PART 1 | The Scientific Practice of Jungian Coaching
Written by John O’Brien, Ph.D.
The human dimension of leadership is now firmly at the forefront of research and practice in the coaching industry. The development is synchronous with the emergence of Jungian coaching, supported by the publication of contemporary leadership coaching practice incorporating up-to-date neuroscience research on automatic individual and collective processes that distort reality.
Carl Gustav Jung discovered these processes experimentally more than 100 years ago. He called them complexes. The science underpinning Jungian coaching is explained in this blog. The central practice area, working with complexes, is supported by a case study of corporate leadership coaching which will be posted as a follow-up.
Implications for practitioners
- Working with complexes improves executive self-awareness, perception, and decision-making.
- Reducing cognitive distortion and risk is not only high value-added, but mission-critical in sensitive industries.
- Jungian coaching is the proven method for working with complexes in corporate leadership.
JUNGIAN COACHING
Jungian coaching puts the scientific discoveries from analytical psychology (Roesler, 2018) at the disposal of suitably trained and qualified coaches. The field has developed in response to the demand from leaders in sensitive corporate situations, where the risks associated with emotionally driven malfunction are costly, serious, and in some cases grave. The consequences can be immediate and direct. Sometimes they are indirect but nonetheless serious, as in the case of leaders unintentionally shaping culture in the wrong direction. For example, a power/fear leadership stance can stifle the upward flow of data required for enterprise adaptation to internal and external threats and can lead not only to key person retention risk but also to systemic organisational disintegration. Since 1996, Jungian coaching has been emerging as a clinically informed integrative method to help corporate leaders mitigate such risks. Since 2021, the initial scientific framework has been established, and Jungian coaching is now used in many different coaching terrains (O’Brien and O’Brien, 2021).
A key stimulus for growth has been the need to ensure that leaders are competent in dealing with the human and cultural dimensions of their work. It is not difficult to imagine the results of human error in the atomic nuclear industry, in the pharmaceutical world or the airline sector. The fundamental (humanist) values, ethics, and competencies of Jungian coaching are shared across coaching domains. Reciprocally Jungian coaching topics are now offered in certified professional training by qualified analysts to qualified coaches. Jungian coaching is, strictly speaking, a recent post-Jungian development from the analytical psychology of C. G. Jung, based on empirical clinical research. The scientific framework for Jungian Coaching is defined in ‘The Professional Practice of Jungian Coaching’ (O’Brien & O’Brien, 2021).
Method
Jungian Coaching in corporate leadership will be explained in part two of this blog via an instrumental case study. The case study has been selected as a representative example of Jungian coaching conducted by analysts/coaches working with more than 500 corporate leadership cases from the U.K., Europe, and USA over a twenty-year period (2001-2021). The case shows how personal objectives and outcomes of the coaching were achieved by identifying and working through specific complexes identified in early consultations. The outcome measures of the coaching included regular performance evaluation, career progression, 360 feedback, and Global Assessment of Functioning.
Results
1) The case study shows how Jung’s theory of complexes can support coaching practice and client self-development, reducing reality distortion and risk and improving self-awareness and relationships to others.
2) The judicious use of the Word Association Experiment and supporting easy-to-use psychometric profiles helped to identify complexes and to accelerate learning, development, and performance.
Background
A growing convergence between the practices of analytical psychology and positive humanistic coaching is now clearly observable in the literature. Landmark contributions emphasising positive coaching addressing the emotional aspects of leadership include Petriglieri & Wood, (2005), and Kauffman (2006). The Jungian method of active imagination for leaders in multicultural contexts was described by Mayer & Oosthuizen (2019). But the central point of a Jungian approach to leadership coaching is perhaps most succinctly explained by Wood (2021).
Exercising leadership responsibly requires more than just providing a vision, communicating it effectively, mobilising others to follow, guiding the collective progress, and being aware of the obstacles in your path. It also requires deep awareness of both the conscious rational and unconscious emotional elements in individual and collective behaviour.
The science of Jungian coaching was initially presented at the C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich in 2011 by Dr John O’Brien and Dr Jeffery Satinover and a decade later was established by publication by accredited psychoanalysts of the C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich. These included Dr Virgina Angel, Tess Castleman, Dr Michael Escamilla, Carlos Ferreira, Dr Janice Maxwell and Dr Dominique Lepori (2021). The scope and methods of Jungian coaching is defined in ‘The Professional Practice of Jungian Coaching’, (O’Brien & O’Brien, 2021) and the interdisciplinary nature of the field is evidenced by interest from related professions.
Jung is most significantly recognised in the field of scientific research for his discovery of complexes. As Jungian knowledge continues its journey out of the clinical consulting world into the broader world of accessible coaching, as with all such developments, safeguards must be applied. The IAJCC, formed in 2024, now provides a necessary framework to enable the safe transmission of clinical knowledge into coaching practice.
