Psychodynamic Coaching

Distinctive Features

Claudia Nagel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351199612
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psicología
• Subtopic: Historia y teoría en psicología

In Psychodynamic Coaching: Distinctive Features, Claudia Nagel presents a comprehensive overview of the unique features of psychodynamic coaching. As leaders and managers acknowledge the need to understand themselves and their context by looking underneath the surface to improve their decision-making, psychodynamic approaches offer unique insight.

Psychodynamic Coaching: Distinctive Features covers not only the major theory but also the practice of coaching, giving guidance from beginning to end of the client relationship. Constructive, holistic and accessible, it demonstrates the impact and dynamics of the unconscious whilst illustrating the power of understanding human behaviour in the complexity of the modern world.

With a focus on emotions and relationships in supporting modern leaders adapting to organsational challenges, this book will be an invaluable tool for coaches of all backgrounds, academics and students of coaching and organisational behaviour, and also clinicians. It will also be a key resource for senior leaders for their own personal growth.

Theory Part I
Basic Theory

1
The roots of psychodynamic coaching in psychoanalytic traditions

The psychodynamic approach to coaching incorporates an array of psychoanalytical insights, techniques and interventions focussing on the unconscious and its influences on human behaviour. As its name implies, psychodynamic coaching has two components – first, it places the approach in a psychodynamic context, and second, it clarifies the grounds upon which psychodynamic thinking and techniques are applied.

Coaching in the workplace has over the last forty years evolved into a valid means of developing people within organisations, particularly those in leadership and expert roles, to improve the performance of both the individual and the organisation. Coaching here refers to experiential consultation to individuals and teams in the work domain that focusses on the human aspect by helping the client to develop soft and partly also hard skills whilst learning without teaching them. Coaching concentrates on the executive functions (Roberts & Jarrett, 2006, S. 9), which are to conceive and manage multiple tasks in an interrelational context to achieve the objectives of the organisation.

The psychodynamic approach incorporates various psychoanalytic and psychodynamic aspects, concepts and schools of thought that have developed over the 125 years since Freud began to work on the unconscious. Psychodynamic theory is deeply rooted in psychoanalytic thinking, exploring the role of the unconscious in human behaviour. The unconscious can be best described as what lies “underneath the carpet” – unspoken, unthought, denied, repressed, forgotten, fantasised and dreamt, which influences our motifs, choices and behaviours – in short: the inner-world of the human being.

The dynamic aspect of the term of psychodynamics refers to processes that take place between different psychic instances (e.g. Superego, Ego, Id). The term has evolved from its original association with an intrapsychic conflict to being linked with the relationship aspect towards the middle of the 20th century. Today, relationships and emotions remain at the centre of contemporary psychodynamic theory and practice.

A short historical overview of the roots of psychoanalytic thought¹

Freud’s (1911) drive theory proposed that neurotic conflict lay between two different emotions or between an instinctual wish and a moral imperative, causing psychopathological reactions. Later, within his structural model, he developed the idea of conflicts and dynamics between the three instances of the mind: the Ego, the Id and the Superego (Freud, 1923). Conflicts can also develop out of dialectical tensions human beings are born into, particularly the fundamental human tension of autonomy versus attachment (Mentzos, 2009) (see Chapter 7). The choice of which to adhere to in a specific situation creates conflict and thus anxiety, yet at the same time fosters individual personality development. This consequently leads to renewal, dynamics, differentiation and progress, which C.G. Jung coined the individuation process. Jung founded his own school of analytical psychology, developing the notion of complexes, archetypes and the Self. Conflict here can appear within or between complexes on an intra- and inter-individual level and give rise to neurosis that may be addressed with the support of the transcendent function (Jung, 1959).

The development of psychodynamics then embraced the ego psychology first developed by Freud’s daughter, Anna Freud, who contributed the theory of ego defences dealing with inner-conflict and warding off the resulting anxiety (Freud, 1936). In conflict-based psychodynamic theory, anxiety and fear resulting from or underlying conflicting choices are considered as the main driver of unconscious reaction. This is recognised as one of the major strands in psychoanalytic theory building and psychotherapy (Mentzos, 2009).

