Quality in Coaching: History of DGSv
Early history
The concept of supervision grew out of the field of social work, applied areas of psychotherapy and related sciences. Charities in North America introduced counseling services for their staff at the start of the 20th Century. Qualifications in supervision have existed in the United States since 1911. The first trainings took place in Germany in the 1960s. Since that point in time and over the course of several decades, supervision and coaching has taken over new occupational fields, expanding into the areas of health, education, and administration, associations and businesses.
Founding period and purpose
On May 16, 1989, 27 members, including training institutions for supervision, founded the “German Association for Supervision and Coaching” with the clear goal of establishing professional standards in the field of supervisors training. The small association with large aspirations formed two committees to promote its core goal: an admissions committee, a training committee and later, the standards revision committee. These methods of continual professionalization have remained determining factors for the DGSv’s core mission: Admission of qualified supervisors and coaches, assuring quality through certified training courses and recognized masters programs, further development of standards in a dialog with researchers, practitioners and continuing education providers.
Time of growth: Topical leader in the field of coaching
Membership in the DGSv grew tenfold in 1990. In 2001, there were already 3,000 members. In the 1990s, managers in German companies began to adopt practices of “business coaching” from the United States. In the new millennium, the first coaching associations began to address the process of standardization and professionalization themselves. The DGSv took part in this development as early as 1998. In 2000, the first meeting of the “Supervision and Coaching Working Group” of the DGSv took place. In the same year, the working conference “Supervision and coaching- different name, same offer?” was held under the aegis of the ANSE (Association of National Organisations for Supervision in Europe). Thanks to its many activities, the DSGv is actively involved in addressing current topics: For example, one committee was focused on the topic of “The future of work – the future of coaching”. In 2006, DGSv members approved the quality control process of the DGSv. The ombudsperson’s office was made into a permanent institution. In 2007, the column “Supervision for business” began in the DGSv member newsletter. One year later, the results of the research project “Work and life in organizations” was published. The DGSv celebrated its 30-year anniversary in 2019. It now boasts over 4,700 members. Since 2016, it bears the name “German Association for Supervision and Coaching”. In 2017 DGSv started presenting the Cora-Baltussen-Award for outstanding theses within the Supervision/Coaching qualifications or MA courses. 2020 saw the adoption of new Guidelines for Online-Supervision/-Coaching. New Standards with the title „This is what we stand for: Quality – Reliability – Innovation“ were introduced in 2021. A revision of the DGSv Articles of Association led to a fulltime Executive board taking over the reigns. A volunteer Supervisory Board controls the Executive board that is tasked with the general management of all DGSv affairs.
Expanding the community
Since 2022, the DGSv’s mission statement has been updated to: „DGSv is the most attractive community for supervisors, coaches and organisational consultants.“ For the first time, organisational consulting was explicitly recognised as a field of practice within the association. This prompted an in-depth internal debate about the distinctions between the three consulting formats — supervision, coaching and organisational consulting — and the principles that unite them. As of 2026, the DGSv has established quality criteria for the recognition of further training programmes in both coaching and organisational consulting.
Towards the future
The DGSv remains firmly committed to quality in work-related consulting. Supervision is the core concept; our supervisory ethos is what unites its members. They see themselves as heirs to the tradition of Enlightenment thinking — dedicated to enabling meaningful, productive and functional processes of reflection for individuals and organisations alike. In doing so, they embrace a broader social responsibility: fostering democratisation, open discourse, reflexivity, emancipation and transparency, and promoting clear roles and accountability in the workplace.
The world of work is changing — and so is the DGSv. The association engages not only with the immediate challenges of working life — such as artificial intelligence, New Work, diversity and digitalisation — but also with the profound global transformations shaping people and organisations: the climate crisis, threats to democratic institutions, and questions of generativity (our responsibility to future generations). In 2025, the DGSv was certified according to the principles of the Economy for the Common Good.
We foster ongoing discourse on the quality of consulting practice, the networking of colleagues, and debate on relevant developments in society and the world of work — while upholding standards and quality criteria in professional training. In the end, it is the clients advised by DGSv members who should benefit, today and in the future, from the quality that supervisory practice has to offer.