Biographies of the congress speakers, symposia chairs, and workshop trainers
Dr Zelda Di Blasi PhD, MPsychSc, CPsychol (BPS) is a Lecturer and Director of a Masters in Positive and Coaching Psychology at University College Cork, Ireland. With over 20 years of experience in higher education, coaching, and research, Zelda has published extensively and is internationally recognized for her work on the placebo effect, coaching and positive psychology. Zelda’s deep commitment to personal well-being and human flourishing extends beyond academia. She holds diplomas in Contemporary Yoga and Modern Dance, as well as an Advanced Diploma in Personal, Leadership, and Executive Coaching accredited by the ICF and the EMCC. As a certified Health & Wellness Coach with the Institute of Health Sciences, a HeartMath Coach/Mentor, certified in LEGO® Serious Play®, and a Strengths Provider with the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology, she integrates holistic and evidence-based approaches into her work. Zelda has a particular interest in savouring—the art of fully engaging in and appreciating positive experiences. For more information on her work and contributions, please visit her LinkedIn profile.
Dr Sadia Khan, Assistant Professor at School of Professional Psychology, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan. My PhD work is in the domain of Organizational Psychology and my dissertation is titled as ” Application and Validation of Self Practice/ Self Reflective Training Module of Coaching Competencies”. I completed my PhD in April 2024. I have 7 years of teaching experience at University level. I have been practicing as a Clinical Psychologist for past 9 years. I have extensive experience of teaching graduate and post graduate courses, thesis supervision and clinical internship supervision.
Dr Yi-Ling Lai PhD CPsychol is the Lecturer (Assistant Professor) of HRM and Organisational Behaviour at the University of Southampton. Prior to joining Southampton Business School. She had a number of years experiences in other academic institutions in the UK, including Birkbeck College, University of London and University of Portsmouth. Research mainly concentrates on the psychological evidence in the coaching process, such as the three-way working alliance and coaches’ identity work. Yi-Ling has taken active roles in several sub-committees of the British Psychological Society (BPS), such as the Editor of International Coaching Psychology Review (ICPR) under at the Division of Coaching Psychology (DoCP) between 2020-2023. She was chosen as the BPS Presidents’ Award 2024 winner. As part of the award win, Dr Lai received a certificate of recognition and a lifetime membership of the British Psychological Society.
Peter Clement Lund is postdoc at the Department of Communication and Psychology at Aalborg University. He is currently attached to the research project PLACES that seeks to investigate the experience of psychopathology in eco-social niches. His interests are mostly focused on critical theory, cultural critique, suffering, anxiety, grief, temporality, psychologization, emotions, and everyday life in late-stage capitalism.
Noomi Matthiesen is associate professor of educational psychology. Her main area of research is parenting, parenting cultures and studies of the collaboration between parents and professionals in the welfare state (e.g. teachers and pedagogues). She is particularly interested in understanding how psychology as a discipline informs contemporary parenting and how this is experienced in everyday life.
Danny Mc Enery is an experienced coaching psychology practitioner with a diverse background in law enforcement and academia. After a distinguished 13-year career with An Garda Siochana, where he served as a detective in the Serious Crimes Investigation Unit, Danny retired to pursue academic and business interests. He holds an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from University College Cork, specialising in Analytical Phenomenology, and a Master’s degree in Coaching Psychology from the same institution, having developed a Cognitive Behavioural approach to his practice. His Master’s thesis investigated the practicalities of identifying clinically significant mental health issues in Coaching Psychology practice. Danny presented these findings at the Psychological Society of Ireland’s (PSI) Coaching Psychology SIG AGM last year and recently to the PSI student affairs group, with a proposal submitted for the PSI AGM this coming autumn. In 2023, Danny founded Coaching-Psychology Ireland (www.CoachingPsychology.ie), a commercial organisation comprising master and doctorate-trained coaching psychology practitioners and coaching psychologists. In his practice, Danny utilises coaching psychology as an early intervention for adolescents experiencing non-clinical variations of anxiety. More recently, he founded PrimaHealth (www.PrimaHealth.ie), an early-stage startup focused on becoming a leading provider of adolescent mental healthcare services in Ireland. Danny is a committee member of the Coaching Psychology Special Interest Group in the Psychological Society of Ireland and has been nominated to chair the committee in the coming years. He has been instrumental in developing a roadmap for the Special Interest Group to become a recognised Division within the Psychological Society of Ireland, working towards chartership for Coaching Psychologists in Ireland. Additionally, Danny has guest lectured at the School of Applied Psychology at University College Cork on Cognitive Behavioural approaches for anxiety and has been involved in various initiatives aimed at promoting mental health and well-being.