Since the early 1990s, small-scale/high-leverage industry coaching and consulting practice based on Jung’s work was developed in major corporations in the UK, US, and Europe, including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, GSK, Deutsche Bank, Eurex, European Central Bank, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Lufthansa, NatWest and Coutts Retail Banks, British Biological Research Council, Deutsche Bourse, and Emirates.
Based on the development of practice over the three decades since the late 1980s, Jungian leadership coaching is now defined as a professional practice that facilitates the individuation process in organisational contexts’ (O’Brien & O’Brien 2021, p139). Individual and group Jungian coaching has been used as part of wider systemic organisational transformation projects and examples will be given in future blogs.
Jungian coaching in a corporate context requires a grounding in basic coaching competencies, training in aspects of analytical psychology, and familiarity with the business sciences. A blend of coaching experience is then developed through practice, observation, and reflection over a long period of time, sensitising coaches to the issues of corporate leaders, their organisations, and their underlying dynamics.
JUNGIAN COACHING TERMINOLOGY
Individuation
Individuation can be described as an underlying lifelong process through which the individual differentiates from group norms, relinquishing identification with persona (the face presented to the world) and developing a greater connection with the group through deeper and more empathic social connection while maintaining objectivity and perspective. It is an essential aspect of serving to lead organisations in adaptation to evolutionary challenges. Jung describes the term as follows:

In general, it is the process by which individual beings are formed and differentiated; in particular, it is the development of the psychological individual as a being distinct from the general, collective psychology. (CW 6, Para 757)
The aim of individuation is nothing less than to divest the self of the false wrappings of the persona on the one hand and of the suggestive power of primordial images on the other. (CW 7, Para 269)
As the individual is not just a single, separate being, but by his very existence presupposes a collective relationship, it follows that the process of individuation must lead to more intense and broader collective relationships and not to isolation. (CW 6, Para 758)
In corporate settings, it is often the case that organisations legitimately require conformity of action. But in response, the individual executive persona might become inflexible, the natural drive towards individuation stunted, and ‘loss of soul’ and its concomitant mental and physical illnesses might set in. Simply put, the role of leader can be mistaken for the whole personality, rather than something that is a useful mask through which deeper aspects of individual and collective psychological life can be expressed in ways that are audible and useful to the group.
This might seem far-fetched when the job is to ensure that the ROI is delivered for this quarter or to make sure that the barrels are loaded on the truck by three o’clock.
However, the process is painfully apparent in situations of job change or loss. If the job is no longer there, then over-identification with the role can result in the change being experienced as an existential threat, a great trauma, and in some cases this can be life-threatening. Similarly, the maturation of the individual, especially mid-life crisis can be equally disturbing to the extent that an earlier life persona might just not fit anymore. (Hollis, 1993) Individuation demands development.
The unconscious
A core commitment of a Jungian coach is to facilitate the individuation process popularly termed the hero’s journey, (Campbell, 1990). This symbolic term denotes the lifelong unconscious processes of the psyche. According to Jung;
The unconscious… covers all psychic contents or processes that are not conscious, i.e., not related to the ego in any way. (CW 6, Para 837).
Jung also commented that:
We can distinguish a personal unconscious, comprising all the acquisitions of personal life, everything forgotten, repressed, subliminally perceived, thought, felt…But, in addition…there are other contents which do not originate in personal acquisitions…These are the mythological associations, the motifs, and images that can spring up anew any time anywhere, independently of historical tradition or migration …the collective unconscious. (CW 6, Para 842).
Jungian coaching takes into consideration the unconscious life of individuals, groups, organisations, releasing energy for new solutions and creativity. Automatic, unconscious patterns of behaviour, reactions, and false readings of reality change in accordance with the natural drive towards individuation.
Practical steps along the Jungian coaching and organizational coaching journey will be explained in the part 2 of The Scientific Practice of Jungian Coaching blog series.
About the Author
John O’Brien, PhD, stands as a beacon in the field of Jungian psychology and executive coaching, blending his extensive academic background with practical experience to empower leaders and individuals worldwide. With a Doctor of Philosophy (Dr.Phil.) and a Diploma in Analytical Psychology from the C. G. Jung Institute Zürich, John is an experienced pioneer in the realm of psychology and leadership.
His academic pursuits further include a Master of Business Administration (MBA), a Master of Arts in Psychology Therapy and Counseling (MA PTC), and certifications in social work, applied social studies, careers guidance, and education, providing him with a comprehensive foundation to address multifaceted challenges.
At the C. G. Jung Institute Zürich, John wears many hats, serving as a Training Analyst, Psychoanalyst, Psychotherapist, Lecturer, Examiner, and Elected Member of the Research Commission. He is also the driving force behind the International Association for Jungian Coaches and Consultants, setting standards and fostering collaboration and innovation in the field.
Outside academia and professional life, John is engaged in philanthropic endeavors.