Enhancing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in HEIs

Therapeutic coaching for EDI in Higher Education

Looking for something fresh from your workplace coaching?

Introducing…

Therapeutic coaching to enhance EDI in higher education

·         Coaching with a laser-focus on EDI

·         Coaching creating positive impact for the student experience and the colleague experience

·         A structured programme that is timely in the contemporary social climate

Introduction

I’ve had internal and external coaching in HE, both as a new line manager of direct reports, and in a more senior position. I’ve also experienced it as part of Advance HE’s Preparing for Senior Strategic Leadership Programme, to explore 360° feedback. 

What I found most impactful from one of those coaching packages was the process of looking back, seeing what had preoccupied me in session 1 was completely changed by session 2 – and realising how sure I felt by the end of session 6. Coaching is powerful indeed.  

However, workplace coaching isn’t fully equipped for the significant pain point of EDI in higher education, supporting people navigating emotionally-charged complex terrain in order to create meaningful institutional impact.

This blog outlines new work to fill this gap.  

The blog builds from my presentation at the Advance HE Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference 2026 #EDIConf26 (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference 2026: Embedding EDI in Higher Education: Tradition Retold, Borrowed Insights, and Bold Innovations | Advance HE). And it stands alone if you haven’t heard that presentation. Equally, EDI will be a pain point in many other sectors. You can contact me to talk about Therapeutic Coaching to Enhance EDI wherever you work.

My proposal is that a newer form of coaching - therapeutic coaching offered by coach-therapists (with some mediation tools) - could create better, more focused, safe-enough spaces than traditional coaching for leaders (taking this term broadly, as we all lead in one way or another - although it is important for the Executive and SLTs to get involved) to enhance EDI in HE.

It involves taking time to explore:

·         Your own intersections/who you are.

·         Your own lived experiences.

·         How this personal development (even where some or all of it is kept private from colleagues) could positively impact institutional development in the EDI space – for instance, what it tells you about developing innovative Access and Participation Plans (APPs) and meeting Office for Students (OfS) conditions, including the E6, or answering the TQEF questions; and what you need to do in your context (for example, your institution may have a very specific focus, such as the arts, agriculture, health, or sport – all of which bring their own specific challenges for students and colleagues).

·         & What you might do when inevitable EDI conflicts between colleagues arise.

Therapeutic coaching is also a means of keeping yourself safer as you do EDI work. You have a therapeutic coach alongside you.

Why is this needed? 

Every HEI declares its commitment to EDI. Depending on the size of the institution, there are likely to be EDI committees in Schools, Faculties and at University-level, EDI leads, an EDI team led by a Head of EDI, a senior champion for EDI, EDI calendars and EDI awareness days... So many people are committed to the work whether it is badged directly as EDI or not. Higher education is an incredibly fertile place for new ideas and EDI is often at the heart of projects people want to do, frequently in relation to their own intersections and lived experiences (fully shared with others or not), and with an intention to do good for everyone.  

On the ground, we know that colleagues and students often experience:

·         Ableism

·         Ageism

·         Classism

·         Homophobia

·         Pregnancy discrimination

·         Religious discrimination

·         Racism

·         Sexism – including misogynistic narratives

·         Transphobia, etc.,

Intersecting discriminations, from identities shared, visible, less so, invisible and/or assumed. Persistent discriminations. Micro-aggressions. The daily drip, drip. Emotional strain.

Taking just one example, ableism experienced by academic colleagues: in a culture where ‘overwork is normalised’ (Brown and Leigh, 2018, p. 986), ‘academics with disabilities or illnesses work hard to hold onto their academic work and identity whilst compromising other aspects of their life’ (Brown and Leigh, 2018, p. 987). The subtitle of Brown and Leigh’s (2018) article is ‘where are the disabled and ill academics?’ It’s not always safe to talk about illness and disabilities, despite all the EDI work in HE.

