About Your Coach

The Coach

Moving On was established by Kevin Ryan in 2005.

I came into coaching after 20 years in the publishing industry as a Graphic Designer and Art Editor, a background which has given me deep insight into the creative mind and personality. In my managerial role also I saw the way careers developed within a large cooperation and how people could be brought on and helped to grow within their work. Taking a career break, retraining and establishing my own business gave me first hand experience of how someone can move on, take control and change their life. This background has enabled me to develop good interpersonal and communication skills as well as gaining an insight into the worlds of big and small business.

Qualifying with The Coaching Academy, Europe’s largest provider of coach training in 2005, I completed a practitioner course in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) in the same year. I have also studied Psychotherapy and Counselling with the New School of Psychotherapy, Agenda 21, and Cognitive Behavioural Theory with CSTC. I am also a qualified bereavement counsellor and supervisor working with Cruse Bereavement Counselling. In addition, I have worked as a helpline volunteer for the National Missing Persons Helpline.

The Philosophy

What is coaching? What does it mean to be coached? Well, Myles Downey in his classic book Effective Coaching gave this metaphor, which I have taken as my philosophy of coaching. Say I was in a building, on the third floor, and I heard a commotion at the traffic junction below. Taking an interest, I looked down and saw that traffic was in complete gridlock. The drivers were shouting and swearing at each other; no one was going to give way. From my vantage point, I could see that if the white transit van and the trendy new VW moved back, the other two cars could pass through and release the blockage. If I went down and said to white-van-man and the others, “You move back, you move forward”, I would be told to go away in no uncertain terms. But if I invited them all up to my vantage point at the third-floor window, they could see for themselves what the problem was. They could then take action. The action they then took would be their own, not mine. I just acted as the facilitator.

The Mission

When I coach I listen, I question, I understand. I will try to lead you to the third-floor window, where you can look down on your issues and see the different paths available to you. There is always choice, the choice will be yours, not mine. In a way, I am helping you to take ownership of your own future.