The string model: a gestalt approach to consulting psychology

Abstract

This exploratory research addressed the challenge of improving consulting psychologists' ability to add value to their clients in a complex world, in which it is increasingly difficult to differentiate and understand domain phenomena and to promote healthy growth and development in individuals, groups and organisations. To solve this problem, a Gestalt Approach, comprising the String Model and a congruent methodological framework, was developed using analogies and metaphors from the physical sciences.

The Gestalt Approach was applied at the individual, group and organisational levels. The String Model promoted excitement and interest in the client systems and desedimented preconceptions and patterns of thinking, facilitating the destruction of existing figures, and the differentiation and exploration of new figures from background phenomena. The methodological framework promoted experimentation and dialogue in an environment conducive to exploration and promoted contact with foreground phenomena.

At the individual level, awareness was heightened of the role and development of a historically disadvantaged South African. The individual and the position for which he was being developed were described in terms of the String Model, creating insights which were not in the client system before. A clear, holistic picture of the individual's developmental areas emerged. The approach facilitated contact between the individual and key roleplayers who must create an enabling environment and provide resources conducive to individual development.

At the group level, the String Model proved useful in assisting a Board of Directors to clearly differentiate the Board from other groups in the client system. Discussion amongst the participants, who had diverse perspectives, promoted a common understanding of the Board's structure and functioning. Participants were able to differentiate the current dysfunctional status of the Board from the ideal in String Model terms and develop a joint plan to make the Board a healthier entity.

At the organisational level, the model according to which a gold mine was structured and managed, was changed due to insights engendered by the Gestalt Approach. The String Model proved to be useful in conceptualising the mine as a whole, with the various sub-systems thereof inextricably related. Changes were made that promote interaction, communication, integration and performance.