Coaching Psychologists are specialists in behaviour change who utilise systematic methodologies drawn from the psychological evidence base to bring about positive change. People who want professional support, in order to maximise their performance and potential, work with coaching professions.
This course brings together the fields of Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology. Setting goals is an important life skill and one of the key components of success in any chosen area. Most individuals are able to select goals appropriate to their needs with relative ease. What is much more difficult is adhering to the steps necessary for goal achievement, often due our fluctuating levels of will power, and difficulties in applying constant will-power. Evidence based coaching psychology is the science of forming appropriate goals in line with our values, increasing motivation towards goal attainment, and then bringing to bear methodologies to achieve these goals.
Positive Psychology is the science of well-being, strengths and the achievement of our potential, and all that is good in us. As a persons level of well-being increases, their goal attainment also increases. Consequently, the synergies between Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology make for a very powerful approach in helping people realise their potential, and approach becoming their best possible selves.
The approach of this masters can be utilised across a wide range of areas:
Those working in human services who have the desire to incorporate a coaching approach to behaviour change in their professional work. This could include teachers, social workers, social care workers, youth and community workers, probation officers, nurses, medical specialists, nutritionists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists etc.
Graduates who have the ambition to work as freelance coaches, or internal coaches in business organisations
Human resource professionals
Mangers and leaders who wish to develop the ability to maximise the potential of their teams
Those who want to maximise performance by adding a psychological approach to skill attainment. This could include sports and exercise professionals, those who work with singers, actors, and other talented individuals.
Graduates of psychology who wish to acquire a set of professional skills as part of their route towards professional training in another area of psychology, or to undertake doctoral studies.
Who teaches this course
This course will be taught by staff from the School of Applied Psychology in the main.
Why Choose This Course
This is the first course of its kind to be offered at MA level in the Republic of Ireland. The programme equips students with the advanced training in coaching skills that will prepare them for a career as a professional coach. This includes the principles of Evidence Based Coaching: specifically Positive Psychology and Coaching, Skills, Business, Ethics and Supervision in Coaching, Coaching Skills in Group/Team and Organisational Settings. Training is also provided in research skills, including reviewing literature, developing hypotheses, writing research proposals, designing and carrying out empirical studies, conducting advanced statistical analyses, and presenting results. Skills in research methodology are a prerequisite for all psychology professions, and they constitute a key set of skills that set psychologists apart in the wider workplace.