Christian van Nieuwerburgh

University of East London | UEL · Department of Psychology

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated demand for mental and emotional well-being support. As a result of the pandemic and the prevailing economic climate, individuals and businesses in the UK have been ‘taking stock’. Positive Psychology Interventions provide the prospect of meeting these needs through strengths-based approaches which demonstrate a hos...

The Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) university student attainment gap shows little sign of improving in the official statistics. The research into engagement has been primarily quantitative, showing that attainment is strongly linked to engagement. However, there is relatively little qualitative research on how students experience engagement...

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was applied to explore coaches’ experience using a values-based coaching framework within an international non-profit organisation. The ‘Coaching for Alignment’ model facilitated values-based coaching through semi-structured interviews; the subjective experience and phenomenological thinking of values were e...

Recent research supports the use of positive psychology in education and sets out ideas for educators and leaders to promote and guide student flourishing in schools. There is significantly less research on how educators flourish. This study explores the conditions needed for educators to flourish by applying Constructivist Grounded Theory to uncov...

This study analyses the lived experience of “overlanding”, defined as a form of self-reliant long-term adventure travel by vehicle in which the journey is perceived to be more important than the destination. The study builds on recent research into “lifestyle travel”, “voluntary simplicity” and “transformative tourism”, and travelling cohorts from...

www.thelifecompass.co.uk This coaching toolkit contains everything you need to carry out a coaching or decision-making session. The website contains all the tools and a free downloadable book: Philosophical Life Compass: How to make great decisions. A user’s guide and website. (Professor Irvine Gersch, Professor Christian van Nieuwerburgh, Dr Anna...

Wellbeing is perceived in various ways by different populations. Although there is now a surge in research on wellbeing in non-Western populations, the perceptions of Indians, more specifically, expatriate managers, is not well represented. This study explored how Indian expatriate managers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) perceive wellbeing from...

Since the term “positive psychology coaching” was coined, in 2007, there has been increasing attention to and enthusiasm for this topic. Despite this, there is no consistent definition of positive psychology coaching nor is there sufficient clarity regarding the specifics of its practice or the standards for training. This chapter discusses these i...

Is coaching different in the Middle East than in the rest of the world and, if so, do we need an indigenous coaching psychology (CP) for the region? The answer of a panel discussion at the IPCD conference in Dubai was 'yes, and'. Several distinct differences in the coaching process emerged from the conversation. Some of these differences centred on...

Is coaching different in the Middle East than in the rest of the world and, if so, do we need an indigenous coaching psychology (CP) for the region? The answer of a panel discussion at the IPCD conference in Dubai was ‘yes, and’. Several distinct differences in the coaching process emerged from the conversation. Some of these differences centred on...

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of organisations attending to the wellbeing of their employees, and workplace coaching has already been shown to improve performance and enhance wellbeing. Positive psychology coaching (PPC) is an emerging intervention that considers wellbeing an integral part of the coaching intervention. There...

Coaching, with positive psychology at its heart, has the potential to support Emiratis in a national economic transition away from public sector employment. Yet, current literature on coaching in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is fragmented and dominated by coaches' views. This study aimed to fill this gap by exploring how four Emirati Muslim coach...

Based on an increase in interest in the idea of ‘coaching whilst walking’ (e.g. Turner, 2017), this study provides an insight into the experience of coaches and clients who undertook coaching whilst walking. The research question underpinning this study is ‘what is the experience of those who undertake coaching whilst walking’? Data for this study...

This study explored the lived experience of four professionals who engaged in positive psychology coaching following an implicit association test and unconscious bias training. Unconscious bias training focuses on a human limitation, avoidance goals, and can result in defensiveness. In contrast, positive psychology coaching leverages strengths, int...

In chapter 11, Chris Munro, Margaret Barr, and Christian van Nieuwerburgh explore the concept of coaching cultures and its implementation. Drawing on a different range of psychological theories and approaches that have also proved to be effective, they describe some of the other ways that coaching can be introduced more widely into schools. Their w...

Purpose: This paper adds depth to our understanding of how coaching works by exploring the experiences of 14 aspiring school principals who received one-to-one leadership coaching as part of a leadership development programme. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopts a phenomenological approach. Individual semi-structured interviews were c...

Positive psychology coaching (PPC) is defined as activating positive psychology (PP) in an applied and systematic way through coaching (Passmore, J., & Oades, P. (2014). Positive psychology coaching – A model for coaching practice. The Coaching Psychologist, 10(2), 68–70). Currently studies looking at how PPC is experienced by coachees are limited....

