Will the program make a lasting difference? What will be the return on my time and money? The best measure we can offer you to answer these questions is words of graduates. The value of our programs is reflected in the profound and lasting impact participants tell us the experience has on their work and their lives, both immediately and for years to come. It is with great pride that we offer these testimonials along with those on program pages throughout the site.
Call or Email our office to arrange a conversation about any of our prog-rams with a faculty mem-ber or graduate to help you better under-stand the experience you may expect.
"The Cape Cod Model will shift the way you work and give you the ability to help
others in ways that seemed impossible before the training. And it all happens within
a positive and supportive environment. Nowhere else have I experienced training
that stays true to being positive, that’s what made it possible for me to learn at a
level that I haven’t experienced before."
Donna Dennis, PhD Executive Coach & Consultant
"In my organization, after participating in the Cape Cod Training Program, I can
adopt and keep an optimistic attitude in a challenging environment. I am astonished
by how much that helps to widen the perspectives in a group and improve comm-unication and understanding. This makes it easier to formulate and
reach consensus around the common goals!"
Eva Axelsson
Business Development Manager Apoteket Farmaci AB, Swedish Pharmaceutical Company
"I very much enjoyed my week at GISC and went back home with new inspiration, ideas, and valuable experiences. And what an amazing building you have - the envir-onment is so supportive to being open to new learning. I will definitely be back."
“This is an essential course for all coaches. The real bonus prize for me was in sequencing this course with the Applying the Cape Cod Model to Coaching course. Executive Personality Dynamics took my learning to an all time high and stimulating depth. This course grew my confidence significantly in dealing with a range of challenging coaching cases and anchored me that I would not be intimidated by
the complexity of personality dynamics. Rather, honouring each person as we show
up in the moment and moving from a place of a much deeper understanding than
ever before. This was the most important course for me as a coach. Wow, learning
from Edwin and Peter will remain a highlight.”
Shanaaz Majiet Executive Director SMSC Consulting, Cape Town, South Africa
“The creativity program was incredibly insightful and applicable. The program
helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses in creativity, and provided
me with concrete ways to apply this knowledge in many facets of my personal and professional life. This is far more than just figuring out if there’s an artist inside all
of us, but rather reframing what it means to be ‘creative,’ and to apply that learning
at home, work and life. This course is relevant to both creative professionals as well
as general business professionals as we all need to be as creative as possible in growing our companies and achieving our goals.”
Eric Koivisto
"My husband and I attended the transition seminar at GISC to try to figure out what
we wanted to do with the next phase of our lives. The seminar, the skilled leaders,
and our colleagues in the various sessions helped us focus on our skills and how
we could parlay them into useful activities to ourselves and to our community. We thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie that developed over the few days of our participation. Thank you for creating an environment that could foster such development.”
Bette Kindman-Koffler
“My GISC experience came at a time when I was looking deep inside and reflecting upon how I was showing up in the world. I had come to see how my ‘glass half empty’ perspective was playing itself out in several aspects of my life. The optimistic
perspective of GISC just seemed to click for me and brought several streams of
thought together. The work of organization development and change often focuses
on problems and the negative aspects of systems, organizations, and human interactions. The GISC experience has led to a shift in my approach to my work.
Rather than habitually focusing on the negative, looking for the positive to build
upon while trying to bring change to organizations and systems is helping me shift
to a ‘glass half full’ perspective. It is a journey for sure. But Sonia Nevis’ words of
holding lightly to ones opinions and interpretations, while being willing to release
them in the face of new data struck a resounding chord in me. These discussions continue to resonate with me.”
Abukamau Al-Ibrahim Consultant
“I recently had the opportunity to participate in GISC’s Introduction to the Cape Cod Model. It was an immensely valuable experience for me, both personally and professionally, and I am deeply grateful to GISC, to the staff, and to the coaches from throughout the world who gave of themselves so generously. It was a day I will never forget, and I will return often to the insights I gained, as the point of departure on a clearer and better-integrated path.”
