CEOs on the couch: Building the therapeutic coaching alliance in psychoanalytically informed executive coaching.

摘要

The formation of the therapeutic alliance in clinical work is central to psychoanalytic theory and psychoanalysis and can inform the executive coach about the importance and nature of the therapeutic coaching alliance. Because CEOs tend to be narcissistically oriented (as noted by Manfred Kets de Vries and Michael Maccoby), they present important considerations and challenges to the coach related to forming and maintaining the therapeutic coaching alliance. The theoretical work of Heinz Kohut is particularly useful in guiding the critical task of forming a successful therapeutic alliance.; This dissertation is a study of six CEOs who entered into executive coaching to enhance job performance and interpersonal relationships. The duration of the coaching ranged from 1 year to more than 3 years. The methodology is a retrospective case narrative. The case narrative was co-created by both the CEO and me as the coach. I summarized the coaching relationship by focusing on the CEO's presenting problem(s), the development of the therapeutic coaching alliance, transference phenomenon and interpretation, and the integration of growth at the termination phase of coaching. The CEOs were interviewed 1+ year(s) after the conclusion of the coaching and asked to reflect on the coaching experience in order to get at how they both described and understood the therapeutic coaching alliance.; The CEO narratives were elicited via qualitative, in-depth interview protocol. Each CEO's narrative was used in conjunction with my own retrospective case narrative, as I reconstructed each case using my process notes from coaching sessions with the CEO.; The interview data were analyzed to understand individual and aggregate differences in how CEOs described and understood how they changed internally and how these changes impacted job performance and interpersonal relationships. The therapeutic coaching alliance factors assessed included: affect containment, collaboration, empathic attunement, and transference phenomena such as idealizing, mirror, twinship, and negative transferences.; Key words. psychoanalysis, executive coaching, therapeutic alliance, transference, narcissism, Kohut, therapeutic coaching alliance