USCMA Connect

Today's guest is Dr Ana Paula Nacif — researcher, practitioner, and one of the UK's leading voices in group coaching and coaching for wellbeing. Ana is a senior lecturer at the University of East London, where she leads the MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology. She holds a Professional Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring from Oxford Brookes University and is both an EMCC Master Practitioner and an ICF Professional Certified Coach.
Her research has tackled one of the most underexplored areas in the coaching world: group coaching. She developed the BeWell Group Coaching for Wellbeing Model, published work on the ethics of coaching with vulnerable populations, co-authored studies on online group coaching with postgraduate students, and in 2023 published her book Coaching for Wellbeing: An Evidence-Based Guide for Practitioners with McGraw-Hill. She has also argued compellingly that group coaching remains the 'Wild West' of the coaching profession — vast, promising, and still largely unmapped. In this episode, we explore what that means for practitioners, researchers, and the clients we serve.

Dr. Sebastian Fox is an executive and team coach, researcher, and director of brownfox consultancy, based in the UK. He holds a Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring from Oxford Brookes University and serves as Head of Research at the Team Coaching Studio. His recent research challenges some of the field's most entrenched assumptions — including the idea that productive team coaching sessions are the ones where the original goals get met. He is currently writing a book on working emergently with teams, due to be published later this year. As a practitioner who works with leadership teams across sectors, Sebastian brings both rigorous academic thinking and on-the-ground coaching experience to the conversation. He is ICF accredited and holds a Diploma in Team Coaching Mastery. 
In this episode we explore what it actually means for a team coaching session to go well, why the goals that teams arrive with may not be the goals that matter most, and what coaches can do to cultivate the conditions in which something genuinely useful can emerge.

Many coaches work really hard at learning their craft, understanding all aspects of psychology and human behaviour, learn to decipher what is evidence based versus personal opinions – and then struggle to get clients who are willing to pay for their services. Our guest, Ellie Scarf, understands this dilemma perfectly. She joins us to discuss all things commercialisation of coaching and services.

Naomi Connell spent over two decades as a Finance Director and CFO on major corporate and public-sector boards before making a deliberate move into executive coaching and coaching research. She now holds an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology with Distinction, is a doctoral researcher at Oxford Brookes University, and has recently published original research exploring how coaches can help directors develop more inclusive board behaviours. Her work bridges the corporate world and the coaching profession in a way that is genuinely rare, and her perspective on what actually happens in the boardroom, and what coaching can and cannot do about it, makes for a conversation that is both grounded and thought-provoking.

Dr Louise Kovacs is an executive coach, coaching supervisor, practitioner-researcher and now published author with more than 20 years of coaching practice. Originally from the UK, she completed a Master of Organisational Coaching and HRM at the University of Sydney in 2004 and a Doctor of Professional Studies in Executive Coaching at Middlesex University, London in 2016. Her doctoral research was awarded the British Psychological Society Special Group for Coaching Psychology Research Award in the same year.
Louise's scholarly work spans complexity in coaching, formulation, antifragility, coach self-care and reflective practice, all produced in long-standing collaboration with Professor Sarah Corrie of Middlesex University. Their work culminated in the 2025 Routledge publication A Guide to Formulation in Coaching, co-authored with Professor David A. Lane, which introduces a four-part framework — Positionality, Purpose, Perspectives and Process — as a practical guide for coaches navigating complex client situations.
She has built and led coaching businesses in both Sydney and Singapore, and currently works as an executive coach and coaching supervisor in individual and group settings, based in Sydney.