A Gestalt Coaching Primer

Book excerpt: This accessible book presents the foundational principles and competencies that make Gestalt-based coaching a particularly powerful paradigm in the field of professional coaching. Emphasizing the interlinked goals of personal and professional mastery for both coach and client in a distracted, fast-paced world, Dr. Siminovitch clearly defines and illustrates the integrative concepts of effective coaching presence and use of self, which she calls Awareness Intelligence?. The Gestalt coach is called upon to be an "awareness agent," tasked with the deeply ethical-and exhilarating-responsibility of bringing clients into their own awareness of what they truly want, need, or are missing. Successful coaching engagements result in the client's sense of liberation, expanded possibilities, and self-determination. The author, a thought champion in the development of Gestalt coaching, aligns Gestalt competencies with the core competencies of the International Coaching Federation, one of the premier global coach accreditation organizations. The book in fact emerged as a strategy to differentiate gestalt coaching from gestalt therapy while mapping the competencies which makes gestalt coaching such a liberating approach. Novice and seasoned coaches alike will find the book to be a valuable and trusted resource for nurturing and refining their own practices and professional growth.