Have your say: Kieran O'Toole

Why did you feel coaching was important for you and your business?

A lot of what we deal with [at The Dynamo Project] tends to be addressing the past issues of our residents to help them process things, and then hopefully be able to move on from certain things.  However, I felt that it may be to0 much to be forever looking at the past without an eye on the future and this is where I felt the introduction of coaching would be extremely beneficial.  I felt coaching would help the residents see what the future could look like for them, free from active addiction and, more importantly, not only see where they want to go but how they could get there.  Coaching brought a good balance between identifying past traumas in other areas of what we do and looking forward, which Cara helped the residents with a lot.

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How was the experience for you as a business and your residents who were coached? Was there anything unexpected you learned from the process?
I was surprised to some extent how trusting the residents became with the process in a short amount of time.  I also learned that despite not having lived experience of battling addiction, that it didn’t really impact on how the residents took to Cara.  They all looked forward to their sessions and I was so happy that they had that opportunity to talk to someone impartial and I think they felt safe and secure in doing so.

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How do you feel coaching has impacted the lives and recovery of your programme residents?
I know it had a great impact on the residents, they looked forward to the sessions and it became a big part of their weekly programme at the project.  It provided them that safe space to engage and I could see first hand the benefit it brought them.  To have the ability to look to the future is something not very common with addicts, the coaching was a vital tool and the residents who participated have all gone on to remain clean and in some cases leave the project and go back to work, re-build relationships and have the future they thought was not possible for them.

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If there is anything you would change in the process, what would that be?
This is a difficult question to answer as the work Cara did was amazing.  From an operational point of view, we are working together to build in more group work and this is purely down the logistics of planning the day to increase the one-to-many service.  This is only being said as it will suit us more but the actual coaching and benefit to the residents was amazing.  

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If you could give one piece of advice to someone thinking about having coaching, what would that be?

Keep an open mind, you get out what you put in and there is no harm in looking to the future and putting things in place to help you achieve what you want to achieve.  We all aspire to what we want to do, very few actually think about how to implement change in order to achieve our ambitions.

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Do you have anything further you would like to add about coaching with PROSPERA?

Cara is someone I have known since school and I cannot think of someone better suited to this role then her.  Cara has this aura about her which is so calming, and it almost allows people to open up to her without understanding why.  Cara is so patient and understanding and I have no doubt whatever Cara sets her mind to she will achieve.  I am very lucky to call Cara a friend and to have her involved in the project was amazing.  As the project grows and we become more sustainable than I hope coaching becomes a big part of what we do.