Eric Buehrens

Cert TIHR (Coaching) | Principal

I work with leaders in a range of positions and settings: coaching global CEO’s in the Harvard Business School Executive Education program; consulting to leading universities and academic units, and coaching their faculty; healthcare leaders from Fortune 100 companies to nonprofit community health centers and major academic medical centers. I’ve had leadership positions in some institutions of this type; you will find a summary of my professional background and affiliations in the downloadable bio.

I am certified as an executive coach through the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations (TIHR) in the UK, having completed their program in Coaching for Leadership. TIHR is a social science research institute that has since its founding in 1947 been among the leading centers for the application of psychoanalytic thinking to group and organizational life. The model of learning about leadership and authority from here-and-now experience in a group relations conference was developed at the Tavistock Institute and continues through its annual Leicester Conference which I attended in 2018.

To develop my practice as a coach and consultant, I maintain memberships in a number of professional organizations and have participated in related training and professional development.

In the United States, the Tavistock tradition and method of learning is carried forward by the A.K. Rice Institute and, in Boston, by the Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems. I am a member of both organizations and a past Board member and officer of CSGSS. In 2018 I was a participant in the Dynamics of Consulting training program for organizational consultants interested in bringing a psychodynamic perspective to their work. I’ve benefitted from the ongoing professional education offered by local psychoanalytic institutes such as the Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute (BPSI).

In the UK, the Organization Promoting Understanding of Society (OPUS) and its excellent journal Organizational and Social Dynamics are important resources for practitioners in the field.

I am a member of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. This non-profit organization is dedicated to ensuring scientific integrity in the field of coaching.

The International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO) brings together consultants, academics, clinicians, coaches, managers, leaders, students and others who are active in applying psychoanalytic frameworks to inform their work and is a valuable source of ongoing professional education and peer support.

I believe strongly that anyone engaged in this sort of work needs the ongoing perspective provided by personal psychotherapy and by participation in supervision of the work by more experienced practitioners. As the psychologist Gregory Bateson said, “it takes two to see one” and this is true for the coach as much as for the leaders with whom I work.