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This paper aims to highlight a link between the rise of executive coaching practice and less importance being place on growing a coaching culture in organizations. This paper seeks to outline how a coaching culture can be fostered through an emphasis on a relational field coaching approach.

The main research method is based on case studies and action research from the author's own organizational practice.

The paper emphasizes that a focus on the context or situation of coaching is just as important as individual considerations in a coaching dyad.

The paper calls for a review of the effectiveness of one‐to‐one coaching compared to establishing an organizational coaching culture.

This paper is a timely reminder to leaders, managers and HR practitioners to review the cost effectiveness of procuring external coaching versus developing internal coaching capability. In addition, it challenges organizations to refocus on the continuum of coaching interactions rather than just the “external expert” role.

The purpose of this paper is to expand understanding of how Gestalt psychotherapy theory and practice can support the facilitation of change management efforts in organisations.

The methodology is based on action research approach in which the author has applied Gestalt principles to her work as a change management practitioner. Case study material is used to support the development of an emergent model for change management based on Gestalt psychotherapy theory and praxis.

This paper emphasises the need to attend in change management efforts to three interrelated capabilities: Sensing, Supporting and Sustaining. Together these emphasise the need to track and stay responsive to the organisational environment; to ensure the right amount of support and challenge is present in the change effort and finally, to provide a focus on experimentation and the embedding of learning for sustainable change.

This contribution is limited by looking at only four cases in the private sector and the current paper should be considered as a preliminary/exploratory research.

This study has two key implications for scholars and practitioners. First, it shows the usefulness of continuous sensing into the phenomenological experience of the organisation throughout the lifetime of a change project. Second, this study shows that learning and experimentation with new ways of being is crucial to an organisation that wants to grow and remain fluid and responsive to its environment.

This article offers a conceptualisation of how the theory and practice of relational Gestalt psychotherapy theory can shape the practice of organisational development practitioners. Its uniqueness lies in that it offers to Gestalt practitioners a sense of the applicability of Gestalt theory to large‐scale organisational interventions; and for non‐Gestalt informed OD practitioners it offers new insights into a theory base that promotes a relational, holistic and emergent view of change.

The results of empirical research on the patient–psychotherapist relationship have led to the fundamental conclusion that the therapeutic alliance is one of the key factors ensuring the positive outcomes of psychotherapy. The main aim of the present study is to determine what variables pertaining to the context of psychotherapy (type of treatment applied in accordance with the psychotherapist’s modality/orientation, type of disorder diagnosed in the patient) differentiated the alliance.

Participants for the main study were recruited from public and private psychotherapy offices across Poland. The working alliance was assessed based on 262 psychotherapist–patient dyads. The sample consisted of 428 participants. To assess the quality of therapeutic alliance, the author used the full version of the Working Alliance Inventory as adapted into Polish.

The results of analyses led to several basic conclusions. The study revealed a differentiating effect of type of psychotherapy on the quality of therapeutic alliance. Alliance quality was not differentiated by the type of disorder diagnosed in patients and treated in the psychotherapeutic process.

The results of analyses presented in this empirical study allowed for exploring the quality of the therapeutic alliance with contextual variables related to the psychotherapeutic process taken into account.

The purpose of this paper is to outline how a Gestalt approach to coaching which makes use of the paradoxical theory of change can lead to personal growth and development.

Provides an overview of the key concepts of paradoxical coaching and a case study to illustrate the method.

The application of the paradoxical theory of change accesses the personal change process of the coachee and leads to improved performance.

The article provides an alternative perspective to the more widespread behaviorally‐based coaching approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the particular human experience that is shame and its manifestations in the relationship that coaches and their clients co‐create. The paper aims to consider shame as a relational and contextual phenomenon, how it is experienced, how it arises, and the impact it can have on organisational and coach‐client interactions, learning and change. It also aims to consider in particular the inhibiting effect of shame on spontaneity and improvisation so necessary for adjusting creatively to complex situations in organisational life, changing conversations, and unfreezing entrenched and unproductive patterns of relating.

The paper's approach is primarily phenomenological and comprises description of case material, textural and structural analysis, along with reflection on self and use of self in the research and practice being described. The hypotheses and conclusions at which the paper arrives are based on the author's 14 years' experience as a coach and seven as a Gestalt therapist. Many of the hypotheses have been tested and refined with clients, supervisees and students from two Master's programmes on which the author teaches.