Dr Lizana Oberholzer is an Executive and Leadership Coach as well as a Senior Lecturer in Teacher Education and Postgraduate provision. She is the programme lead for the University of Wolverhampton’s International MA in Education, as well as the Early Careers Framework and National Professional Qualifications for School Leadership where she also leads on the coaching of Senior Leaders and Executive Leaders in Education. She is passionate about coaching psychology, leadership development, governance and teacher development. Lizana supports the BELMAS Research Interest Group for Governing and Governance as a Convenor. She is also a BELMAS Trustee as well as a BAMEed Trustee. Lizana works with WomenEd as a regional lead in the West Midlands. She is currently the IPDA England Chair, as well as Chair of the IPDA International committee. She chairs the UCET’s CPD forum and is a member of the UCET Executive Committee. Lizana is a member of the APPG for the Teaching Profession, and Chairs the APPG SIG for Teacher Development for the APPG for the Teaching Profession. She is a proud trustee of a Multi Academy Trust, and is a committed educator, striving to provide learners with learning opportunities and life-chances. Lizana is actively involved in the British Psychological Society’s Division of Coaching, and she is the Chair for the division. Lizana is a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching, an IPDA Fellow as well as a CMI Fellow. Her research interests centre around professional learning, mentoring, coaching and leadership development within education.
Dr Siobhain O’Riordan PhD CSci CPsychol FISCP MIHPEHon is Chartered Scientist and Chartered Coaching Psychologist. She is Course Co-Director on the stress management and coaching programmes and a trainer at the Centre for Coaching. She is an Honorary Member of the Institute for Health Promotion and Education, Fellow of the International Society for Coaching Psychology and Accredited Coaching Psychologist and Supervisor. From 2013-2015 she was Editor of the International Journal of Health Promotion & Education. Currently, she is Founder Chair of the International Society for Coaching Psychology, Editor of the International Journal of Coaching Psychology, Consulting Editor of The Coaching Psychologist and Editor of Coaching Psychology International. Her other roles include supervising doctorate students at the Wales Academy for Professional Practice and Research, University of Wales Trinity Saint David where she is a Research Fellow. She has published research and practice papers and her latest book is Introduction to Coaching Psychology (2021, with Palmer).
Professor Stephen Palmer PhD CPsychol CSci FISCP Accred is a Chartered Scientist, Chartered Coaching Psychologist, Registered Health Psychologist and APECS Accredited Executive Coach and Supervisor. He is President and Fellow of the International Society for Coaching Psychology, Vice President and Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Health Promotion and Education, former President and Honorary Fellow of both the the International Stress Management Association (UK) and Association for Coaching. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Royal Society of Biology. He is former Co-Editor of International Coaching Psychology Review, former editor and now Consulting Editor of the International Journal of Health Promotion & Education. He has written/edited 60 books including How to Deal with Stress (with Cooper), and Handbook of Coaching Psychology (with Whybrow). His academic posts include being Professor of Practice at the Wales Academy for Professional Practice and Research, University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), Adjunct Professor of Coaching Psychology, Aalborg University, Denmark, and Co-ordinating Director of the ISCP International Centre for Coaching Psychology Research. Previously he has been a Director of the Coaching Psychology Unit, City University London; Honorary Director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil, and BABCP London Branch Co-chair. He is a Director of Studies and supervisor of PhD students at UWTSD.
Sheila Panchal CPsychol MSc MISCP is a business psychologist working across a range of sectors. She is co-author of ‘Turning 30: How to get the life you really want’ (with Jackson, 2005) and co-editor of ‘Developmental Coaching: Life transitions and generational perspectives’ (with Palmer, 2011). She is a Co-Director of the Centre for Positive Transitions.