Around the same time, relations came into play with Melanie Klein (1882–1960), the first child psychoanalyst of the object-relations school. She understood the phantasised mother-child relationship as central to personality development. In contrast, Winnicott (1896–1971), the founder of the British object relation school, focussed on the real mother-child relationship and introduced the term “good enough mother” (1954), referring to the concept of the transitional object and the transitional space at the beginning of life. This is the intermediary space between mother and child, where they meet on a conscious and unconscious level and the child tries and tests fantasy and reality. The transitional object serves as a bridge between inner- and outer-reality. Later in adult life this transitional space develops into the basis for play and creativity.

Based on infant research, Bowlby (1907–1990) together with Mary Ainsworth (1913–1999) pioneered attachment theory. Ainsworth’s focus was the infant’s need for a safe base for developing secure attachment. Bowlby defined attachment more broadly as “the capacity to make intimate emotional bonds between people” (Bowlby, 1998), an innate psycho-biological drive to seek proximity with a familiar person (caregiver in infancy) when under threat. He also developed the notion of internal working models: basic models for relating with attachment figures that a child forms over time and which consequently influence all social relationships.

Bion (1897–1979) also significantly influenced psychodynamic theory with his model of the mother-child relationship, which presents the mother as the container and the child the contained. This theory suggests that unbearable states of mind are digested and psychically fed back to the child – the child perceives them and experiences them as a first form of thought (1962).

Bion is also of special interest in the work-oriented coaching context, as he has developed theoretical concepts around group dynamics and unconscious processes in working groups.

Contemporary psychodynamics is also informed by neuroscience, particularly neuropsychoanalysis. One of the founding fathers is Mark Solms building on the work of Peter Fonagy, Jaap Panksepp and Oliver Turnbull. One aim of psychodynamic neuroscience is to ascribe to mental processes an ontological status that is as real as that of neural processes. Neuroscience shares a fundamental aspiration with Freudian metapsychology, that is, to generate an accurate, large-scale model of the mind (Fotopoulou, 2012).

In summary, psychodynamic coaching focusses on the inner-world of the client in the context of leadership roles within organisations. It strives to connect the inner- and outer-worlds so that the outer-world, with its relationships and institutions, can be seen realistically by understanding and modifying individually influencing biases, blind spots, distortions and emotional reactions. The purpose is personal growth and development, to be in touch with one’s own feelings and to become more emotionally intelligent. The approach works on the capacity to reflect on one’s own emotions and the reactions and relationships that lead to them, to assess their role in the present situation and determine how to best handle them.

This work requires a systems perspective also – since the outer organisational world is continuously influencing the individual and their perceptions and behaviours. Psychodynamic coaching, hence, is often referred to as systems-psychodynamic coaching (Brunning, 2006) using the Person–Role–System model to investigate the relations, boundaries and influences between these three spheres from a psychodynamic perspective.

Although psychodynamics in coaching is rooted in psychoanalytical thinking, it is not to be misunderstood as psychotherapy. It is a psychologically informed developmental process, not a treatment for psychopathologies or emotional disturbances.

Note

1 In this overview I use some technical terms which I will explain in more detail later in their specific theoretical and practical context.

2
Psychodynamic coaching is not psychotherapy

Many psychodynamic coaches have clinical training, therefore it is pertinent to differentiate psychodynamic coaching from psychotherapy due to prejudices of confounding it with psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.

There is, however, a significant overlap between the disciplines. Both deal with behaviour, emotion and cognition, and seek to identify blind spots, defensive reactions, distorted thinking and irrational behaviours (Kets de Vries, 2006). Furthermore, both have a shared focus on uncovering unconscious and pre-conscious thinking and feeling and the application of concepts such as transference and countertransference (Beck, 2012).

The major difference between psychotherapy and psychodynamic coaching however lies in the fact that the latter is not a treatment for mental disorder or disturbance (Peltier, 2010). The handling of severe mental health problems or drug abuse is beyond the scope of psychodynamic coaching. Individuals experiencing such issues should be referred to a psychotherapist or psychiatrist.