And we know that many lived experiences are often stigmatised, with normative understandings privileged even when few actually meet them – experiences such as:

·         Immigration status and asylum

·         Sex work

·         Mental health diagnoses and treatment

·         Being care-experienced

·         Being estranged from family

·         Having encountered violence and trauma

·         Addiction, being in recovery from the use of substances or behaviours

·         Caring responsibilities

·         Loss and bereavement

·         Having a criminal record, etc.,

EDI work brings emotional labour. It lives in a society that is racist, sexist etc. A society where micro-aggressions are constant. There’s pushback against EDI.

In institutions, people will argue about the right way to proceed - challenging policies, procedures, and events that don’t align with how they see EDI. There’s vital work there. But identities and lived experiences, stated and/or unseen, can be deeply wounded.

At times, when we go to events, there is an assumption that identities and lived experiences must be shared, that they are easy to share - underpinned by the idea, it seems, that they are all unchanging and available to awareness, and that privacy and choice aren’t in the mix, that shame isn’t present.

Many will find the sharing of intersections and lived experiences to be significant work and they’ll be ready to engage and learn from each other. Saying who you are is meaningful. It opens up conversations. It challenges racism, sexism etc.

But the request to ‘share your intersections’ or to ‘say who you are’ might be a request that allows what you’ve shared to be weaponised later by someone who wants to intimidate you professionally and personally. It might be exposure. Higher education can be a highly political space. Our material isn’t neutral.

Some identities will be read from our bodies. There is privilege in being able to choose not to share what cannot be seen. And there is oppression in knowing how sharing the unseen could be received.  

We don’t actually owe everyone or anyone a discussion of our intersections and lived experiences.

And we don’t always benefit from exploring EDI issues in front of an audience in training events where psychological safety is not always present. Nuance and complexity isn’t always present. Shame arrives. Positions are taken.  

This is where therapeutic coaching to enhance EDI in HE (with some mediation tools) comes in…

What is therapeutic coaching (with mediation tools)?

Coaches who offer traditional coaching (for want of a better term - i.e. coaches who have learned how to coach and who do it brilliantly) have to follow the code of ethics of their professional bodies and not work with material that is beyond their limits of competence. Emotional material and distress can pass that threshold and the coach may suggest a coachee goes to see a therapist either alongside the coaching or instead of it.

Talking about identities and lived experiences (EDI work) can fit into this space of emotion and distress. The coachee may be coming in with a constant experience of racism and sexism or having just watched a colleague humiliated in a meeting for having caring responsibilities or mocked for their neurodivergence.

A therapeutic coach is dual-qualified and dual-skilled in both psychotherapy/counselling and coaching. (The title of such a coach is the subject of exploration, so you may also hear people saying they are coach-therapists or that they are offering coaching with therapeutic depth/psychological depth.)

The work is still coaching (not therapy), but emotions, and high levels of distress, can be brought there safely.

Mediation tools provide practical approaches to contribute to what a coachee can learn here, adding to the complexity of the offer. Coachees can look at the interests underlying the positions that colleagues are taking on EDI issues, for example. They can start to unpick what needs people are bringing.

Key features of therapeutic coaching (with mediation tools) to enhance EDI in HEIs

The people:

·         The work is laser-focused. It is specifically about EDI in the coachee’s current HEI.

·         The coachee wants to make a difference in the EDI space. They’re willing to engage in often intense personal development to get there. They are open to challenge. They are in the right place emotionally to do this now.  

·         The sponsor of the coaching (the person agreeing the spend on it) is supportive of the work taking place and is willing to consider with the coachee some EDI ideas that arise from it. As such, there is clear purpose to the undertaking. The coachee might, in fact, come in with the goal of, for example, enhancing student support strategies for estranged students, an experience they share but haven’t spoken about before.

·         The coach is skilled in EDI, coaching, therapeutic coaching, and mediation tools, and brings a person-centred (careful, non-directive) approach. The work honours the sensitivity of the material.

The process:

·         The coachee who wants to take part receives a worksheet in which they outline their intersections, their lived experiences (what they feel needs particular focus and what they can focus on now – the aim is to stretch people but not too far), what they’d really like to do in the EDI space if they could, and what the flashpoints are likely to be in their institution. This isn’t shared with the coach so the coachee can write as freely as they wish. They’ll be coming back to this before/after each session.

