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® .
• 2022: Extension Training – Coaching with the ACT-model – Compassion focused Coaching, Akademi Coachstjärnan
• 2022: Foundations of Positive Psychology, online Penn University, USA
• 2022: Diploma in coaching, Akademi Coachstjärnan, Stockholm.

Previous supervision, advice, mentoring and coaching

• Coaching from December 2021 (100+ hours).
• 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. If you want to know more abou tthat project, you can visit this website, which documentary filmmaker Kristina Meiton has created: https://www.platsringon.se/content/pages/mellan-film-och-forskning.html

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