Speaker
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Nick BoltonFounder and CEO of ICCSNick is the founder and CEO of ICCS and Animas Centre for Coaching
A philosophically oriented coach and coaching supervisor, he is fascinated by how we make sense of ourselves in the world and the mental paradigms we operate from that shape our experience and actions.
Passionate about best practice and deepening coaching practice, Nick established the International Centre for Coaching Supervision to provide high-quality supervision training around the world.
He also set up Animas Centre for Coaching in 2008 to provide training in innovative approaches to coaching that built on psychological and philosophical principles. Over time, Nick developed his thinking further around transformative coaching delivering a number of presentations on philosophical perspectives on coaching and human change.
Nick has coached since the early 2000s, firstly working within the public sector through his own education and training business before becoming a personal coach, group coach, business mentor and coaching trainer.
Local Time
- Timezone: America/New_York
- Date: Thursday, 24th July 2025
- Time: 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Fragments, Fictions and Fluid Selves: Postmodern Pathways in Coaching Supervision
In a world where certainty is elusive and identity increasingly fluid, what does it mean to offer supervision that honours complexity, multiplicity, and the unknowable?
This lecture invites coaching supervisors into a bold reimagining of supervision through the lens of postmodern thought. Rather than offering tidy frameworks or definitive truths, we’ll explore supervision as a space of co-created meaning, where narratives are shaped, identities are performed, and power is negotiated — often without a clear map.
Drawing on the insights of key postmodern thinkers — from Michel Foucault’s reflections on power and discourse, to Jean-François Lyotard’s “incredulity toward metanarratives,” and Judith Butler’s work on performative identity — we’ll examine how these ideas challenge traditional supervisory assumptions and open new possibilities for practice.
Together, we’ll explore:
- Narratives and language: How our choice of words shapes the realities we co-create in supervision
- Power and authority: What does it mean to hold authority in a space where truth is plural?
- Identity as performance: How coaches and supervisors continually construct and reconstruct who they are
- The postmodern supervisor stance: Embracing not-knowing, curiosity, and the ethical responsibility of interpretation
- Supervision as a dialogic act: A place of fluid exchange, rather than fixed expertise
This session is for supervisors who are ready to lean into complexity — who see supervision not just as a place of learning and reflection, but as a living, evolving conversation about what it means to be human, professional, and in relationship.
Whether you’re familiar with postmodern theory or just curious about a different way of seeing, this lecture will stretch your thinking, deepen your practice, and invite you to hold your role with both seriousness and play.