The study aimed to expand the understanding of the experience of people who self-identify their character strengths. The data came from semi-structured interviews held after a coaching intervention using strengths cards. Analysis using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) revealed four themes: Identifying strengths is instinctive, yet com...

Objective This study aims at building some knowledge concerning the connection between the decision-making process and the career-related outcomes. This knowledge is to help coaches to engage an efficient coaching process to provide the best support for clients with career decision-making problems. It examines the experience on the thinking process...

Workplace coaching is an organizational intervention that is designed to support and enhance individual and organizational performance. This article deals with workplace coaching, not life coaching, personal coaching, or sports coaching, although some publications cited may also have relevance for life coaching, personal coaching, or sports coachin...

With 61% of the UK population being overweight, it is likely that career professionals will encounter overweight clients. Even though being overweight is thought to be potentially detrimental to career development, there is little theory or advice to help career practitioners have productive conversations about the issue. This paper reports the fin...

The Philosophical Life Compass - how to make great decisions . Gersch, Nieuwerburgh, Lipscomb and Caplan (2019) publication date Jan 1, 2019 publication description : Just developed (2019) - a tool for coaches, psychologists, teachers and others to help clients make effective decisions about life, relationships, career and jobs, health choices, lei...

Studies of student coaching have shown benefits to both students and coaches, yet little is known about the experiences of coaches as they prepare to coach. This study sought to explore the experiences of six undergraduate trained educational coaches from a UK university prior to their first placement coaching secondary school students. Interpretat...

Purpose Schools are traditionally hierarchical organisations with headteachers holding significant influence to effect change. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of an investigation into the experiences of school leaders introducing coaching cultures into their schools. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a phenomenol...

Objectives This study aimed to explore how eight female leaders from four Arab countries experienced their leadership journey, and to consider a potential role for coaching in that developmental journey. Design and Method A qualitative design was applied to explore the participants’ experiences. Data collection was through semi-structured intervie...

Coaching psychology first emerged in Australia and the UK [Grant, A. (2008). Past, present and future: The evolution of professional coaching and coaching psychology: Handbook of coaching psychology: A guide for practitioners. London: Routledge] and it is now applied in different industries including the educational contexts [van Nieuwerburgh, C. (...

Abstract Objectives: This study sought to identify what coaching psychology has to offer young people at risk of developing mental health problems. Design: The study used a semi-structured interview design and self-reflective data analysis within a qualitative approach. Method: Grounded theory was employed to analyse the transcripts and self-ref...

Objectives: The research sought to analyse the perceptual life changes and perceived quality of life (PQoL) subsequent to participating in an integrated coaching and PPI programme. Design: A qualitative approach was employed and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was utilised to analyse the data. Method: Three girls from an inner-city L...

Objectives This study sought to explore teachers’ experiences of a coaching psychology intervention – an introductory coaching training workshop that included a positive psychology intervention and episodes of narrative-collaborative group coaching. Design A qualitative design was applied to explore the participants’ experiences. Interpretative ph...

There is a global increase in the teaching of positive psychology at postgraduate level. Anecdotally, it has been suggested that university-based positive psychology programmes can be “life changing”. This exploratory qualitative study aimed to enhance our understanding of the positive life experiences of students registered on a Masters in Applied...

This paper provides a review of the literature on coaching cultures. It offers a frame of reference for future research to build on existing knowledge and understanding in this field. The review included literature from industry and education perspectives. The key terms ‘coaching’, ‘coaching cultures’ and ‘coaching in organisations’ were used to se...

Educational coaching is increasingly being implemented in schools in the UK and internationally. In some coaching programmes, older students coach younger students. Yet only a handful of studies, most conducted with university students, have investigated the impact of coaching in educational settings, and there is limited research exploring the eff...

This article provides an overview of coaching in educational settings in the UK before introducing the concept of Instructional Coaching which is an evidence-based approach which has been developed and trialled in the USA. Instructional Coaching is defined and discussed in relation to UK-based approaches. It is proposed that Instructional Coaching...

Ways of working details the development of workshops for primary age children focusing on the giving and receiving of feedback during selected tasks. This is the first stage in work on peer coaching skills with this age group. The paper discusses the rationale for the chosen tasks and the changes made to the workshops through the experiences with d...

Can peer coaching skills be developed through ‘non academic’ tasks? The enquiry also aims to answer the following question: Can children give and receive feedback? The research methods reported are ethnographic combined with pre- and post- responses to the drawing task. The categorisation of the children's drawings and their use of feedback were an...