A capacity for self-management is a clear prerequisite for a client of coaching, this is rarely the case in psychotherapy, where the development of self-reflection is an important goal; the focus of attention is on individual performance in the professional role in the work domain. Typical coaching clients are those in management positions that possess a good degree of job-functionality and performance. Coaching is goal and action oriented and focusses on personal growth and skills development. This includes working openly and actively with interpretations, hypotheses and projections. In contrast, the aim of psychotherapy is to reduce painful or pathological symptoms and work on neurotic or psychopathologic aspects of the personality. The psychotherapy process may therefore take considerable time and necessitate frequent meetings, whereas coaching is seen as a short-or mid-term intervention. With psychotherapy, responsibility for the process remains in the hands of the psychotherapist and is enacted through a hierarchical relationship and a more passive and reflective interaction style between the therapist and the patient. With psycho-dynamic coaching, a hierarchical situation is to be avoided; the coach functions as sparring partner, mirror and sometimes as an advisor, allowing the client to retain ownership of the problem and the solution; interaction is in general more active. Setting is another distinguishing factor. Whereas the psychotherapy session always takes place on the premises of the therapist, psychodynamic coaching can be conducted via email, phone or Skype conversations, or face-to-face meetings almost anywhere, and may include observational periods within the client’s work environment (Kets de Vries, 2006).

Debate has arisen as to whether it is necessary for psychodynamic coaches to investigate early childhood experiences as a means of developing an understanding of the behavioural patterns of the client. In practice many coaches do integrate early episodes, whereas Vansina (2008) argues for integration of the client’s recent past and actual inner-world only. Sandler (2011) is more open to this idea yet adds that there is no need for an in-depth exploration of personal history, parental relationships and childhood experiences. My personal understanding is that whether or not to employ such an approach depends more on the particulars of the case rather than those of the textbook. In some cases, it proves extremely helpful to link dysfunctional behavioural patterns back to childhood experiences as a means of developing an understanding and awareness that enables behavioural change (see case example in Nagel, 2014); however, in other cases this approach may not provide additional insights.

Psychodynamic coaching can also be differentiated from technical guidance, which is more active and advisory; from career counselling, which does not strive for understanding of emotional or relational patterns; from mentoring, which mostly takes place between a senior manager and a junior staff member; and from supervision, which deals with consulting and counselling practitioners and their work with their clients (Schreyögg, 2010).

3
Basic elements of psychodynamic coaching

Having established what distinguishes psychodynamic coaching from psychotherapy, we will now turn to the five constituting elements of psychodynamic coaching.

First is the work with the unconscious which governs any psychodynamic approach:

• Much of human mental life is unconscious; it can produce behaviour that is incomprehensible or puzzling to the individual experiencing it
• Conscious and unconscious thoughts and feelings operate simultaneously and can be conflicting, necessitating compromised solutions
• Stable personality and social, mostly unconscious, behaviour patterns are formed in childhood and can persist to significantly impact relationships in adulthood
• Stable internal mental representations of the self are formed gradually throughout childhood and adolescence. These representations, which are often unconscious, guide social relationships and may provoke psychic symptoms
• Personality development entails learning how to regulate emotions, thoughts and social relationships, and progression from an immature, dependent and unconscious state in childhood to an ideal of a mature and independent state in adulthood.

(Kilburg, 2004)

Secondly, these key postulates require a specific guiding attitude of the coach, whereby s/he is the facilitator or midwife for the client’s personal and professional development, not a problem-solver, advisor or consultant in technical terms. Although some define coaching as a subset of process consultation (Huffington, 2006), most consultants would define their role as being more active in contributing expert knowledge to solutions. What seems more appropriate for a coach is a facilitating and supportive attitude that encompasses meta-communication, whereby the coach supports the inner developmental process of the client by asking questions which engender a deeper self-reflection and foster insights into their own and others’ unconscious processes and emotional influences, culminating in behavioural changes. The coach might also provide carefully considered feedback on the client’s present reactions as a means of exploring behavioural, emotional and thought pattern recognition – without imposing their own view. The coach must strike a balance between maintaining a supportive attitude and judicious use of challenging questions without distressing the client. With this attitude of facilitation, the coach can establish a safe holding environment, and through the development of a trust relationship, the client will feel comfortable enough to open up and share their inner-world with the coach.

The third major element in the work of the psychodynamic coach is the client’s process of becoming more and more conscious of her/his personal inner-world and the inner- and outer-factors that influence it. The basic idea behind this goal of developing consciousness of the inner-world is that events, feelings, thoughts and behavioural patterns that are external to the client’s conscious awareness influence their choices and actions (Kilburg, 2004). Becoming more conscious means developing awareness of what is taking place in one’s own inner-world. This process entails seeing, feeling and understanding the inner governing factors which influence our daily thinking and feeling – affects, patterns, rules, hypotheses, conflicts – as well as seeing, feeling and understanding how external events such as relationships with other people and social occasions provoke specific reactions.

The fourth element of psych...