ABSTRACT
Coaching always takes place in a systemic context where individuals work together to achieve the overall organisational purpose and goal – independent of whether the coach works with the individual or the team. Understanding defences at a group level is thus also a necessary competency for the psychodynamic coach. One way of looking at defences at the group level is through the lens of ego-defences. Based on the idea that a group must maintain and enhance a shared self-esteem and conserve and protect organ-isational or group identity, A. D. Brown and K. Starkey refer to social defences such as denial, rationalisation, idealisation, phantasy and symbolisation. Understanding the social defences the client uses in their organ-isation is important for several reasons. In attempting to detect the unconscious group patterns, it can be constructive to analyse the parallel process between the client and the coach.
