Organisational therapy

Psychodynamic organisational therapy is an application of psychoanalytic thinking that focuses on the interaction between the unconscious dynamics of organisations and the unconscious dynamics of individuals. It differs from other applications practiced by psychoanalytic clinicians trained to work with individual patients within the consulting room, although it shares the same theoretical base.

Psychodynamic organisational therapists work in a variety of professional roles, within a wide spectrum of organisations that provide services for vulnerable client groups of all ages. They apply psychoanalytic thinking to their working context, to facilitate the creation and maintenance of a therapeutic environment. They do not offer individual psychotherapy, although they may offer formal and informal counselling within an organisational setting.

The culture of the workplace can be vulnerable to the anxieties and stresses of the individuals who work within it, to the pressures of the task required of them, to the emotional distress or dysfunction of the clients they serve, and to the many adverse external circumstances that may impinge upon it.

Individual role consultation with those in charge can help managers to deal with issues that are stirred up in their teams by exposure to traumatic events, emotional distress, disability and mental illness. Reflective group work can help staff make sense of experiences of relational difficulties and of secondary trauma that may reflect the problems and preoccupations of their clients; psychoanalytic process groups and therapeutic supervision can help to explore how the internal worlds of the many individuals who staff an organisation, and the internal worlds of their clients, may intersect and impact upon one another.

Through this work, facilitated by psychoanalytically trained organisational therapists over a sufficient period of time, managers and their staff teams can learn to build and maintain a therapeutic environment, providing a culture of empathy, collaboration and resilience and a more effective service.

You can find BPC registered psychodynamic organisational therapists on the BPC Register here and refining the specialism to psychodynamic organisational therapist.

Trainings in this modality are offered by APPCIOS (The Association for Psychodynamic Counselling and Practice in Organisational Therapy) You can find out more by going to one of the APPCIOS websites – https://appcios.info/ – or https://psychodynamicthinking.info/

Psychodynamic organisational therapists combine a psychoanalytic understanding of the individual within the organisation and of the organisation within the individual.  They use this understanding to create and maintain therapeutic environments that impact on the wellbeing of both staff and client groups.

Organisational consultants may work in a variety of settings, including more commercial settings. They are not necessarily trained in psychoanalytic thinking or in how to apply psychoanalytic thinking to an organisation. Many psychodynamic organisational therapists also work as organisational consultants.