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Integrating modalities in the support professions: How practitioners, accredited in both coaching and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), apply their expertise in their professional practice
Author: Geoff Duncan
Supervisors: Sean Quifors Martin Andrew
5 November 2025
Duncan, G. (2025). Integrating modalities in the support professions: How practitioners, accredited in both coaching and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), apply their expertise in their professional practice [Doctoral thesis, Otago Polytechnic]. Research Bank. https://doi.org/10.34074/thes.7275
Abstract
My doctoral study explores how fourteen dual-accredited neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and International Coaching Federation (ICF) coaches experience and navigate the integration of NLP expertise within an ICF-compliant coaching context. In my study, NLP operates heuristically to address the challenge of integrating diverse knowledge in the coaching context, particularly regarding modality boundaries, ethical standards, and practitioner identity, given the ICF’s emphasis on non-directive, coachee-centred approaches. While NLP has been widely applied in coaching, therapy, education, and other fields since the 1970s, it has faced persistent academic scepticism. It has been critiqued for lacking empirical validation and theoretical coherence. On this basis, it may seem like a surprising choice of a heuristic. However, NLP-informed coaching is the third most commonly used coaching model in practice, and, given my researcher-practitioner positionality within my study, it allows me to act as an ‘insider’ in the field, as I am also a dual-accredited, practicing NLP and ICF coach. To investigate this underexplored area of how practitioners integrate diverse expertise in the coaching context, my study adopts an interpretive phenomenological approach. The fourteen experienced, dual-accredited NLP and ICF coaches were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling and interviewed using semi-structured, in-depth interviews to capture their subjective lived experiences. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to generate research insights, with me, as the researcher-practitioner, maintaining an explicitly reflective and immersed stance throughout the process. The key findings of my study were expressed through four themes derived from my interpretation of the participants’ narratives and my own experience as a researcher-practitioner. In summary, the themes suggest that NLP has practical value, amplifying coaching engagement and outcomes when applied flexibly, ethically, and contextually. Participants emphasised the importance of clear contracting, informed consent, and transparent communication to manage modality boundaries effectively. My study highlights that the successful integration of diverse expertise in the coaching context is less about technical mastery of tools and more about ethical discernment, professional maturity, and the capacity for reflexive and reflective judgment. Practitioners described complex identity negotiations as they balanced alignment with ICF’s coaching standards alongside their broader professional expertise. They also spoke of the importance of supervision and continuing professional development (CPD) to maintain ethical and professional alignment. Academically, my study contributes to coaching research by enriching discussions of the theory-practice gap and the navigation of modality boundaries. Methodologically, my study demonstrates the value of ‘insider’ reflexivity and interpretive, qualitative approaches for generating practitioner-informed knowledge. In practice, the findings offer actionable recommendations for the NLP field, including calls to strengthen theoretical frameworks, promote rigorous practitioner-led research, and enhance ethical transparency and collaboration with and among accrediting bodies. My study also offers valuable practical insights for coaches, coach educators, accrediting organisations, and researchers, advancing understanding of how diverse expertise can be integrated within the professional coaching context. In turn, my research contributes to the ongoing professionalisation of both NLP and coaching, offering academically supported perspectives on how expertise can be elegantly blended to support coachee outcomes. Future research is encouraged to build on these insights.
Keywords
professional identity, coaching professionalisation, modality boundaries, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), interpretive phenomenology, reflexive thematic analysis
Licence
This thesis is publicly available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
