Positioning Gestalt Professional Education in the Changing Cultural Context: The Experiences of Providers Author O'Regan, Patrick Published 2021-03-04 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School School Educ & Professional St DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/4158 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/403242 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au POSITIONING GESTALT PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION IN THE CHANGING CULTURAL CONTEXT: THE EXPERIENCES OF PROVIDERS Patrick (Paddy) O’Regan Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Social Policy, Master of Gestalt Therapy School of Education and Professional Studies Arts, Education and Law Griffith University Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2020 Patrick O’Regan -November 2020 Positioning Gestalt Professional Education ABSTRACT Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy founded in the early 1950s as an approach to enhancing the health of its clients within a supportive therapeutic relationship by enhancing their self-awareness, choice, and spontaneity. The provision of Gestalt professional education for Gestalt therapy practitioners is closely linked with the beginnings of Gestalt therapy. It mainly occurs in private training institutes. Gestalt professional education providers are under pressure to respond to the demands of a changing cultural context such as through the provision of credentials endorsed by national regulatory authorities. However, only limited empirical research has been conducted on that situation. The goal of this research project, then, was to explore the key understandings, dilemmas, experiences, and decisions of major players within Gestalt professional education institutes in relation to what they saw as the demands of the contemporary cultural context. Three research questions were formulated to address that goal: (1) What are the understandings and experiences of the directors, academic staff, and students of Gestalt professional education institutes regarding the issues arising in their institutes from the contemporary cultural context? (2) What are the understandings, choices, and directions informing their programs in response to those issues? and (3) How are the institutes responding to the issues? A qualitative multiple case study methodology was employed involving five institutes from Australia and New Zealand. Three sources of data were used to build each case: qualitative individual interviews; focus group discussions; and formal and informal documents. Participants were the institute directors, a selection of academic staff, and a selection of students. A peer-reviewed article has been published as part of the PhD project (O’Regan, Bagnall & Hodge, 2017). That article identified three common modes of Gestalt professional education in Australia and New Zealand. This study refined these modes as non- accredited, professionally accredited, and higher education. Following an interpretive and reflective analysis of the data, seven dimensions were constructed to articulate a cohesive response to the research questions: (1) philosophical integrity, as the extent to which the given mode was seen as either facilitating or inhibiting an institute’s ability to conform to the underlying philosophy of Gestalt therapy; i Patrick O’Regan – November 2020 Positioning Gestalt Professional Education (2) curricular quality, as the extent to which the mode was seen as influencing the rigour and quality of an institute’s curriculum; (3) institutional autonomy, as the extent to which the given mode was seen as either facilitating or inhibiting an institute’s ability to make decisions freely and without external restraints; (4) compliance costs, as the extent to which an institute was seen as being required to expend resources in order to join or stay within the given mode; (5) student access, as the extent to which the mode was seen as promoting a diverse student population within an institute; (6) institutional sustainability, as the extent to which the mode was seen as enhancing the ongoing financial security of an institute; and (7) graduate marketability, as the extent to which graduates from the given mode were seen as being attractive in their professional field. The study revealed that relevant stakeholders were faced with ambiguous and paradoxical demands in maintaining the integrity, rigour, and sustainability of their institutes. The major tensions centred on how institutes managed the threats to their sustainability while staying true to the philosophical underpinnings of Gestalt therapy. It was found that the mode of Gestalt professional education reflected how the institutes responded to the tensions inherent within each dimension. Each modal position presented advantages and disadvantages in managing those tensions. The study further highlighted the point that those within higher education risked their philosophical integrity by engaging in the performative and instrumental practices required by the regulators. Those institutes in the non-accredited mode (and to a lesser extent the professionally accredited mode), while complying with the existential and humanistic strivings of Gestalt, presented barriers for potential students from low socioeconomic backgrounds to join their institutes, aligned to the institutes’ user-pays model. The research makes a unique scholarly contribution to the field, both in its substantive findings and in the modal and dimensional frameworks developed in the study. The substantive findings are expected to inform providers of Gestalt professional education in their reflections and deliberations on their own experiences, the options that they face, and the choices that they make. The modal and dimensional frameworks may serve as a model for future research into the field. The issues identified and examined in this project may have interest and value also for those from cognate educational settings. ii Patrick O’Regan – November 2020 Positioning Gestalt Professional Education STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. Signed: ____________________ ___________________ Full Name: Patrick Gerard O’Regan iii Patrick O’Regan – November 2020 Positioning Gestalt Professional Education ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to offer my personal and heartfelt thanks to my supervisor, Professor Emeritus Richard Bagnall who guided me, with diligence, commitment, and rigour, (well after his retirement from the University), challenging and supporting me through this journey. A heartfelt thank you also to Dr Steven Hodge, my supervisor, whose wisdom, insight, critical questioning, advice, humour and support provided rich ground to guide my research. I am truly fortunate to have met these men. I wish to thank the Gestalt community who have supported me in various ways for many years. I am grateful to the participants in this research who so generously gave of their time and contributed to this topic that was clearly close to their hearts. The Directors of each institute were so generous to me, for which I will always be grateful. Included here are my colleagues at GTB who gave me emotional support, time and space (and at times tissues) as I worked through this research. I especially want to acknowledge the late Les Wyman PhD from Cleveland, USA whose support and wisdom will always echo in my being. I also want to acknowledge my fellow students in the HDR section of Griffith University for their valuable support and debriefings. I must thank my wife Anne, who stood by me through this journey and endured my long periods in the office, my distracted mind, and my dissociated state. Finally, I wish to thank my father, Jim, who instilled the value and emancipatory potential of education in his children, along with a deep desire for understanding. iv Patrick O’Regan – November 2020 Positioning Gestalt Professional Education TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. I STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ............................................................................ III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... X LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................. XI LIST OF APPENDICES .......................................................................................... XII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ...................................................... XIII LIST OF KEY TERMS ......................................................................................... XIV CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH ........................................... 1 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................... 6 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 6 Gestalt Therapy ................................................................................................