Michael Cavanagh is a Coaching and Clinical Psychologist and Deputy Director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at the School of Psychology, University of Sydney. With Tony Grant, Michael has helped design the first university based degree program in coaching psychology. An academic and a practitioner, Michael holds a BA (Honors – 1st class) in Psychology from the University of Sydney, Australia. He has completed the Masters of Clinical Psychology Program at Macquarie University where he also completed his doctoral research exploring the impact of cognitive and behavioral patterns on health-related anxiety.

Michael’s background encompasses work in a variety of public and private enterprises, both in Australia and internationally. As an executive coach his areas of special interest include:

• Communication skills
• Leadership and Emotional competency
• Solution focused approaches to goal achievement and problem solving.
• Coaching in complex systems

A registered psychologist, Michael has over 17 years experience in facilitating personal, group and organizational change. He has designed and facilitated training and personal development workshops in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. He has coached a wide range of individuals, drawn from every level of management, and from a diverse range of organizations including:

• Senior management in NSW Public Sector
• The UK National Health Service
• NSW department of Health
• The Senior Leadership Team of Lion Nathan
• Western Mining Corporation
• The Alliance of NSW Divisions
• The Australian Health Management Group
• CHEP Asia Pacific
• Fairfax
• News Ltd
• Australian Graduate School of Management
• A range of financial institutions and legal firms

Michael’s coaching practice and teaching emphasizes the use of empirically-validated techniques and draws on the cognitive-behavioral, motivational interviewing and solution-focused approaches.

His research and practice have been reported in the national media, and he has a number of publications in the academic press and has presented at international conferences. He has received a number of awards for his work in psychology, including:

• The 1996 O’Neil Prize for proficiency in the theoretical thesis in Psychology Honors
• The 1995 Lithgow scholarship for 1st Place in Psychology
• The Walter Reid memorial scholarship for academic excellence in 1994, 1995, and 1996