The Coaching Psychology Section is one of the 12 professional sections of the Col·legi Oficial de Psicologia de Catalunya (COPC). As such, it is represented in the Professional Council, which is part of the Governing Board of the COPC. 

The COPC is one of the 23 psychology societies that are grouped into the General Psychology Council of Spain. “It is a corporation of public law, with its own legal characteristic and full capacity for the performance of its purposes.” It has a 35-year history as an autonomous entity and, currently, it has more than 16,500 chartered members. 

The Coaching Psychology Section has 525 chartered members. Being a pioneer in Spain, it was founded in 2012 to meet the demand coming from some chartered members of the COPC, expressing the need to have a cross-functional space with its own identity that coaching psychology required in Catalonia. At the COPC, it was when the English term “Coaching Psychology” was translated for the first time as “Psicología Coaching”, and today, 10 years later, it has become a brand already taken on by its members and those of other psychology societies. 

In numbers, throughout these 10 years, training activities have been carried out with more than 1,250 hours; 275 accreditation certificates have been issued; and 21 congresses have been attended and/or participated in. 

Its activities revolves around these pillars: training, congresses, accreditation, supervision, research, international relationship and working groups. 

The section contributes to the development of the Training Activities Programme of the COPC related to Coaching Psychology. Conferences, roundtables, workshops, courses, book presentations, etc. are activities whose aim is to facilitate continous development of the chartered members and, even, disseminate our profession among pyschology students, the general public and potential customers. 

In addition, attendance and/or partipation in national and international congresses contribute to the same training objective. As for the organisation of the International Congresses of Coaching Psychology (ICCP), the COPC Coaching Psychology Section can look back on hosting the ICCP in 2011 (when the section was being set up) and now the one of this year. 

The COPC accreditation in Coaching Psychology is a recognition of the professional skills acquired by a coaching psychologist, with the possibility of renewal to ensure the permanent updating of certified people. The section contributes to the establishment and revision of the criteria of this accreditation, as well as to the evaluation of the chartered members who request the certificate for the first time or its renewal. 

As for the supervision (one of the requirements to obtain the accreditation), training activities and group sessions have been carried out to ensure best practices. 

Prizes have been awarded to research papers in different areas of coaching psychology. Likewise, the section has given support to coaching psychologists in the preparation of their PhD thesis. 

Relationships with the international Coaching Psychology movement are, in our case, through the International Society for Coaching Psychology (ISCP). We have signed with this society a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this framework: 

• We are members of the ICCP Steering Committee. 

• We organise, participate and attend international congresses. 

• We equate our accreditation system for coaching psychologists to that of the ISCP. 

• We are members of the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal of Coaching Psychology. 

Working groups (WG) contribute to the profession, developing projects related to their objectives: 

• WG Executive Coaching & Mentoring and Teams in Organisations 

• WG Psychology Coaching and Emotional Regulation 

• WG Promotion and Dissemination of Coaching Psychology (Girona) 

• WG Promotion and Dissemination of Coaching Psychology (Tarragona)  

For further information, please visit: 
https://copc.cat/seccio-de-psicologia-coaching#Seccions-professionals-del-COPC