Positive Health Coaching

Why study positive health coaching at RCSI Dublin?
RCSI is one of the world’s leading educational institutions in medicine and the health sciences. Today, the University is ranked in the top 250 universities worldwide, as well as being ranked number one in the world for SDG3 ‘Good Health and Well-being’ in the Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings 2023.

The RCSI Centre for Positive Health Sciences, established in 2019, is the first of its kind globally that integrates the emerging scientific discipline of positive psychology into lifestyle and integrative medicine. The Centre provides evidence-based resources to help enhance understanding of the critical role that behaviour plays in optimising health and well-being. In particular, we are interested in how the mind, brain and body interact in the context of maintaining health and wellness.

The Centre’s faculty are actively engaged in research to understand brain-body systems in health and disease and to apply the principles of positive psychology to optimising well-being and health. We are particularly interested in optimising health through public and academic education and by assisting organisations in the healthcare, educational and corporate sectors to foster well-being in their workforces. The faculty are also experienced in research and practice in psychology, immunology, pharmacology, physiotherapy, coaching, and lifestyle and integrative medicine.

There is a rapidly developing body of research pointing to an emerging paradigm shift in both our understanding of many diseases and our approach to caring for patients and preventing illness in those who are well. The broad areas of research include lifestyle and personalised medicine as well as the emerging fields of positive psychology, positive organisational scholarship and coaching psychology. The significance of developments in these disciplines, combined with rapid developments in technology, is that individuals will become much more involved in maintaining their own health and will engage, when necessary, with health services as full partners in the process.

The increasing role of individuals in maintaining and maximising their own health is being driven not only by new research but also by economic considerations. States are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with the increasing burden of chronic lifestyle-related diseases especially in ageing populations. The solution will not be solely to develop more and more high-cost interventions but to assist individuals to maintain their own health for as long as possible.

Much of the research underlying the above developments is new and there is a need to collate and disseminate evidence-based findings that can contribute both to patient care and to maximise the wellbeing of healthy individuals. The MSc in Positive Health Coaching is designed to complement your prior training and experience and introduce the key concepts and findings from positive psychology, positive organisational scholarship and coaching psychology and to train you in the coaching skills necessary to help individuals implement them.

Accredited by the National University of Ireland and RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, this level 9 programme is a two-year, part-time academic programme. The course is delivered using a blended approach of digital and on campus learning and is suitable for Healthcare and allied health professionals that have experience in coaching, mentoring or management.

Module 1: Modern health and wellbeing approaches (fully online) Credits: 10 ECTS

Module 2: The pillars of lifestyle medicine (fully online) Credits: 10 ECTS

Module 3: Positive health in practice (fully online) Credits: 10 ECTS

Module 4: Foundations of evidence-based coaching Credits: 10 ECTS

Module 5: Positive psychology coaching Credits: 10 ECTS

Module 6: Becoming a reflective practitioner Credits: 10 ECTS

Module 7: Research methods and methodology Credits: 10 ECTS

Module 8: Research proposal and portfolio Credits: 10 ECTS

To be eligible for the programme you must:

Be working in a relevant sector (e.g. healthcare, allied health, management or equivalent) with coaching experience.
Hold a level 7 or level 8 degree, or equivalent in a health-related area (medicine, nursing, dentistry, physiotherapy, etc.) and have an understanding of the biology that underpins health.
or

Hold a level 7 or level 8 degree, or equivalent in a psychology-related discipline (e.g. clinical psychology) and have an understanding of the biology that underpins health, as part of undergraduate or postgraduate training.

2 years part-time blended.