After reviewing Gestalt's parity with Zen and Taoism, this paper illuminates the evolution of the Gestalt-informed peer learning community's emergence out of the tradition of Therapeutic Community Practice (Main, 1946), before exploring the potential of the same to engender development and healing. Parallel to this review of organizational renewal is a case study of change in a university setting, and the fostering of a peer learning community in an established charismatic organization. Within the body of the text, four qualitative research methods are integrated; an analysis of organizational culture is performed through the application of a diagnostic tool derived from the Gestalt's contact-withdrawal cycle (Critchley & Casey, 1989); community dynamics are assessed via field analysis (Lewin, 1952; Parlett, 1993); action research (Lewin, 1947) is used to collaboratively inquire into the success of the Gestalt-informed peer learning community through the voices of its participants; and a case study approach is employed to illuminate the day-to-day drama of facilitating cultural change within a resistive commercial setting. Last, the author illuminates learning he has accrued as a change agent and offers insights to help others who may wish to establish similar peer learning communities in a commercial setting.
"Abstract: This case study researches the development of therapeutic intimacy through the eyes, feelings and mutual experiences of a therapist and client within the medium of a therapeutic relationship. Most research into the therapeutic relationship, has to date, been performed through the therapist's review of clinical notes - in isolation from the client, or through a client's review of therapy via numerous rating scales - in isolation from the therapist. The dialogical nature of this paper reverses this trend. Although the therapy lasted some five years, this paper addresses only the first three months. Th~oughout we narrate what happens, while reflecting upon and mapping the relational dynamics that unfold. Essentially, the approach described here is a Gestalt one, attending to relationship, experimentation, and immediacy. Psychodynamic influences are also seen when we examine the effects of transference and unconscious process, and humanistic and transpersonal influences are discernable when a valuing of the human condition and symbolic phenomena above and beyond the self are explored. Periodically, hindsight is shared under the heading of 'reflections'. Key words: therapy as research; therapeutic intimacy; action research; case study; gestalt; beginnings; relationship; collaborative inquiry; being; authenticity."
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