Dr Rachael Skews PhD is a coach, workplace psychologist, behavioural scientist, trainer, speaker, author, supervisor and advisor. She is an internationally recognised subject matter expert in acceptance and commitment coaching. Rachael is the founder of Cognus Consulting, which provides training in acceptance and commitment theory (ACT) in the workplace and in coaching. She is a registered supervisor with the BPS, specialising in acceptance and commitment coaching. In her commercial career, Rachael has successfully developed both traditional and technology-delivered psychological interventions. She has extensive experience consulting with clients from industries across the private, public, and charity sectors. She is a chartered psychologist with the British Psychological Society, an accredited coaching psychologist with the International Society for Coaching Psychology, and a Fellow of the Centre for Evidence Based Management.
Marc Sokol (PhD, Industrial-Organizational Psychology), has worked in large and small firms, in the public and private sector, in internal and external roles, across 25 countries, and had led his own firm, Sage Consulting Resources, for more than a decade. He has worked with virtually every C-level leadership role, consults to and partners with Boards, CEOs, Presidents, and senior teams, helping them extend impact across the firms they lead. Active in professional communities of practice, he is past executive editor of People + Strategy, on the editorial board of Consulting Psychology Journal, associate editor of OD Review, author/editor of several books, and president of the Society of Consulting Psychology, a division of the American Psychological Association (APA). He is a fellow of APA, the Society of Consulting Psychology, and the Society of Industrial-Organizational Psychology.
Dr Vicki Vandaveer PhD: As a business consulting and coaching psychologist, the primary focus areas of my work are large scale organization transformation advisory consultation, and executive individual and team coaching. Clients include C-suite executives, Managing Partners, senior leaders in academic medical centers, and designated high-potential leaders being groomed for executive roles. After internships at Exxon and Shell, I worked for Shell for four more years, then four years with Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. at divestiture from AT&T. In 1993 I started my own business consulting to a variety of American multinational companies, working in different cultures in 22 countries. Clients include academic medical centers; healthcare systems; large international, and medium-size companies in oil and gas, energy services, engineering and construction; consumer products; professional services; and nonprofit professional associations.
Gail’s areas of specialisation include systems thinking, organisational development, executive and team coaching, systems coaching, supervision and development of consulting and coaching teams. Gail is an Organisational Psychologist, Qualified Coach and Supervisor, specialist in Systems Psychodynamic work, certified with various systems thinking, supervision, and constellations related certifications. She is currently completing her PhD in Leadership and Teaming in Complexity. She has experience of 25+ years across many industries – including corporate, public sector, education and community. With her strong business focus she works well with longer-term systems change and long-term organisational development projects. Key successes have been in systems transformation and development of models and processes that guide these projects, development and use of impact assessment methodologies, supervision processes and development of a systems thinking accreditation. She serves as a Masters supervisor, examiner and part-time lecturer, has published and presented locally and internationally, and has won awards for her contributions, and has been awarded fellow status with the International Society of Coaching Psychology. She is chair of the IGCCP (Interest group for coaching and consulting psychology) for SIOPSA, and SCASA (Systems Constellations of Southern Africa).
Maiko Yoshioka is a coaching psychology practitioner at the Arts Workers Japan. After 10-year career as newspaper reporter, moved into entertainment industry, has worked as a production staff of theater, and a manager of actors. During the Covid-19 pandemic, seeing severe situation of artists, she felt that necessity of mental support for them. Therefore she studied Coaching Psychology at the graduate school of J.F.Oberlin University. The Conference presentation this time is a part of her Master thesis.
Anna Navin Young’s professional experience spans psychological research and coaching, leadership mentoring and training, lecturing, events management, program and retreat facilitation, youth development, community building, and arts programming. Anna is a PhD Researcher in the School of Applied Psychology at University College Cork, Ireland, and an Assistant Lecturer on the Masters in Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology and the Masters in Work and Organizational Psychology/Behaviour. Her work as a coaching psychologist and researcher integrates time research, coaching psychology, and positive psychology to investigate how our relationship with time and our everyday time habits (how we spend, think about, and value time) influence and are influenced by our environments and our health and wellbeing. Her work further seeks to integrate time awareness approaches into coaching psychology practice to support clients’ personal/professional development. Anna is a co-founder of the Positive Coaching Lab, and a committee member of the Psychological Society of Ireland’s Special Interest Group in Coaching Psychology. She also holds professional memberships with the Association for Coaching and the International Time Perspectives Network. More information is available on Anna’s website and LinkedIn profile.
