Our coaching profession exists in an interconnected world of diverse cultures, traditions and religions. When we shift from coaching in familiar environments to working with people from different backgrounds, these invisible bridges can feel profoundly challenging. We may discover that our traditional approaches to building trust and safety fall short.
The cultural context gap
Our ability to read and respond to cultural and social cues is key to establishing psychological safety. ICF Core Competency 4 — creating trust and safety — requires that we build cultural bridges with awareness, sensitivity and understanding.
The challenge runs deeper than language barriers or surface-level cultural differences. We need to understand subtle nuances, such as how authority is perceived, how vulnerability is expressed, how feedback is given and received, and how to build trust within specific cultural frameworks.
This requires adaptability, deep reflection and cultural sensitivity. An approach which may create immediate psychological safety in one context may inadvertently create distance, discomfort, or even mistrust in another.
The familiarity trap: how assumptions undermine safety
When someone appears similar to us, we may unconsciously assume shared context and understanding. In coaching, perceived familiarity can be just as dangerous as a blindness to difference. Perhaps there are cultural, ethnic or social markers which feel familiar, but if we over-identify with our clients and start making assumptions, we may overlook important cultural nuances that exist between ourselves and people of seemingly similar backgrounds.
We might share the same ethnicity as one of our clients, but their experience of safety will also have been shaped by other factors such as generational differences, socioeconomic contexts, regional variations, or even just life experiences. When we allow our assumptions to steer client sessions, we risk misunderstanding the client’s relational needs or even alienating them. For example, directness can carry different meanings across cultures.
Assumptions can also undermine the effectiveness of supervisors. If a supervisor works with practitioners from their own country, they may overlook how different educational backgrounds, family structures, or community values shape professional expectations and learning styles.
A coach I know once described working with a client who, on the surface, seemed very similar to her: they came from the same country, spoke the same first language, and had trained in similar professional environments. Assuming a shared communication style, the coach adopted a very direct and informal way of exploring challenges, believing this would feel natural and efficient. Instead, the client became more guarded and less willing to explore certain topics.
When they eventually reflected on this together, it emerged that the client associated this style of directness with past experiences of being dismissed rather than supported. What was intended as ease and rapport had, in fact, subtly reduced the client’s sense of safety.
Creating culturally-informed psychological safety
Creating a psychologically safe environment is a fundamental principle of ethical coaching practice. However, safety is experienced differently by everyone, and this is especially true when cultural differences are present. Understanding what contributes to or erodes that sense of safety for our clients is key.
Achieving true cultural awareness and psychological safety requires us to:
Embrace cultural humility
Acknowledge that developing cultural competence is a continuous journey of learning and unlearning. This means approaching each coaching relationship with curiosity rather than assumptions, regardless of apparent similarities or differences.
Develop cultural fluency
This goes beyond a surface-level awareness of customs and traditions. It involves understanding how cultural values influence communication styles, decision-making processes, concepts of time, approaches to conflict, and definitions of success and failure.
Adapt safety-building strategies
Recognize that psychological safety manifests differently across cultures. Some individuals may feel safe through direct, transparent communication, while others favour indirect, relationship-building approaches. Some cultures prioritise individual expression, while others emphasize collective harmony.
Question your cultural lens
Every coach brings their own cultural conditioning to the relationship. Regular self-reflection and cultural self-awareness are essential tools for creating genuine safety, rather than projected comfort.
The safety imperative in supervision
For coaching supervisors, this challenge is magnified. In addition to navigating their own cultural awareness, supervisors support supervisees to develop cultural fluency and work effectively across diverse contexts.
It’s a delicate balancing act which involves creating supervision spaces with capacity for psychological safety where cultural challenges can be explored without judgment. Supervisors model cultural humility and a commitment to continuous learning, which empowers supervisees to recognize their cultural biases and limitations. A key focus of supervision is developing the frameworks for assessing and adapting to different clients in diverse cultural contexts.
Building connections across cultures
As coaching professionals, our goal cannot be to become experts in every culture—an impossible and potentially reductive aim. However, we should strive to develop the sensitivity and skills to recognize when cultural context is impacting the coaching relationship and learn to respond appropriately.
This might mean slowing down to understand, seeking cultural guidance, adapting communication styles, or acknowledging the limitations of our own cultural framework.
Creating psychological safety across cultures requires more than good intentions. It demands ongoing education, cultural mentorship, peer consultation, and a willingness to be uncomfortable as we stretch beyond our familiar ways of understanding human connection.
The future of coaching
Creating genuine psychological safety across cultural boundaries is no longer optional. Our coaching profession is expanding globally; what was once considered an ethical imperative is now a professional necessity.
To adapt and evolve, we need training programs that integrate cultural awareness from the beginning, supervision models that prioritize cultural competence, and ongoing professional development that challenges practitioners to examine their own cultural assumptions.
The bridge between cultures is built one relationship at a time, with patience, respect, and the understanding that true safety emerges not from similarity, but from the courage to honour and navigate our beautiful, complex differences.
In coaching, as in life, our differences are not barriers to overcome but wisdom to embrace.
A final thought: Is psychological safety always needed in coaching?
Safety is a compass which guides our way of being with our clients, yet we can’t take for granted that it will always happen. For some clients, psychological safety may be harder to reach.
Trauma and attachment-informed practitioners remind us that safety is not something that can simply be declared or guaranteed in professional relationships. Many people grow up in environments where relational safety was inconsistent, conditional, or absent altogether. As a result, even in respectful, collaborative, and well-intentioned coaching or supervisory relationships, the nervous system may not automatically register safety.
From this perspective, safety is not only a feature of the external environment but a capacity that is shaped by developmental, cultural, and relational history. This means that rupture, misunderstanding, and moments of disconnection are not signs of failure, but inevitable aspects of human relating. What matters is not the promise of constant safety, but the ongoing ability to notice, name, and repair these moments when they occur.
It is possible, and often necessary, to work with coaching clients or supervisees when a full sense of safety is not present. But we should always strive to create as much safety as possible.
In February and April 2026, co-facilitators Ann Fogolin MCC, Belinda MacInnes MCC and I will deliver an ICF-accredited Level 3 ‘Mastery in Coaching’ programme. If you join us, you will discover how to fully integrate and embody coaching competencies and values, including working with difference and creating psychological safety for international clients. You’ll deepen your self-awareness, build resilience, and refine the skills required for MCC accreditation.
Comments