Psychodynamics at Work Second Annual Conference

The psychodynamic and systemic approach to working with organisations combines psychodynamic theory with systems thinking to improve overall organisational effectiveness.  It is an innovative, deeper and wider approach to working with individual leaders, groups and organisations.   The psychodynamic approach helps leaders, managers, coaches, consultants, psychologists and psychotherapists to gain clarity of vision, mission, strategy, values and goals, as well as providing an opportunity to more effectively manage the emotional aspects of organisational life.

This second annual conference of Psychodynamics at Work will again be an exciting blend of experiential exercises as well as talks, discussions and interviews with experts in the field of psychodynamic and systemic consulting.   There will be an opportunity for you to bring a real-life issue or challenge that you currently have as a manager / leader in your group or organisation or a challenge that you have as a coach / consultant working with individuals, groups and organisations.

Keynote Speaker Dr. Evelyn P. Gilmore will speak on:

“Feeling Empowered During Organisational Change? Or Are You Feeling Helpless”

During times of organisational change, leaders perform behaviours that are important for leadership.  These include creating vision and mission, and setting out a strategy.  During organisational change, leaders establish goals and objectives, provide resources, attempt to empower and inspire others, and attempt to align people’s efforts with one another and with the environments in which they work.  However, often employees do not feel empowered or inspired during an organisational change process.  Indeed, sometimes, as the change process goes on, individuals can end up feeling hopeless or helpless, and begin to withdraw their energies from their work.  They can begin to experience which is called a state of learned helplessness.  

Learned helplessness is a psychological state where an individual feels that they lack control in a given situation.  and they begin to display a give-up reaction.  Although there are several pieces of work and research that focus on learned helplessness at an individual level, there are very few that focus on learned helplessness at an organisational level.   Drawing from her work as an organisational psychologist and consultant, Evelyn illuminates the concept of learned helplessness and shows how it can occur in an organisational setting.  

During this keynote talk, Evelyn will draw on the concept of sabotage, how sabotaging voices can become introjected during the organisational change process, and how internalized sabotaging voices can be a key factor in leading to a state of learned helplessness.  She will illuminate her work by drawing on organisational images of employees feeling under attack during a change process.   Most importantly, she shows how, as a practitioner using a systems psychodynamic lens, an environment can be created in which individuals can be helped to move out of their state of learned helplessness, and begin to engage once again with each other and with their work.  She will also discuss how individuals can be helped to become more conscious of what they have introjected, how they can articulate and make sense of their experiences and how they can begin the process of feeling more empowered and inspired within their own organisational settings.

Keynote Speaker and Conference Director:

Dr. Evelyn P. Gilmore is a psychodynamic and systemic organisational consultant, a chartered psychologist, an accredited psychotherapist and a business and executive coach, coach trainer and coach supervisor.  Evelyn has an honours degree in psychology from the University of Galway and a first class honours masters in Work & Organisational Psychology from Dublin City University.  She has completed a professional doctorate with the Tavistock in “Consultation and the Organisation”.  Her doctorate research was on the creation of a holding environment in an organisational setting and on managing the emotional aspects of organisational life during times of organisational change.  She is founder and director of Psychodynamics at Work, a systems psychodynamic consultancy organisation in Ireland, and joint director of Coach Institute of Ireland, a coach training organisation.   

Evelyn is a chartered psychologist with the Psychological Society of Ireland (P.S.I.), a chartered member of their work & organisational psychology division, a full member of the P.S.I.’s division of psychotherapy and is a member of their coaching psychology special interest group.  She is also a member of the Irish Council for Psychotherapy (I.C.P.).   In addition, Evelyn has lectured to master’s students on organisational development and change in the Department of Management in the University of Galway, and has been a Visiting Lecturer to doctorate students on the Consultation and the Organisation doctorate programme in the Tavistock. 

Evelyn has over thirty years experience working as an organisational consultant, using a systems psychodynamic and client centered lens.  Her clients have included individuals, groups and organisations from the public, private and not-for-profit sector.  In her role as joint director of Coach Institute of Ireland, she has trained many senior leaders within organisational settings in business and executive coaching, and has worked internally with senior leaders to develop a coaching culture within their organisational setting.   She facilitates supervision groups for organisational psychologists, organisational consultants and business and executive coaches.  In addition, she has recently published an article entitled “Creating a holding environment in an organisational setting:  A systems psychodynamics first person action research perspective” in the Organisational and Social Dynamics journal.

