Gestalt Approaches With Organisations

This book provides a comprehensive view of the application of Relational Gestalt theory to Organisation Development and change interventions in organisations. Uncertainty and frequent change are the hallmark of our times. In the field of Organisational Development and Change, fixed methodologies no longer adequately address the uncertainty and uniqueness of today's more complex change situations and more adaptive approaches to change are needed. Gestalt is a relational, dialogic, and emergent approach which means that it views individuals and organisations as embedded in their context, dependent on, and emerging from within a web of relationships and interactions. As such, Gestalt offers a transformative, integral and bespoke methodology for working with this complexity. This approach supports practitioners to attend to their presence, seek out the most pressing issues and mobilise for sustainable change. Gestalt has at its heart the notion of use-of-self as instrument which allows practitioners to be responsive to emergent issues and situations. Relational Organisational Gestalt is at the leading-edge of Gestalt theory and application in organisational settings.

In this classic text, pioneering organizational consultant Edwin C. Nevis presents an approach to organizational consulting which is grounded in Gestalt theory. Nevis brings his well-known insight, conceptual clarity and decades of experience to bear on the entire spectrum of concerns facing organizational consultants in a wide variety of settings. Beginning with the development of the Gestalt approach and the "Cycle of Experience" model, Nevis traces the implications of Gestalt theory for such areas as organizational assessment, modes of influence in organizations, dealing with resistance, developing relationships, working at the boundary and the matter of the consultant's presence. The conceptual framework provided in this groundbreaking work gives organizational consultants a powerful tool for understanding and influencing the behavior of organizations, and at the same time invites them to actively partake in the ongoing development of their unique individual styles.

Originally published in 1981, perceptual organization had been synonymous with Gestalt psychology, and Gestalt psychology had fallen into disrepute. In the heyday of Behaviorism, the few cognitive psychologists of the time pursued Gestalt phenomena. But in 1981, Cognitive Psychology was married to Information Processing. (Some would say that it was a marriage of convenience.) After the wedding, Cognitive Psychology had come to look like a theoretically wrinkled Behaviorism; very few of the mainstream topics of Cognitive Psychology made explicit contact with Gestalt phenomena. In the background, Cognition's first love – Gestalt – was pining to regain favor. The cognitive psychologists' desire for a phenomenological and intellectual interaction with Gestalt psychology did not manifest itself in their publications, but it did surface often enough at the Psychonomic Society meeting in 1976 for them to remark upon it in one of their conversations. This book, then, is the product of the editors’ curiosity about the status of ideas at the time, first proposed by Gestalt psychologists. For two days in November 1977, they held an exhilarating symposium that was attended by some 20 people, not all of whom are represented in this volume. At the end of our symposium it was agreed that they would try, in contributions to this volume, to convey the speculative and metatheoretical ground of their research in addition to the solid data and carefully wrought theories that are the figure of their research.

Gestalt Coaching: Distinctive Features makes Gestalt principles, values, and philosophy accessible to coaches of all backgrounds and explains how to apply them in practice. Peter Bluckert introduces 30 distinctive features of this approach, divided equally between theory and practice. The book provides concise but clear summaries of core concepts such as awareness and contact, the nature and power of unfinished situations, the Field perspective, the phenomenological approach, The Gestalt Cycle of Experience, and the nature of strategic and intimate interactions. Bluckert provides a set of practice guidelines and watch-outs for the Gestalt coach, information on training and development and several case examples to bring the approach to life. Gestalt Coaching reveals how this approach can be used in individual development, such as executive coaching, with groups and teams, and in wider social and political contexts. With a focus on personal growth and development and enhancing co-operation, dialogue, and relationships, this book will be an invaluable tool for coaches of all backgrounds in practice and in training, academics and students of coaching, and anyone interested in learning more about how to apply Gestalt principles in their personal and professional life.

Gestalt Therapy: History, Theory, and Practice is an introductory text, written by major Gestalt theorists, that will engage those new to Gestalt therapy. Editors Ansel Woldt and Sarah M. Toman introduce the historical underpinnings and fundamental concepts of Gestalt therapy and illustrate applications of those concepts to therapeutic practice. The book is unique in that it is the first Gestalt text specifically designed for the academic and training institute settings. Gestalt Therapy takes both a conceptual and a practical approach to examining classic and cutting-edge constructs.

Based on extensive practitioner research, this book focuses on facilitating change for all who work in teams and within organizations. These pages present a model of facilitation that addresses how to increase awareness of physical and sensory, social and cultural, emotional and biographical, projective and imagined, and transpersonal and intuitive influences. Some of the topics include generating individual and group understanding, liberating and refining new experiential knowledge, raising personal and social awareness, and educating and empowering all involved. Professionals, especially organizational consultants and coaches, will learn how to facilitate team-building and community change in organizations.

This thoroughly revised edition of Gestalt Counselling introduces the fundamental concepts of Gestalt and systematically demonstrates how to apply and use these in practice. Taking a relational perspective, the expert authors explore how Gestalt can be used in a wide variety of ′helping conversations′ from counselling, psychotherapy and coaching to mentoring, managing, consulting and guiding. A Each chapter contains case examples from the therapeutic world and a ′running case study′ featuring ongoing coaching work moves throughout the book, with diagrams and lists for further reading making this the ideal text for use in training. The accessible, engaging writing style will appeal to undergraduates and postgraduates alike. Charlotte Sills is a practitioner and supervisor in private practice, a tutor at Metanoia Institute and a tutor and supervisor of coaching at Ashridge CollegeBusiness School. She is the author or co-author of many books and articles on therapeutic work. Phil Lapworth is a counsellor, psychotherapist and supervisor in private practice near Bath and has written extensively in the field of counselling and psychotherapy. Billy Desmond is a Gestalt psychotherapist, executive coach and organisational development consultant. He is a member of Ashridge College and a Programme Director of Partnering and Consulting in ChangeHead of the Gestalt Department at Metanoia Insititute, and tutor and consultant at Ashridge Business School.