Positive Psychology and Appreciative Coaching With Ceri Sims
Positive Psychology is the study of what makes life worth living and the emphasis is on promoting wellbeing and flourishing. Positive Psychology and Coaching complement each other and learning how to apply theories and models of flourishing, strengths, emotions, meaning and motivational needs to coaching can be very powerful.
In this 90 minute session, we will begin with an exercise for reflecting on one’s way of being as a coach using positive psychology in your practice and we will identify a model of flourishing for coaching conversations. Much of the session will be spent in co-coaching pairs practising bringing positive psychology in coaching through the use of Appreciative Coaching using the 4D model. Strengths, resources and ‘Best Self’ will be explored in the Discovery stage to motivate coachees to move towards the second Dream stage. The final part of the session will offer some suggestions for next steps and reflections on how to bring this approach into your coaching practice.
About Dr Ceri Sims
Dr. Ceri Sims is a Chartered Psychologist, Coaching Psychologist and Associate Professor at Bucks New University (BNU), UK. Ceri’s background in coaching involves research on coaching for overcoming procrastination, positive psychology coaching with difficult emotions and strengths-based coaching for leadership. She has run university courses on Positive Psychology in Coaching for a number of years with a particular emphasis on self-as-instrument, and appreciative coaching. She is also programme co-leader on the Masters in Applied Positive Psychology course at BNU.
She has also developed and run leadership programmes for organisations and for the NHS in particular; these incorporate coaching courses for managers to develop their coaching skills to support staff in managing their stress, building resilience and developing their strengths at work. Ceri’s passion is bringing positive psychology into coaching in a way that is adaptable and useful for clients of different backgrounds and with various coaching goals.