Special Guest Speaker Derek Raffaelli will be in conversation with us at the Conference on:

“Meeting Mother at Work:  The Interface of the Psychodynamics of Family and Organisational Life”

Our early family dynamics create environments which can contain a mixture of elements such as security, love, conflict, criticism or tension.  Family dynamics refer to the patterns of interaction, behaviour, roles, and communication among family members, shaping how they relate, support, and influence each other.  The dynamics are complex, influenced by culture, history, and individual personalities, impacting each member's sense of self and their relationships with the outside world. 

More healthy dynamics foster well-being.   They more regularly offer supportive communication, clear boundaries, mutual respect, affection, and adaptability to change. In situations where there are more unhealthy dynamics, there can be more frequent arguments, constant criticism, unreasonable demands, emotional manipulation, or rigid alliances.  However, the division between healthy dynamics and unhealthy dynamics is never clear cut, every family is different, and healthy and unhealthy dynamics often permeate all types of families.  So, how can family dynamics interface with organisational dynamics and why do they matter in an organisational setting?  Family dynamics form the foundation for a person's first relationships, deeply affecting their development and how they engage with the world throughout life including how they engage with others within an organisational setting.  

For example, difficulty in confronting a colleague or dealing with a critical boss can bring up our past and how it influences the present.  If you were brought up by a critical mother or a domineering father (for example), these experiences may have shaped your personality and how you deal with others at work now.  And, you may not be aware of it.  These factors may be at work unconsciously.  The there-and-then is acting like a hidden hand in a puppet in the here-and-now of  work.  This is how we might meet Mother at Work.

In this fascinating discussion with Derek Raffaelli, we will discuss the interface between family dynamics and organisational systems, and how we all, at different times in our lives,  can meet Mother at Work.

Derek Raffaelli, Chartered Psychologist and Executive Coach: Special Guest Speaker 

Derek Raffaelli is an experienced executive coach, organisational consultant and psychoanalytic psychotherapist. He works with managers and leaders from all the organisational sectors: corporate, public, charitable and professional. His distinctive competence is in relating his knowledge of organisational factors to the coachee in his/her role in the company and in using insight into the personal functioning of the individual to illuminate how this affects them at work. This is not therapy, but rather using therapeutic technique and organisational experience to help the coachee explore their work issues in a fresh and positive way.

Originally trained as a psychologist, Derek has first class credentials in working in and with groups and organisations both in the UK and in many other countries. From 1989 -2001 he was the manager of the Scottish Institute of Human Relations in Glasgow.  He has a psychoanalytic therapy practice in Glasgow.    

As well as these consultancy and coaching kinds of assignments, he is on the faculty of several prestigious executive training and development programmes. These include: Animate, Edinburgh; ProDev International, Utrecht; the Tavistock Clinic, London and the Bayswater Institute, London, where he was the Director of the Bayswater Working Conference for 10 years.

Derek is a Chartered psychologist and an Associate Fellow of The British Psychological Society. He is a registered practitioner with the British Psychoanalytic Council. He is a member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations and a Fellow of the Bayswater Institute.

Special Guest Speaker:  Ben Neale.  Ben will be in conversation with us at the Conference on:

"Systems Psychodynamic Coaching: Taking Up Your Authority in Your Role"

Often individuals struggle to take up their authority when they move into a leadership role.  We derive our authority, not only from our role, job description and the contract of employment, but also authority is derived from deep within ourselves and from others within the organisational system. 

Coaching, in an organisational context, is designed to help leaders become self-aware in their leadership role and to become sensitive to the organisational dynamics that can influence and interfere with the leadership task.   Systems psychodynamic coaching involves working with leaders using a psychodynamic and systemic lens.  The coach working from a psychodynamic perspective will be aware of the individual’s emotions, behaviour, their past experiences, values, goals, desires and unconscious material that may be negatively impacting them.  In addition, the coach using a systemic lens will hold in mind the organisational system, its culture, structure, its products/services, the levels of authority within the organisation, and its unconscious forces.  

