About me

I am very interested in other people’s ability to live their lives; their ability to be active in their work and other activities they engage in. I am driven by understanding what others want, why they want it, and how. A person who talks about a dilemma or a wish they have regarding their life quickly captures my interest. I enjoy listening in such situations and love being able to contribute to reflections and insights.

In addition to coaching, I am affiliated with the University of Gothenburg. I have extensive experience in various roles within academia, including as a student, doctoral candidate, postdoc, teacher, researcher, research advisor, conference editor, and administrator. Currently, I work as an administrator for doctoral education. This role involves ensuring a good education for doctoral students, which is certainly valuable. However, the tasks increasingly involve administration.

I have long missed the opportunity to meet with others one-on-one and solve problems together. In the spring of 2021, I decided to shift my career in a more positive direction and began by reflecting on my previous roles. I wanted to understand what constituted the most valuable core for me. It became clear that as a teacher, I enjoyed personal meetings with thesis-writing students the most. As a researcher, I felt the most fascination in meetings with interview subjects. And as a research advisor, my work felt most valuable in individual conversations with grant-seeking researchers. In short, I realized that face-to-face meetings are where I thrive the most and believe I can be of the greatest benefit.

I am a member of and have been certified by International Coaching Federation, ICF.

Coaching education

• 2024: Associate Certified Coach, with ICF
• 2024: Diploma in Professional Coaching, Gothia Akademi, Gothenburg. Field: Catalytic Coaching®. March 8, 2023 – April 8, 2024 (in total 18 educational days) .
• 2022: Extension Training – Coaching with the ACT-model – Compassion focused Coaching, Akademi Coachstjärnan (two educational days September 12-13, 2022).
• 2022: Foundations of Positive Psychology, online Penn University, USA, April-July, 2022.
• 2022: Diploma in coaching, Akademi Coachstjärnan, Stockholm. October 8, 2021-February 19, 2022 (10 educational days).

Previous supervision, advice, mentoring and coaching

• Coaching from December 2021 (130+ hours by November 2024).
• Mentor for doctoral students in climate and environmental science, University of Gothenburg: one in 2012 and two in 2021-2023.
• Research advisor at the Faculty of Science, University of Gothenburg: 2010-2014 and part-time as research advisor in educational science and artistic research in 2012.
• Supervisor for thesis writing students at the Department of Cultural Conservation, University of Gothenburg: now and then in 2005-2017.

The occasions when I myself have been helped by coaching

• From the autumn 2021 onwards: In connection with my training as a coach, my course colleagues and I are coaching each other. We continuously practice what we have learned in the training.
• Spring 2021 (2 occasions): After the realization that I wanted to become a coach, I sought out my own coach for help thinking through the idea and for advice on good coach trainers in the country. I took my first diploma with one (Akademi Coachstjärnan) and continued taking the diploma as Professional Coach with the other (Gothia Academy).
• 2017 (3 coaching sessions): A work situation worried me because in the next six months I would be collaborating with a person with whom I had previously come into conflict. I then sought a coach through the university’s health department and got tools to manage the collaboration without ending up in new conflicts and without taking myself out.
• 2015 (3 coaching opportunities). I took the support of a coach to realize a book idea alongside my full-time office work. The coach first helped me sort out which, of two ideas, I believed in and felt most about. Then she supported me to get started and really do what was needed: to involve two knowledgeable people as editors alongside myself and to invite competent and well-known authors. This resulted in an anthology about tall buildings (in Swedish): https://arenabok.se/butik/hus-mot-himlen-hallbar-hybris/

My professional background

For many years I was a doctoral student and then a senior researcher with an interest in the reuse of old industrial areas. I left the research in 2010 but made a short return to research in a smaller project in 2015-2017. This looked in to the development of an urban area in Gothenburg called Ringön.

On LinkedIn you can read more about my academic background:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriella-olshammar/

Here you can see my publications listed in a database at the University of Gothenburg:
https://gu-se-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/search?query=any,contains,Gabriella%20Olshammar&tab=default_tab&search_scope=46GUB_GUP_MODS&vid=46GUB_GUP_MODS&lang=en_US&offset=0