Margaret Walsh

With other 20 years' coaching experience, Margaret works with a wide range of coaching clients across all employment sectors ranging from CEOs to specialist staff. Margaret has an extensive background in Human Resources and is also a qualified psychotherapist; she has the flexibility to work at psychological depth to facilitate clients gaining an insight into patterns of behaviours that may have long roots.

Working outside in nature is a core part of how Margaret likes to teach coaching and she finds this often builds a much better perspective from which coaches can enhance their effectiveness. She has seen that often when people are in nature they can think more clearly and deeply and filter ouf the "noise" of 21st century living that can be very distractng. Seeing students create greater self-awareness about their own coaching style fuels Margaret's belief that, to be an effective coach, you need to have excellent self-awareness. Nature is used a a facilitator to sharpen the sensory awareness of the coach and this is also used in the coaching work.

Finally, Margaret is inspired by the language used to describe nature and the parallels in coaching. She has seen how metaphors from nature can helpt to capture a feeling very effectively and helps to understand that we are natural beings and connected to a much bigger living system.

Qualifications

• Diploma in Supervision, Independent Counselling Training
• Higher Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling, Huntingdonshire Regional College
• MA in Human Resource Management, Middlesex University
• BA in Business Studies, Southbank University

Research

I am working with Professor Viren Swami (Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge) to examine the therapeutic and mindful benefits of coaching in nature to form deeper connections with an individual’s inner world. Here is a link to some of Viren’s work in this area:http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1511990/1/Furnham_Bodies%20in%20Nature%207.pdf

I am running four Seasonal Workshops in 2019 to connect people with nature throughout the four seasons and develop a deeper connection with self through being in nature and the results (pre and post) will be evaluated by Viren (it has already been approved by his University’s Ethics Committee). This may lead to a publishing of a joint article in the coaching/psychology arena.

I have had an article on the benefits of using coaching in nature published by two professional journals. One was the Association for Coaching and the other the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy.