Coaching for Connection: The Neuroscience of Trust, Synchrony & Human Change

Join us for the Coaching Science Community of Practice session, “Coaching for Connection: The Neuroscience of Trust, Synchrony, and Human Change,” with Michael Platt, PhD, on Monday, September 28, from 10-11:30 a.m. (New York), where you’ll explore how the brain’s social circuitry shapes trust, communication, motivation, learning, and resilience, and gain insights into how intentional human connection can support effective coaching and lasting behavior change.

Who Is This For?

• Professional and experienced coaches who want to deepen their understanding of how trust, connection, and social interaction influence coaching.  
• Newer coaches who want to build stronger, more connected coaching relationships.  
• Team and group coaches who want to strengthen trust, communication, and connection within groups.  
• Coach educators and leaders using coaching skills who want to integrate research-informed approaches to human connection into their practice. 

What You Will Learn:

• Explain how the brain’s social circuitry influences trust, communication, motivation, learning, and resilience.  
• Explore how co-regulation and psychological safety can support connection and effective coaching conversations.  
• Experience the “Fast Friends” relationship-building intervention and examine how intentional conversations can strengthen trust and communication.  
• Apply a practical framework for building human connection in coaching conversations, team development, workshops, and leadership programs. 

Course Details

Great coaching is more than asking powerful questions. It is also about creating the trust, safety, and connection that allow people to think, learn, and change together. 

In this interactive session, neuroscientist Michael Platt, PhD, draws on nearly three decades of research to explore how the brain’s social systems influence trust, communication, motivation, learning, and resilience. Participants will examine how human connection can support effective coaching and lasting behavior change. 

The session also introduces “Fast Friends,” a research-based relationship-building activity that Michael and colleagues have adapted for executive education, leadership development, and coaching programs. Through this experience, participants will explore how intentional conversations can strengthen trust and communication. 

Participants will also examine how co-regulation, psychological safety, and authentic human connection can create conditions in which people think and work more effectively together. 

Coaches will leave with a practical framework they can adapt for coaching conversations, team development, workshops, and leadership programs, along with a deeper understanding of coaching as the intentional design of human connection.