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Alumni LoginNew Horizons 2025
Connecting Together for Professional Growth
On Friday 7 November 2025 we are delighted to offer an afternoon of workshops, exclusively for AoEC Alumni.
Workshop 1 - The Creative Edge: Connection, Improvisation and Range in Coaching
In this interactive 75-minute workshop, AoEC Faculty member Neil Mackinnon will draw on his background as a musician, producer and business leader to introduce The Creative Edge. Using creativity as a jumping off point, Neil will show how coaching thrives when we balance structure with emergence in the awareness of the systemic.
Participants will be invited to experiment with their own creativity and explore how to unlock it in clients.
You’ll leave with practical tools and renewed confidence to trust creativity as central to your coaching practice, and inspiration for how to articulate creativity as a resource in the business world.
Workshop 2: Deepening your Presence through Embodied Dialogue - with John Leary-Joyce
A major competency requirement at the ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC) performance evaluation is demonstrating Coaches Presence. During the AoEC’s Practitioner Diploma there is emphasis on “Who am I and How do I Coach” which gives you a strong foundation in this competency. However, this is such a nebulous skill to develop, which eventually comes through practice, experience and confidence.
Joining this Embodied Dialogue workshop will give you tips and experiences on how to speed up your learning on developing Signature Presence and enrich this aspect of your coaching practice.
John Leary-Joyce will outline the theoretical framework of Embodied Dialogue in relation to the ICF competencies, take you through experiential exercises, a short practice session on Somatic Resonance and finish with a demonstration.
Learning outcomes:
- Understand the theoretical framework of Embodied Dialogue and its relevance to ICF coaching competencies, especially Coach Presence.
- Recognise and apply somatic cues in coaching conversations to foster deeper client connection and insight.
- Learn how to use Somatic Resonance to enhance your coaching impact.
- Learn how to identify key elements embodied presence and dialogue through an expert demonstration with John Leary-Joyce.
| When | Friday 7 November 2025 |
| Where | The Royal Society 6-9 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5AG |
| Time | Arrival 13.15pm Close 16.15pm |
| Cost | £75 + vat |
Schedule:
13.15 - Registration
13.30 - The Creative Edge: Connection, Improvisation and Range in Coaching
14.45 - Break
15.00 - Workshop 2: Deepening your Presence through Embodied Dialogue - with John Leary-Joyce
16.15 - Close
Please note: This event is taking place in advance of Graduation 2025 so for people that are attending both events there will be a break between 16.15 and 17.00 for a chance to stretch and get some food.
Certificates will be issued for attending this afternoon CPD event.
Event Facilitators
Neil Mackinnon Faculty Faculty
Neil Mackinnon Faculty
Neil is a coach and consultant based in London. Following an early career as a professional musician, Neil transitioned into the business side of the cultural sector. He ultimately spent 12 years at London’s Southbank Centre, the UK’s largest arts centre, in a series of increasingly senior management roles. He first worked with a coach in 2013 and found the experience transformational, resonating deeply with his lifelong fascination with personal development, growth and effectiveness. This experience instigated an odyssey of exploring coaching through a learning cycle of reading, experiencing and practicing. He brought coaching as a style of leadership into his work at Southbank Centre and began gradually building a 1:1 practice externally towards the end of his time with the orgainsation. Neil has trained with RD1st and is a graduate of the AoEC’s Practitioner Diploma program. He is passionate about supporting people to connect with their personal agency, get specific about what they want and become the best version of themselves as they go on the adventure towards getting it.
John Leary-Joyce CEO and Founder
John Leary-Joyce CEO and Founder
John is our CEO and founded the Academy of Executive Coaching in 1999 with one administrator and over the years recruited and collaborated with many talented directors, trainers & administrators to develop AoEC into the prestigious brand it is today.
With his tireless entrepreneurial spirit, AoEC has become a highly successful international coaching training organisation with professional accreditation from ICF, EMCC, & AC. Previously, he was MD of Gestalt Centre London growing the business fourfold in six years and gaining a Company Director diploma with the Institute of Directors.
John is a highly principled leader, drawing on and applying his experience from a long career as a Gestalt psychotherapist, executive and team coach, trainer and supervisor. He is past president of EMCC UK where his focus was on maintaining standards for coaching and mentoring and building collaboration between the different professional bodies.
In 2010, he founded with Peter Hawkins the Systemic Team Coaching programmes. He has an MA in Executive Coaching, is PCC with ICF, qualified supervisor, regular presenter at international conferences and author of Fertile Void, Gestalt Coaching at Work 2014 and co-author of Systemic Team Coaching - 2nd Edition, 2024. His other passion is dancing Tango which links with leadership, coaching and Gestalt.