Steve Brown Project Manager Cape Cod Youth Empowerment Initiative
UMass Donahue Institute
“I recommend this seminar for executive coaches. The course provides a unique behind-the-scenes look at all types of executive personalities and offers insightful advice and optimistic, practical solutions to the toughest issues. I found this
wonderful session to be relevant to both my professional and personal life.
An important course for all.”
Maria Arnone Executive Coach, MCC
“If you are looking to develop your self awareness and to add to the range of frames which you want to use with your clients, I would recommend the ‘Finding your Developmental Edge’ workshop. It is both a learningful and enjoyable experience.
The facilitators work with a light hand but at depth with each participant. The learning was immediately applicable to my executive coaching practise. It allows the client to
add to their strengths alongside a new awareness of how and why, when these
strengths are overdone, they trip us up.”
Victoria Cassells Cassells Consulting, UK
“New knowledge is great, yet it’s of limited value without the felt experience of that knowledge. Only personal experience changes us. Most workshops, including some
that I lead, don’t incorporate time for the experiential. Those at GISC do, and it made
a big difference for me. Séan Gaffney was a master at drawing out that which was
inside me, thereby allowing me to see a new ‘me’ for myself. Powerful.”
Bradford Glass Leadership Coach
“ . . . I loved being part of such an international group: very warm and competent
people that I feel are now a part of my network. Ed and Seán are wonderful tutors!
Their experience and the way they work together create an atmosphere that can do miracles. I felt so guided and safe the whole time and also ‘seen’ and acknowledged.
I went home empowered with heightened awareness and a plan with small steps leading me towards my developmental edge. I’m the only one with full responsibility
for my own personal and professional development!”
Jeannette Eidmann
Organizational Consultant Sweden
“The Gestalt International Study Center and its faculty have a unique, elegant and wonderfully simple way of working with individuals, groups and organizations. Participants experience the approach and get it in their bones. Unlike a typical
training or lecture, this allows therapists, business and community leaders or consultants the means of sharing it directly with the systems they work in to achieve powerful impact. The tranquil setting of outer Cape Cod offers the luxury of a change
in environment and the opportunity for reflection, which deepen the learning experience.”
Mark Hollern Organization Development Consultant Covance, Inc.
"Cape Cod Training Program, although focused on teaching of skills, is a life
changing program. I know few people who have not come away from it without
saying that it has transformed the way they think and live in the world."
Joseph Melnick, PhD Faculty Co-chair & Member
GISC
“The Cape Cod Training Program is, on the one hand, rooted in deep knowledge
and understanding of the nature of individuals and groups. On the other hand it has been refined into a model that is precise and simple to learn. Having studied quite
a few approaches in different programs I can say this combination of deep
professional logic that has been refined into a clear powerful methodology is unique!
I have found this model and the way it is taught by GISC’s skillful faculty a magical contribution to my work with individuals, teams, and organizations!”
Efrat Karin Salton Organizational Consultant, University Lecturer Graduate Program in OD Consulting, Israel
"These wonderful programs would be of interest to people who want to make a real difference in the world. Who want to understand how to put in place their own change programs that make that kind of difference. The Gestalt approach fundamentally respects the individual and believes in the individual’s ability to change themselves.
It is this element that makes this learning so applicable in today’s world with the challenges of ongoing change that we are all facing. The session leaders are
seasoned practitioners who not only know what they are doing but also know how
to help others understand it."
Ron Wiens
Partner Totem Hill, Canada & UK
"Nothing in my professional life brings me more pleasure than teaching at the GISC. Whether I’m working with therapists, consultants, coaches or executives, I remain continually excited about facilitating a process that encourages people “see”
differently, and that encourages them to bring forth as much of themselves as
possible in their professional and personal lives. In addition I am regularly amazed
and delighted by how much the teaching process impacts me, and supports my own
growth and development."
