About Lara

Lara Mossman (BSc, MA, MAPP, PhD) teaches and researches the science of wellbeing at an Australian University. Her focus is on how coaches and teachers can facilitate environments that support the wellbeing and motivation of young people.  Her work draws on the science of positive psychology (e.g., strengths, optimism), self-determination theory (SDT), and achievement goal theory (AGT). For her PhD, Lara built the Growth-Focused Sports Coaching (G-FSC) online training program for coaches. The program is tailored specifically for football (soccer) coaches but can be adapted for other sports. 

Lara lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her husband and three children, who are familiar with their top character strengths and use them in their lives.  She co-founded The Strengths Exchange with Professor Lea Waters, a strength-based positive parenting website. The site provides free resources for parents wishing to build a language around strengths. It encourages parents and children to spot strengths in others, too. 

Aside from her family, one of Lara's main passions is football. She enjoys playing Futsal with her family. She writes about positive youth football development, and her articles and blogs can be found on the Player Development Project website.
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The Self-Conference 2017. Lara was honoured to receive a visit from Ed Deci, one of the founders of Self-Determination Theory.

Teaching

Teaching at the University of Melbourne. Guest Lecturer on the Master of Applied Positive Psychology and Master of Applied Psychology. Co-development and delivery of Performance, Potential, and Development. Tutor and Guest Lecturer on Wellbeing, Motivation and Performance. 

Associate Lecturer at La Trobe University. Development and delivery of Positive Psychology an undergraduate subject.

Previous

Tutor on Positive Leadership and Careers, and Positive Communities and Organisations at the University of Melbourne. 

Teaching Associate at Monash University on the Master of Management. Teacher 
Average student evaluation score 4.8+ out of 5
Average class size approx. 50 students

Trainer at The Sofitel Melbourne on Collins in leadership, diversity, customer service, strategic planning, marketing and public relations topics. 

Visiting lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire lecturing in Plato's views on women and the family. 

Developing training material for the not-for-profit sector.
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Professor Lea Waters and Lara founded The Strengths Exchange together to provide parents and teachers with free resources on character strengths.

Projects
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Lara visited the Newcastle Jets to meet with Ernie Merrick and Michael Cooper. She is grateful to their time in assisting her with the development of G-FSC.

Education
Growth-Focused Sports Coaching (G-FSC), an online training program for youth sports coaches. 

Co-founder of The Strengths Exchange with Professor Lea Waters, a strengths based positive parenting website.

Writing for the Player Development Project.

Writing for Football Federation Australia on Positive Sports Environments.
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Managing the Twitter, Facebook Page and Instagram accounts for the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne.

​Writing blog posts for The Mind Room , a well-being and performance psychology community.

Previous 

Design and maintenance of the Positive Psychology Interest Group website.
PhD Candidate, La Trobe University, studying positive psychology and wellbeing science in football (soccer).

Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP), University of Melbourne.
Completed with first-class honours. 
Capstone project on Parent-Adolescent Convergence on Flourishing - supervised by researcher Dr Peggy Kern. 

Master of Arts in Philosophy with Historical Studies.

Bachelor of Science in Philosophy with Computing.

Accredited in the Strengths Profile.

Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.

Social Media

Twitter @laramossman
Instagram @ELMOSSY_22