·         A discovery call takes place to ensure there is chemistry between coach and coachee. Six sessions of therapeutic coaching to enhance EDI are then agreed.

·         The therapeutic coach for EDI holds confidentiality (except in specific circumstances outlined in their contract). They don’t even share themes with the sponsor of the coaching. The broad theme is already known - it’s EDI. The sponsor only knows that the work took place.

·         One session is particularly focused on what could be done when people are in conflict around EDI (mediation tools), using either a case study written by the coach, or a scenario the coachee brings. The coachee considers their feelings about conflict and tries out some mediation tools, perhaps focusing on what you can do in situations of impasse.

·         The coachee decides what to focus on in the other 5 sessions, aiming to go beyond what they already know about themselves and their context, taking up some opportunities perhaps to say what they may never have said before, knowing that the coach is going to shred any notes afterwards and is bound by professional body codes of ethics that mean they only talk about their work with their supervisor, never revealing identifying details of each coachee or the institution where they work. 

·         The therapeutic coach holds the process, checking in with the coachee about how they are feeling in discussing personal material. Pauses may take place in sessions. The 6 sessions are likely to be monthly to allow for recovery from intensity.

·         Phone call check-ins are available with the coach between sessions so that there is clear holding of what is unfolding. 

·         The coachee updates their private document after each session and in readiness for the next.  

·         By the end of the process, EDI ideas are developed by the coachee (see outcomes).

·         The coach needs to be in supervision. The coach matters too and supervision allows them to consider, for instance, where they may share identities/experiences with the coachee and what that was like. This will keep the coach ready to do this work with the coachee. It enhances the offer.

Outcomes

·         As with any coaching, the coachee is accountable for the outcomes.

·         The coachee ideally achieves more clarity about what they wish to say about themselves and how, when and to whom – and what ways: language is important.

·         The coachee ideally achieves more clarity about what they don’t want to share about themselves now (maybe they will later).

·         This self-development helps people become more authentic leaders. They know themselves better.

·         All of what the coachee has explored will have an impact on their work in the EDI space either immediately or as a slower burn. To speak and be witnessed is powerful.  

·         The coachee will have created 1 or more new ideas for taking forward EDI in their own institution and thought about who might help them do this work. They will have spent time deciding how to frame their plans to the supportive sponsor of the coaching and other key stakeholders.  

·         The coachee will have considered some mediation tools for when EDI inevitably gets tough.

·         Coaching isn’t a replacement for events and training where people learn together, make mistakes, and progress. It works alongside that. More EDI work, not less. It’s a means of increasing the depth at which we can work.  

·         The individual, careful process of deciding what to share/how/for what purpose could be extended into whole-institution conversations – and enhancing EDI through our own authenticity can become deeply woven into the fabric of the organisation and its specific context.

Therapeutic Coaching to Enhance EDI in HEIs is offered by Dr Deborah A. Lee SFHEA FAHEP (UKCP-registered psychotherapist, MBACP, & EMCC Senior Practitioner Coach):

I’ve created this programme of EDI support for HEIs, colleges and research institutions committed to EDI. It brings together all my areas of expertise. I spent over 20 years teaching social justice as a Senior Lecturer in Sociology, with a focus on gender and interpersonal violence. I was the EDI Lead for a large School of Psychology. I trained as a person-centred psychotherapist/counsellor achieving an MSc with Distinction. I have been an Associate Editor for Psychotherapy and Politics International and a mentor for Pink Therapy. I have run a private practice since 2021, adding coaching/therapeutic coaching into the offer in 2025 following completion of the Therapist to Coach programme. My most recent positions in higher education were at Associate Dean level. I have recently been trained by Pragmatism UK as an internal workplace mediator. I have completed the Certificate in Addictions with the Link Centre and a micro-credential in neuro-differences from NTU Business School.

If you’d like to discuss how we could work together, I’d love to hear from you: hello@coachingwithdeb.co.uk.

Dr Deborah A. Lee Psychotherapy, Counselling & Coaching: www.coachingwithdeb.co.uk.

Reference:

Brown, N. and Leigh, J., 2018. Ableism in academia: where are the disabled and ill academics? Disability & Society, 33 (6), pp. 985-989.