Stuart Simon Therapist, Coach, Consultant in Private Practice Faculty Member
GISC
“I persuaded an executive coaching client to attend GISC’s Leadership in the 21st Century program. The program ended up being one of the most valuable experiences of her working career. Executives live isolated lives; having a trusting
peer group that supported a depth of awareness and learning had unprecedented
value for my client. The GISC faculty and program coaches complemented (versus competed with) my client relationship, and my client was extraordinarily appreciative
for the part that I played in her ability to truly blossom.”
Marianne Roy Coach & Consultant Roy Associate
"More than any organization I have been connected to, I am regularly reminded of GISC’s commitment not just to providing professional and personal development,
but to changing peoples lives, and to making the world a better place."
Stuart Simon Faculty Member
GISC
"The program I participated
in at the Center has changed me. I am a different and
better person.
I am more effective at what I do and I have greater impact on the
people around me. Because of the experiential nature, I cannot forget
this program,
it has become part of who I am.”
Managing Partner International Consulting Firm
"My attendance at several GISC workshops has widened my professional skill set, widened my circle of friends and associates, and widened the eyes of some of my colleagues when they noticed the very positive impact of my learning there."
William Palmer President William Palmer Consulting, Inc.
"I believe I am FAR more effective with my clients as a result of my training at GISC.
And a much better person as well. The GISC faculty and staff are great. "
Lori Heffelfinger Founder The Heffelfinger Company
"As an organizational and leadership development coach based on Cape Cod, I
was thrilled to learn of GISC as a local resource. I attended two workshops last year.
The take-aways for me were the opportunity to be introduced to the Gestalt model
and the privilege of connecting with a group of passionate, knowledgeable, interested, and interesting people - both participants and staff. At both workshops, I experienced
several consecutive days of non-stop intellectual and emotional challenge; and observed highly skilled faculty and facilitators in action. "
Janice Kinder Workplace Coach Workplaces Can Work
"After attending GISC, I pay more attention to the positive. I am more present when intervening with people in coaching and in groups. I spend much more time in trying
to make people 'aware' of what is going on. I introduced the Cape Cod Model and
the cycle of experience in my coaching and in my consultation with a workgroup who
wants to improve the well being of their organization. The work group I work with is much
more happy and more effective. Every meeting I have with them brings a new
discovery for everyone. It is lot of fun. "
Yvon Boucher Public Works and Government Service Canada
"The Cape Cod Model gave me a coherent, simple framework, almost a new
aesthetic, through which to understand human interactions. What I learned is a continued source of clarity about how we relate to each other."
Vanessa Grajwer
"I am a social worker working in community-based preventive and foster care services. The Cape Cod Model has helped me to serve my client families and the community better. I have benefited in learning how to balance intimacy and strategy in working
with children, youth, and adults in their environments. My clients have expressed how much they appreciate the optimistic approach that I use in my work. Many of the
parents I work with are used to hearing about what they are doing wrong. The Cape
Cod Model assists me in pointing out the strength in my client family systems and, in doing so, I have seen parents move away from a place of shame to one of
hopefulness and achievement."
Brooke Conley Social Worker
"The Cape Cod training program has is on the one hand rooted in deep knowledge
and understanding of the nature of individuals and groups. On the other hand it has been refined into a model that is precise and simple to learn. Having studied quite a
few approaches in different programs I can say this combination of deep professional logic that has been refined into a clear powerful methodology is unique! I have found this model and the way it is taught by GISC's skillful faculty- a magical contribution to
my work with individuals, teams, and organizations! "
Efrat Karin Salton Organizational Consultant, University Lecturer Graduate Program in OD Consulting, Israel
Video Testimonials
Cape Cod Training Program:
Victoria Cassells Organizational Consultant
UK
Bob Ross Education Leader
US
Diane De Laet (English) Psychotherapist, Trainer, Coach
Belgium
Diane De Laet (Dutch) Psychotherapist, Trainer, Coach
Belgium
Tom Gross Consultant, Organization and Leadership Development
US
Irene Gronwall (English) Organizational Consultant, Trainer
Sweden
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