Gestalt coaching supervision

Gestalt is concerned with raising awareness of how we engage with those around us in meeting (or not) our needs and live satisfactory lives (or not). By focusing on the ‘here and now’ interactions between the supervisor and supervisee, the supervisee can learn how he or she builds good coaching alliances, or how they block this process. Gestalt also uses ‘active experimentation’ to raise awareness, e.g. by inviting the supervisee to ‘speak as’ their client, they can gain insight into the client’s world; by inviting the supervisee to ‘speak to’ the client (on an empty chair) the supervisee can gain insight into what they might be holding back from saying aloud; by drawing the various stakeholders in the client’s situation and representing them in the form of a ‘sculpture’ the supervisee can get a better perspective on the wider system. All of this can make Gestalt supervision very creative, and lead to a number of insights that may not have been reached using other forms of supervision.