different methodologies and two organizations that claim to represent the coaching community. The government is working on regulatory steps to protect the coaching consumer from malpractice as well as defining the profession as close as possible to other recognized existing professions (Arbel, 2007, pers. com.)
Looking at the growth of coaching in other Middle East countries, many are just beginning to establish a community of coaches. According to Maryvonne Lorenzen (2006, pers. com.), Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is another point of contact for coaching, and most practitioners are formal British citizens and have trained in the United Kingdom. Led by Dania Darwish, who discovered there were at least 23 other coaches in Lebanon, a group of coaches met November 17, 2009 to establish the Lebanese Coach Association. Another coach is contacting other coaches to create a community in Kuwait There is much war in the Middle East, and Sara Arbel relates the following story about the power of coaching. During the year 2006 I started to organize a Mid East Coaching Conference, that was my dream from start. I contacted all coaching chapter leaders in the Middle East, sent emails, started correspondence, was very politically correct, making sure not to step over any sensitive political boundaries. The theme of the conference was named: ‘LISTENING FOR PEACE’ – The idea was to invite different leaders of the region to a coaching conference where they could get the most important tool when we talk about Peace and that is ‘LISTENING’. I was in touch with embassies and foreign affairs delegates and all embraced my project. But then, the Lebanon war started, all stopped and there was a crisis and loss of hope for peace. That is how I met Samir Elias Zehil, a Lebanese coach, very smart, intelligent successful and warm human being. Both our countries were bombarded and both of us were looking for shelters, and in between, emailing in secret, supporting each other and worrying about each other’s families, I felt as he was my gift as I have lost a son his age, and that is when he entered my life. Since then we are in a very warm, loving and supporting relationship, even thou we are not allowed to disclose it as our countries don’t have telephone or any communication lines connected and it is not allowed. So, we talk when we are abroad and hope to meet sometime in a country outside of ours. I am sure that we will hug each other as great friends, not as enemies that our countries are (Arbel, 2007, pers. com.)
This story demonstrates that coaching is not bound by political or ideological beliefs – in fact it transcends all boundaries"

מתוך Sourcebook of Coaching History, עמ' 233-236

About The book
In her groundbreaking work, the SOURCEBOOK OF COACHING HISTORY (with forward by Dr. Anthony Grant, director, Coaching Psychology Unit, School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia), Brock presents a comprehensive review of the historical roots of coaching and the influence of pioneers in related fields to business and professional coaching as we know it today. Never before has so much information been distilled from research and popular literature dating back
to the mid 1970s to highlight implications for the coaching field and its positive impact on postmodern society.

“After several years of exhaustive and extensive research Vikki brings to us the story of the conception, birth and maturation of an exciting new profession. It is a fascinating story and has been an incredible journey.” —Henry Kimsey-House, co-founder The Coaches Training Institute, co-author of Co-Active Coaching

“This excellent book will provide coaches and trainees with a useful historical perspective on the development of the coaching profession.” —Stephen Palmer (UK) Director of the Centre for Coaching, London and Co-Editor of the Handbook of Coaching Psychology

SOURCEBOOK OF COACHING HISTORY

By Vikki G. Brock, PhD

Softcover, 520 pages, US$73.00, May 2012

ISBN 978-1-46998-665-4

SOURCEBOOK OF COACHING HISTORY is available at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and in bookstores. For additional resources, visit www.coachinghistory.com.

To schedule an interview or speaking engagement please contact Vikki at Vikki@CoachingHistory.com or 206-910-4328.