Quality of connection in coaching and supervision: the role of Gestalt

Quality of Connection in Coaching and

Supervision – the Role of Gestalt

Marion Gillie

International Centre for Coaching and Leadership Development

Levels of connection

• My client / supervisee’s connection with him / herself

(how I facilitate their self-awareness)

• My connection with myself

(my awareness of what this person evokes in me)

• My connection with my client / supervisee

(do we really make ‘contact’)

International Centre for Coaching and Leadership Development

Coaching and supervision need a frame of reference on:

• The nature of human functioning

• The process of human growth and change

• A methodology for intervening

International Centre for Coaching and Leadership Development

We are hard wired to see wholes

International Centre for Coaching and Leadership Development

We are hard wired to see wholes

Cna yuo raed tihs?

The phaonmneal pweor of the hman mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

International Centre for Coaching and Leadership Development

And to organise perception as figure and ground

International Centre for Coaching and Leadership Development

International Centre for Coaching and Leadership Development

The Here and Now

Phenomenological exploration:

• What is this client / supervisee’s lived experience right now

as we work

• How are they making meaning

Meaning results from the totality of their unique personal history,

thoughts, feelings, conscious and unconscious beliefs, anxieties

and fears, memories of past experiences, hopes and aspirations

etc.

AND

I am part of their meaning-making

International Centre for Coaching and Leadership Development

Human change and growth

Change happens through relationship

• The ‘self’ is not a fixed entity but is a process

always in flux

• Critical to growth is the quality of connection through

Presence and Dialogue

International Centre for Coaching and Leadership Development

Human change and growth

“Change occurs when one becomes what one is, not

when he tries to become what he is not”

The Paradoxical Theory of Change, Beisser 1970

• Forced change diverts energy into rebellion

• Gestalt encourages the quality of connection with how it

really is, freeing energy for genuine choice

International Centre for Coaching and Leadership Development

Gestalt’s methodology for intervening

• Phenomenological exploration

• Active experimentation

To raise awareness, identify the real need (figure of

interest) and mobilise energy towards appropriate

action

International Centre for Coaching and Leadership Development

www.TheGilliePartnership.co.uk