Lecturer- Researcher Economy in Common
How do we, as human beings, give meaning to life?
This question lies at the heart of Merlijn’s life and career. His professional work can be summed up as “First Aid for Being Human.” Together with Ilse Vooren, Merlijn co-authored the book Zin kun je maken: processen van zingeving begeleiden (Meaning Can Be Made: Guiding Processes of Meaning-Making).
As a coach at Resilians, Merlijn speaks with people about the full range of life’s questions — from careers to personal life. At Avans University of Applied Sciences, he teaches in the Management in Healthcare program, focusing on the theme of personal leadership. In addition, Merlijn is pursuing a PhD on future consciousness in education.
Career
Merlijn earned his Master’s degree in Humanistics in 2012, with specializations in spiritual guidance and education. As part of his graduation project, he collaborated with Coach College de Baak to develop a specialization in life coaching. To this day, he continues to teach annual classes on existential coaching and ethics and moral stress for the Coach College’s training program.
Since graduating, Merlijn has remained focused on the existential questions that people increasingly bring to coaches and trainers. His central question:
What should coaches and trainers know and be able to do to recognize and guide these life questions?
He believes coaching plays an informal, yet underappreciated, social role in addressing meaning-making. Since 2015, he has worked at Resilians as a coach, conducting over 5,000 coaching sessions with people from all levels of organizations, discussing topics around work, life, and meaning.
In 2017, his book Zin kun je maken was published, co-written with Ilse Vooren. Since 2019, he has taught at Avans within the part-time Management in Healthcare program, focusing on personal leadership. In September 2023, he officially began his PhD research titled Connecting to the Future.
Expertise
Merlijn is specialized in:
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Meaning-making processes
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Narrative psychology
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Personal leadership
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Coaching
Research
Within the research group Economy as a Common Good, Merlijn is working on his PhD project Connecting to the Future. In addition, he is exploring the idea of launching a “Union for Meaning” — a collective initiative to give greater visibility and value to meaning-making in society.
Nevenfuncties
- Coach bij Resilians.
Publicaties
Boek:
- Vooren, I. en M. Koch (2017). Zin kun je maken. Processen van zingeving begeleiden. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Boom.
Artikelen:
- Vooren, I. en M. koch (2018). Meaningful Work: wat betekent het en wat kun je als organisatie doen? Inzichten vanuit internationale wetenschap en bedrijfsleven. Verslag van het 3rd International Symposium on Meaningful Work 14-15 juni 2018, VU Amsterdam (Whitepaper)
- Koch, M. (2019). Wat betekent het om in deze tijd te leven? Blijven zoeken naar de vragen van het bestaan. Psychosociaal Digitaal, Juni 2019, nr. 1.
- Koch, M. (2018). Waarde onbekend. Pleidooi voor meer aandacht voor morele stress. Psychosociaal Digitaal, Juni 2018, nr. 1.
- Koch, M. (2012). Sterk staan in het leven. Tijdschrift voor Coaching (2014 – 4)
Ontwikkeling professionele tools:
- Zelfreflectie-vragenlijst over zingeving met als doel om het thema zingeving bespreekbaar te maken in de setting van coaching en counseling. Eerste versie gelanceerd in 2017 bij Ixly (https://www.ixly.com/nl/blog/zingeving-vragenlijst-voor-zingevingsvraagstukken)