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Personal and professional coaching is a billion-dollar industry with roots in the Golden Age of Greece.

Recombinant coaching is an integration of ancient wisdom and modern biological and social sciences.

Using a scoping review technology, we can identify the essential elements of a recombinant coaching model.

The first written records of personal coaching can be found in the writings of Homer. In the first book of The Odyssey (Common English Translation), it is written that as Odysseus departed for Troy, he asked his trusted friend Mentor to guide his son Telemachus in his absence. The process of helping, advising, and guiding is commonly referred to as “mentoring” as the term itself is derived from the name of the character Mentor in Homer’s Odyssey. The origins of the modern version of coaching can be found in the writings of MIT professor Edgar Schein, who wrote the groundbreaking treatise “Process Consultation” in 1969. Process consultation and humanistic psychology serve as the foundation of the vast majority of both personal and professional coaching models used today. The coaching industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Breakthroughs in this industry are necessarily predicated less upon revelations from the newest science but more upon integrations of wisdom and science hiding in plain sight. Even generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) creates novel output by combining and functionally integrating existing knowledge.

Recombinant Coaching: Lessons From Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Until AI learns to think for itself, it will necessarily be forced to rely upon its ability to access and recite existing information 1) by rote or 2) as functionally integrated novel recombinant output. If we apply the latter approach to “coaching,” we discover a wealth of information hiding in plain sight waiting to be restructured and reapplied; ready to make the next quantum leap in the field.

A Simple Seven-Step Recombinant Coaching Model

The essence of a recombinant coaching model is the discovery and functional repurposing of scientifically sound information and processes. A variation of this approach has already been successfully applied in The Johns Hopkins Guide to Everyday Psychological First Aid (Everly and Lating, 2026). A scoping review reveals the core agents of change within a personal coaching or mentoring relationship and, as such, these elements would represent the recombinant formulation.

Interpersonal connection: Grounded in Aristotle’s notion of ethos, humanist psychologists such as Abraham Maslow, Douglas MacGregor, and Carl Rogers long demonstrated the power of credible human connection as a prerequisite to change within a helping relationship. It’s even been referred to as a “necessary and sufficient” condition for change by Rogers (1957).

Informative inquiry: The skillful use of non-directive active listening techniques, especially open-ended questions, as an agent of empathy and change has been documented for over 50 years (Rogers, 1957). But, as importantly, it provides the coach with the content and context for experienced distress.

Socratic engagement: Socrates is often considered the greatest philosopher of the “Golden Age of Greece.” The Socratic dialogues were seen as subtle, yet powerful, question-based interventions wherein Socrates would challenge counterproductive intrapersonal dialogues with which a person may be burdened. The content and context surrounding the nature of human distress and dysfunction can be examined for potential misconceptions or erroneous assumptions. Challenging intrapersonal internal dialogues is a cornerstone of Stoic philosophy and even cognitive behavioral therapy.

Goal-setting: Yogi Berra reportedly once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, chances are you will end up someplace else.”

Appreciative inquiry: Appreciative inquiry is a watershed strengths-based approach to problem-solving and personal change discussed by David Cooperrider (Cooperrider, 1987). It can play a significant role in recombinant coaching as it can set the stage for empowering revelations.

Fostering self-efficacy: One of the most well-documented determinants of human behavior is what Albert Bandura (1997) refers to as “self-efficacy.” Self-efficacy may be defined as one’s belief in their ability to be an effective agent of change. According to Bandura, self‑efficacy beliefs are a key determinant of motivation, persistence, and overall outcome in life. Bandura (1997) provides a virtual formula on how to enhance self-efficacy. Recent discoveries from neuroscience, such as neuroplasticity, allow the coach to use this intervention perhaps more effectively than before (Medina, 2014).

Formulating a plan: If it doesn’t get scheduled and structured, it doesn’t get done.

Recombinant coaching is modeled after the process used within current AI models wherein existing databases are accessed and functionally reconstituted into novel recombinant output that may exceed the mere sum of its component parts.

(c) George S. Everly, Jr., Ph.D., 2026.

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Bandura, A. (1997). Self‑Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: W. H. Freeman / Macmillan.

Cooperrider, D. L., & Srivastva, S. (1987). Appreciative Inquiry in Organizational Life.Research in Organizational Change and Development, 1, 129–169.

Everly, Jr., GS Lating, JM (2026). The Johns Hopkins Guide to Everyday Psychological First Aid. Balto: Johns Hopkins Press.

Medina, J. (2014). Brain Rules: 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home, and school. Seattle, WA: Pear Press.

Rogers, C. R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change.Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21(2), 95–103.

Schein, E. H. (1969). Process consultation: Its role in organization development. Reading, MA: Addison‑Wesley.

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