We are delighted to be in discussion with Ben Neale at the Conference again this year.  Ben will talk about our internal and external sources of authority.   He will help the conference participants develop a greater sense of imposter syndrome.  Imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern where individuals doubt their skills and accomplishments, feeling like frauds who don't deserve their success despite evidence to the contrary, often fearing exposure.  Key signs include intense self-doubt, attributing success to luck, perfectionism, and overworking, leading to burnout.   This discussion will also look at how taking up authority can create envy among others, or indeed, when we are not able to take up our own authority, we become envious of others who can.   Ben will also talk about the “competition, envy, and authority triangle”.  The "competition, envy, and authority triangle" is not a single, formal psychological model, but rather a descriptive term for the interplay of these three dynamics in social and organizational contexts, particularly when discussing leadership and workplace relationships.   The discussion will also create a space to reflect on collapse and repair, and how leaders can survive damaging work situations. 

Ben Neal, Executive Coach and Organisational Consultant: Special Guest Speaker

Ben Neal is a full time Executive Coach and Organizational Consultant, with over fifteen years of experience.  Ben moved into the field of consulting and coaching in 2010 after a career in the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom. 

Since then, he has worked extensively across private and public sectors, with clients ranging from C-Suite executives in investment banks, to senior leaders in the NHS and City Councils. He is in high demand as an educator.

He has been a visiting lecturer on the MA in Consulting and Leading in Organizations at the Tavistock Centre since 2012 and takes the Advanced Practice seminar on the Doctorate in Leadership and Consultancy. He is a practice supervisor for Tavistock Consultancy Services Executive Coaching program and was previously the Co-Director of the program.

Ben has a strong interest in group dynamics and has designed and led numerous

workshops in the field.  He was previously the Director of the Tavistock Centres ‘Working with Others’ Group Relations Conference and is currently the Director of the Tavistock Centre’s five day ‘Mini Leicester’ Group Relations Conference, which takes place every Winter.

Dr. Martin Lüdemann, Conference Consultant and Small Group Facilitator

Dr. Martin Lüdemann holds an MA in Organisational Analysis from the University of East London and is a graduate of the Psychology Diploma Programme (industrial and organizational psychology) of the University of Darmstadt, Germany.  He recently finished the Professional Doctorate Program at Tavistock Consulting and the University of Essex.  Martin has been working as a psychologist and supervisor for 30 years.  He consults, supports and guides groups and individuals in organizations – mostly in the business sector, but also groups in the social sector.  Martin began his professional life as a consultant at Lufthansa Consulting in Cologne and co-founded Dr. Sourisseaux, Lüdemann and Partners in 1996.  He was a partner in the firm of consultant business psychologists in Darmstadt for 17 years before going into business on his own in 2013.  In addition, he has also completed further training courses in group dynamics, systemic consulting, large-group techniques, supervision coaching, group analysis and group relations (Tavistock Consulting and Grubb Institute).

Martin’s doctorate research was on the concept of Group-as-a-Whole.  This concept is a psychoanalytic concept.   It is an applied branch of group dynamics research and theory.  A Group-as-a-whole is a living organism in itself.  It is as distinct as the individuals comprising it.  The Group-as-a-Whole has moods, reactions, spirit, atmosphere, and climate.  When individuals form a group, the resulting union becomes an entity in its own right with developmental, structural, dynamic and relational properties that both reflect and transcend the individuals that make it up. 

Dr. Belinda Moller, Small Group Facilitator

Dr. Belinda Moller has a PhD in Strategy from Trinity College Dublin, which she received in 2008.   She is also a Group Analyst and is a member of The Irish Group Analytic Society (IGAS).  In addition, Belinda is a member of The Group Analytic Society International (GASI), The Balint Society UK, the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations (ISPSO) and the Organisation for Promoting Understanding of Society (OPUS).

Belinda has been working as a Group Therapist and Supervisor in private practice in Dublin since 2015.  She also works with leaders and staff teams from medical, educational, legal and public sectors using a range of psychodynamic and socio-analytic approaches.  In her owns words, she has a deep and profound interest in the unconscious dynamics of organisations and has been consulting, teaching and researching since 2001.

Conference Cost:

€780 plus 23% Vat of €179.40

Total cost: €959.40