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Louise Cunningham

Region(s) North Dublin, Louth, Monaghan, Cavan, Meath-South Dublin, West Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow-Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford-Galway, Clare, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath-Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Roscommon

Qualifications and Affiliations


• Post-Graduate Diploma in Business and Executive Coaching (QQI Level 9) UCD Michael Smurfit GBS
• Certificate in Systemic Team Coaching Association of Executive Coaching (AoEC)
• Certified Mentor Centre for School Leadership
• British Psychological Society Certified Test User of Ability and Personality Assessments Trained to analyse personality profiles using Wiser/16PF/15FQ/NEO; Myers Briggs model (JTI/Golden), Emotional Intelligence (EIQ), Values and Careers
• Certificate in Psychological First Aid Johns Hopkins University
• M.Phil. Applied Linguistics (TCD)
• B.Ed. (NUI)
• Certificate in the Fundamentals of Systemic Coaching and Constellations (John Whittington) Part 1
• Embodied Coaching and the Inner Critic (Jenny Stacy and Tsafi Ledermann)
• Numerous Leadership courses with CSL/IPPN, INTO, PDST


Coaching Affiliations

• Individual accreditation at Practitioner Level European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC)
• Member of EMCC
• Teaching Council Registered
• IRAAL Irish Association of Applied Linguists

Experience in one to one coaching


Louise is an experienced Executive Leadership Coach and Mentor offering a unique blend of experience in education with up-to date insights from individual and team coaching. Louise worked for 30+ years in a variety of educational settings, nationally and internationally, including 10 years as principal of a large Dublin school. She is acutely aware of the many challenges confronting leaders, especially during times of upheaval.

A graduate of UCD Smurfit Business School, Louise provides coaching to a large number of public and private sector clients - medical, pharmaceutical, I.T., legal, finance, arts and charities. She has established a reputation as a trusted, confident and insightful coach - see testimonials www.redcoaching.ie

Louise is passionate about supporting leaders to deal with change, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. She understands how increasing workload and an expanding range of stakeholders result in school leaders having little or no time to attend to their own needs. Taking time out to pause and reflect is essential.

As coach Louise provides structured thinking time where work priorities, challenges, relationships and self-care issues are explored in complete confidence. This allows leaders to achieve greater awareness from which new possibilities, opportunities and solutions emerge. Leaders become more confident and resilient as they develop the reflective skills to be more impactful in their role.

Louise believes in the power of coaching to impact positively on personal, professional and organisational development. A coaching style of leadership can help create a culture of growth in organisations. Louise provides systemic team coaching to improve collaboration and develop cohesive, progressive leadership teams within schools.

Louise’s strength as a coach is her empathic, non-judgemental presence and her ability to quickly establish rapport. Combining appropriate levels of support, challenge and humour, Louise offers leaders opportunities to maximise their potential to resolve issues with practical and sustainable solutions.


CSL is funded by the Teacher Education Section (TES) of the Department of Education (DE)
This service is managed by Clare Education Centre.