The paper offers a number of examples to illustrate the ways in which shame can arise in the coach‐client relationship, as well as a number of contextual dynamics in client organisations and coaching practice that can contribute to the experience of shame. It suggests a number of departure points for coaches wishing to work with a sensitivity to shame dynamics in their coaching and consulting practice.

A relational perspective offers an expansion of coaching theory beyond an emphasis on models and tools, to encompass relational dynamics as a source of both data and experimentation in the service of individual and organisational change. The paper proposes an approach that makes conscious use of relational principles, in order that shame phenomena can be surfaced, explored and transformed.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview and analysis of a professional doctorate that was designed specifically for the training of psychologists in the fields of counselling psychology and psychotherapy, namely, the Doctorate in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy by Professional Studies (DCPsych).

This programme has needed to combine the demands of different professional bodies for the development of a range of clinical competencies with the doctoral level demands of the university and of the UK Quality Assurance Agency in terms of adherence to a required set of doctoral level descriptors.

The paper presents a critical review of a number of key areas that have needed to be addressed in both the design and delivery of this programme. It addresses in some detail the interface between clinical training and research activities, demonstrating how these can intertwine and mutually complement each other. Specific issues that are addressed in the paper include the articulation of relevant doctoral level descriptors, the teasing out of key areas that define doctoral level work and the complexities of putting some of these into practice within the DCPsych programme.

In particular, the paper reflects on the issue of critical capability at doctoral level, the challenge of making a significant contribution to the practice field and the implications for candidates of journeying towards a position of authority as they develop their doctoral work. The paper concludes with the suggestion that what has been developed is an extremely interesting and innovative programme that is not for the faint hearted.

This paper aims to demonstrate the value of physical experimentation in coaching to raise client awareness and enhance transformational potential.

This action research case study involved working with an individual coaching client using an experimental Gestalt‐oriented approach.

This study finds that physical experimentation during coaching can raise awareness for both client and coach and create powerful dynamics in and between them to catalyse change.

This case study will help other coaching professionals to understand and apply a Gestalt‐oriented approach to their own thinking and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to design and test a user satisfaction model to evaluate the contribution of biodiesel production and consumption to the sustainability of a semi-urban community in the Cowichan Valley in British Columbia Canada. This case study is part of a larger research study whose purpose is to create a model for an index of sustainable community production and consumption.

The theoretical approach selected was the national indices of consumer satisfaction models. The methodology was qualitative and quantitative, in-depth interviews were used to learn the opinion of active and non-active consumers of biodiesel. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed with specialized software for qualitative studies. A structural equation model, whose innovation is the inclusion of the sustainability variables, was designed and analyzed with statistical technique partial least squares.

The designed model and methodology were useful to identify the principal cause variables of consumer satisfaction of biodiesel in two types of users: active users and non-active users. The determination coefficient R2 of the latent variables satisfaction and loyalty for the prediction of biodiesel active users model is 0.82 and 0.72, respectively, while the result for the non-active users model is 0.90 for satisfaction and 0.73 for loyalty. Sustainable consumption at community level is statistically significant as a direct cause of the variable sustainability of the community for both models, and in turn the sustainability of the community variable has a significant impact on loyalty for the active users model.

This case study is part of a larger research study whose purpose is to create a model for an index of sustainable community production and consumption which will be measured longitudinally to detect changes in the sustainable consumption of the community members.

Psychoanalysis has nothing to say about firms or management as such; inversely, psychoanalytic coaching can aid managers to develop a better understanding of the role they exercise within the firm and to better position themselves in decision making and communication with other people. While it is a practice that takes place outside the classical psychoanalytic framework, psychoanalytic coaching must meet certain criteria in order to justify a psychoanalytic filiation: amongst others, the recognition of the unconscious and of the mechanisms of transference and counter‐transference. Crucially, the analyst is at the service of the subject (the manager) ‐ even if it is the firm that pays for the treatment. While there are risks involved for all parties concerned (the manager, the firm and the analyst), psychoanalytic coaching offers a way of rendering meaningful a management that encompasses the respect of oneself and of others.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss critical perspectives on what has become a dominant approach to public sector management and leadership in England and sets out a new conceptual perspective on leadership to improve this situation, namely a relational one.

A review of key literature on the topics discussed.

A new relational perspective on leadership and management is proposed, along with epistemological, ethical and practical considerations.

The paper proposes this new approach to leadership and management in the public sector, but no empirical findings are discussed.

The perspective proposes that an explicit consideration of relationships and contextual factors should lie at the heart of leadership and management and all its practice.

This is the first time that a relational perspective on public sector management and leadership has been explicated.