Coaching and Therapy: Finding Common Ground in Gestalt Practice

Abstract

The same foundational principles—phenomenology and “The Paradoxical Theory of Change”—underlie Gestalt practice and give rise to common ground, whether the practitioner is a coach or a therapist. The distinctions often made between the two professions are further attenuated when either coach or therapist adopts a fundamental tenet of the Gestalt International Study Center's (GISC) Cape Cod Model©—a focus on the “well-developed.” This article explores common ground shared by these practitioners and challenges the easy distinctions often made between the two professions.