Christian van Nieuwerburgh on Bringing Back the Joy (CAL142, S8E7)
Christian van Nieuwerburgh is Professor of Coaching and Positive Psychology at the Centre for Positive Health Sciences at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland University of Medicine and Health Sciences, and a practitioner providing coach training and consultancy for the education sector, among other roles. His ‘coach on a motorcycle’ identity is about aligning all parts of his work and life as a “pracademic”.
Universities, he argues, should be joyful, safe, inclusive places where students and staff flourish despite constraints like performance metrics and burnout. He talks about wellbeing as foundational for us to be able to do good work, about how a coaching approach is ideal for setting up learning environments that build autonomy, self-efficacy, and connection, and about the importance of intention. Intention, he says, is central to how we show up because “intention directs attention,” helping others feel seen, valued, and heard. Throughout, he provides lots of practical suggestions for how to check in with our own intentions and choices. We discuss supervision and learning conversations, shifting stances from directive to facilitative and dialogical, optimal matching of support, asking what help is needed, cultivating presence, and using small reflective choices (purpose, calendar/energy audits, recharging activities) to bring joy back to academic work.
00:29 Episode Introduction
03:33 Christian's Student Dream to Academic Reality
05:51 Embracing the Pracademic Coach on a Motorcycle
07:25 Bringing Joy Back to Universities
12:40 Joyful Effort Meaning and Energy
19:29 Wellbeing Beyond the Business Case
23:58 Intention Directs Attention
29:54 Coaching Supervision and a Caring Professor
34:16 Undivided Attention Matters
36:00 Supervisor as Coach
38:34 Beyond the Expert Hat
41:04 Dialogical Career Conversations
48:32 Matching Support to Needs
50:54 From Surviving to Adding Value
53:36 Practicing Presence Daily
57:23 Joyful Effort Closing
58:17 Outro
Related Links:
About Christian:
The ‘Coach on a Motorcycle’. You can also find him via his RCSI web page, Google Scholar page, and on LinkedIn and Instagram.
People Christian mentions:
Prof. Cathia Jenainati, Uni of Gloucestershire
Prof. George Khairallah, American University of Beirut
Dr Paige Williams, Uni of Melbourne
Christian's books and articles:
See https://coachonamotorcycle.com/books/ for all his books
van Nieuwerburgh, Christian and Biswas-Diener, Robert, Radical Listening: The Art of True Connection, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2025.
van Nieuwerburgh, Christian, Radical listening: two big ideas and six core skills that could help you connect more deeply with others, The Conversation, June 2025
van Nieuwerburgh, Christian and Williams, Paige (Eds), From Surviving to Thriving: A student’s guide to feeling and doing well at university, Sage Publications, 2022.
van Nieuwerburgh, Christian, An Introduction to Coaching Skills: A Practical Guide, Sage Publications, 2013 (2025 4th Ed).
Lynden J, Gallaghan G, van Nieuwerburgh CJ (2024), "Bringing joy back into higher education: the potential contribution of coaching". International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, Vol. 13 No. 3 pp. 378–393. (PDF available here)
Other articles:
Buckingham, Markus and Goodall, Ashley, Work-Life Balance is a Myth. Do This Instead. Time Magazine, June 6 2019.
