Call for Book Chapter Proposals: "Coaching for Identity Transformation: Self-Authorship, Meaning, and the Becoming Self"

Edited Volume

Although the field of coaching increasingly refers to “transformative change,” the dominant frameworks continue to translate this change into behavioral indicators such as performance, productivity, and goal attainment. This emphasis, while useful, does not fully capture processes of identity reconstruction, narrative re-authoring, and existential meaning-making that often constitute the core of clients’ lived transformation. Experiences such as migration, career transition, loss, ethical dilemmas, or inner conflict often require transformation at the level of identity, meaning, and relationship with the world. These dimensions cannot be fully addressed through behavioral techniques alone.

This edited volume invites scholars and practitioners to explore coaching as a space of identity transformation and self-authorship. The book aims to gather diverse perspectives that understand change as a re-shaping of the person’s narrative, values, and way of being—whether through relational, existential, developmental, compassionate, creative, or community-oriented pathways. Rather than promoting a single school, the volume seeks a dialogue among approaches that share a commitment to deep human transformation.

The purpose of the book is to build bridges between coaching, psychology, philosophy, and social practice. Many transformative insights remain scattered across disciplines and professional traditions. By bringing them together, this volume will contribute to a more holistic understanding of coaching—one that recognizes individuals as embedded in stories, cultures, relationships, and communities. Contributions from different cultural contexts and innovative practitioner-developed models are especially welcome.

Structure of the Volume

The book will be organized in three interrelated sections:

Section I – Theories of Transformational Change

Conceptual chapters that explore how identity, meaning, and self-authorship develop in coaching contexts.

Section II – Transformative Coaching Approaches

Chapters presenting established, emerging, or original coaching models that aim at identity-level transformation.

Section III – Tools, Methods, and Practices

Chapters focusing on concrete processes that enable deep change in real coaching encounters.

Approaches and Models – An Open Invitation

This volume welcomes contributions from established, emerging, and yet-to-be-named approaches that view coaching as more than behavioral optimization. Proposals may include:

• Original or integrative coaching frameworks

• Adaptations of psychological, philosophical, spiritual, or community traditions to coaching

• Culturally grounded perspectives

• Bridges between coaching and psychotherapy, education, arts, or social action

• Practice-based models developed through professional experience

• Critical reflections on the limits of behavior-focused coaching

Rather than requiring adherence to particular schools, chapters should demonstrate engagement with one or more of the following transformative dimensions:

• Re-authoring of personal narratives

• Development of self-authorship and agency

• Transformation of identity and self-concept

• Compassionate relationship with the self

• Integration of inner multiplicity and conflict

• Relational and community-oriented becoming

• Existential meaning-making

• Embodied, imaginal, or creative processes

• Cultural and social embeddedness of change

Tools, Methods, and Practices

We invite chapters that present concrete and innovative practices such as:

• Narrative and dialogical processes

• Reflective and contemplative practices

• Relational and systemic mapping

• Body-oriented or imaginal techniques

• Community-embedded coaching initiatives

• Approaches to evaluating transformative outcomes

• Experiential, arts-based, and symbolic methods

The volume particularly encourages first presentations of new methods and practitioner-generated knowledge that has not yet found a home in mainstream coaching literature.

Who Should Contribute

• Coaching psychologists and researchers

• Professional coaches and supervisors

• Scholars of identity, narrative, and development

• Practitioners working with migrants, students, communities, and organizations

• Interdisciplinary thinkers from psychology, philosophy, education, linguistics, arts, and social sciences

Empirical studies, conceptual papers, reflective practitioner accounts, and rich case-based chapters are all welcome.

Submission Guidelines

Chapter Proposals (approx. 500 words, excluding biography) should include:

• Proposed chapter title

• Central argument and objectives

• Outline of chapter structure

• Methodological or practice approach (where relevant)

• Contribution to identity transformation in coaching

• Short biography (approx. 200 words) including name, affiliation, and email

Final chapter length: 5,000–8,000 words
Reworked parts of theses or previously presented material may be considered if substantially revised and not under review elsewhere.

Important Dates (suggested – can be adjusted)

• Proposal submission deadline: 15 June 2026

• Notification of acceptance: 30 June 2026

• Full chapter submission deadline: 30 September 2026

• Peer review feedback: 15 November 2026

• Final revised chapters deadline: 15 January 2027

Please submit to: Pendar Fazel, University of Debrecen, pendarfazel2023@gmail.com