The experience of organisational development consultants working in the systems psychodynamic stance

Abstract

When working from the systems psychodynamic stance, consultants experience that they become part of the group dynamics through projection, projective identification, transference and counter-transference. This research was undertaken to explore the impact on consultants doing systems psychodynamic consultation in their own formal system within a large financial institution in South Africa. Findings were that primary (race, gender and age), and secondary (social identity, language and skills, or level of expertise in this consulting stance) diversity factors strongly impact on them. Consultants play a strong containment role. Consultants experienced the effect at all levels of their lives, including intellectual (struggling to function and think clearly), physical (insomnia, eating disorders, usual exercise not helping), emotional (crying and anger) and social (their work not being understood by friends and family, growing apart from loved ones). For all of them the positive spin-off was the personal growth on the journey that they embarked on.