Peter Zarris is an Organisational Psychologist and high profile Executive Coach with over 25 years experience in the development of individual, team and organisational capability. With a strong focus on leadership capability, Peter has coached many senior level executives both in Australia and abroad, exposing him to a wide range of markets and cultures. He is the CEO of the Opic Group and Director of Opic Leadership Peter. He was the National Chair of the Australian Psychological Society’s College of Organisational Psychology and previously Chair of the APS Coaching Psychology Interest Group. Peter is an Honorary Vice President of the International Society of Coaching Psychology.
Symposium: Coaching Psychology in Education: Enhancing Students’ Learning, Creativity and Well-Being.
Symposium Chair: Dr Qing Wang
Symposium Speakers
Dr. Qing Wang is an educational psychologist, chartered psychologist, accredited coaching psychologist and a passionate lifelong learner. She completed PhD from University of Bristol and currently works as Associate Professor in Educational and Coaching Psychology at the School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University (ECNU). She established Educational Coaching Research Group (ECRG) at ECNU focusing on coaching psychology research and practice in the field of education. She is Fellow of International Society for Coaching Psychology (ISCP), Associate Fellow and Chartered Psychologist of British Psychological Society (BPS) and Chartered Member of International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP). With a genuine interest in coaching psychology for learning, she explores, designs, delivers and evaluates coaching models and approaches with teachers and students in secondary schools, medical schools, vocational schools, universities and in parents’ education.
Jingxin is a postgraduate student studying educational psychology in our research group. Her research interests include students’ creativity, well-being and coaching psychology. In her session, she has develops a coaching program that integrates positive psychology coaching and expressive arts therapy to enhance students’ creativity and school well-being. Her research provides new evidence that coaching psychology can support holistic student development in educational settings.
Yueyou is a postgraduate student studying applied psychology. Her research interests include the effectiveness of psychological intervention approaches in practical applications. In this session, she was looking at the similarities and differences between psychological counselling and coaching psychology in practice, using CBT and CBC as examples and conducting an empirical investigation. Her research can provide new perspectives for further development in both fields of counseling and coaching psychology.
Yutong is a postgraduate student studying applied psychology in our group and her research interests include creative self-concept and coaching psychology. In this session, she develops a group-based coaching program using the narrative-collaborative coaching framework to boost creative self-concept. Her study also compares this program with another similar model that integrates mindfulness, demonstrating that both can foster the development of students’ creative self-concept and creative performance.
Qinyue is a postgraduate student studying educational psychology in East China Normal University. Her research interests include creativity, creative motivation and coaching psychology. In her presentation, she develops creative role identity coaching by integrating positive psychology coaching, character strengths-based coaching and narrative coaching; and compares the effects of creative role identity coaching and creative thinking training on creative performance and creative motivation.
Ying obtained her master’s degree of Applied Psychology from East China Normal University in 2021 and now she is the founder of a life coaching company in South China. She focuses her research and practice on coaching psychology in the field of health and education. In this session, she examines the mechanism of how protean career orientation influences proactive career behaviors and develops a semi-structured coaching program to develop protean career orientation effectively.
Haixin is a 2nd year postgraduate student in our research group and her research interests include creative coping and coaching psychology. In her session, she designs a coaching psychology programme on social support and creative coping in an attempt to improve students’ coping skills with stressful events in their lives and work.
Yuanyuan Zhang obtained her Master’s degree in Applied Psychology at the East China Normal University in 2021 and now a doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at University of Connecticut. She is interested in studying mindfulness, health and well-being in the family context, as well as the application of mindfulness coaching in various domains. Her session examines the impact of mindful communication coaching on individuals’ cooperative orientation by a randomized controlled trial.