More clinical psychologists move into organizational consulting realm

By Rebecca A. Clay

When clinical psychologist Marilyn Puder-York, PhD, took a job as director of Citicorp?s employee-assistance program in 1978, her colleagues viewed her as an iconoclast.

'Unlike probably 99.9 percent of other clinical psychologists, I decided I wanted to apply my skills in a business setting,' says Puder-York. 'That wasn?t popular back then.'

Now in private practice as an executive coach, Puder-York is no longer alone. Drawn by higher fees and a fascination with people?s working lives, increasing numbers of clinical psychologists are starting to focus on their clients? work lives.

Some, like Puder-York and Ellen McGrath, PhD, coach executives to be more effective. Others, like Salvatore R. Maddi, PhD, teach employees how to resist stress. By helping individuals function better within organizations, these practitioners are bridging the gap between clinical psychology and industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology.

A hybrid field

Traditional I/O interventions lie at one end of the continuum and traditional clinical interventions at the other, explains Russ Newman, PhD, JD, executive director for professional practice at APA. Somewhere in the middle, they converge. And as trained behavioral problem-solvers, he says, both types of psychologists can offer new perspectives on individuals? workplace problems.

Puder-York agrees.

'I/O psychologists may look at what I do as encroaching on their business,' she says. 'But there?s a big difference between what I do and what an I/O psychologist does. As a clinical psychologist with a corporate speciality, I define the client as an individual?even if I?m working for an organization. I?m not diagnosing an organization.'

So although most of the clients that Puder-York sees in her midtown and Wall Street area executive coaching business are referred to her by their employers, she works with them on resolving individual rather than organizational problems. The goal is to maximize the effectiveness of top performers.

'The coaching I do is not for people who are a minute or two away from being fired,' says Puder-York, who draws on skills and contacts she developed during her decade-long stint at Citicorp. 'The people I see are functioning well on the technical side, but not on the interpersonal side.'

Today?s senior executives have little time to mentor up-and-comers who have recently been promoted to managerial positions, Puder-York explains. Individuals may need to learn to show more empathy toward their employees as a way of reducing staff turnover. They may be emotionally dependent on their bosses. They may be too aggressive, or not aggressive enough. Such problems have the potential to undermine the organization?s functioning, she says, which is why employers are willing to invest in coaching.

With the average intervention lasting six months, Puder-York works with the individual to determine goals and create a concrete action plan. Depending on the person?s needs, she may also talk to supervisors and human resources staff.

'My goal is not necessarily to change the person, but to change the behavior,' she explains. 'I?m not being paid by the company to provide psychotherapy.'

In fact, Puder-York makes a clear distinction between coaching and the psychotherapy practice she still maintains. With coaching, she goes to 'clients' offices for 'visits' rather than having 'patients' come to her office for 'sessions.' Interventions are finite rather than ongoing. And results are often cosmetic rather than deep down, she confesses.

'I don?t expect someone to go from being a shy person to a very confident, aggressive one in six months,' she says. 'I want them to be able to act like one in business situations.'

Executive coaching

McGrath, known for her work in depression and media pscyhology, has branched out to become founder and executive director of Bridge Ventures: Executive Coaching Systems in New York City and Laguna Beach, Calif., makes similar distinctions between her work as a psychotherapist and her work as a coach.

'What I?m doing is behavioral change, not analysis of the problem?s roots in the client?s childhood or any of that kind of work,' says McGrath, noting that her work is generally short-term and results-oriented.

McGrath?s executive coaching service grew out of the more traditional clinical practice she still maintains. When she realized that her psychotherapy clients? needs were changing, she changed with them. These days, McGrath and her clients often move into a behaviorally oriented coaching framework after they resolve clinical problems like anxiety or depression.

The business she recently launched with partner Mary Kim Brewster, MBA, who is finishing her doctoral training in clinical psychology, attracts former psychotherapy clients and other high-achievers who want to work through problems ranging from poor communication skills to career transitions. Unlike Puder-York?s clients, they typically come on their own rather than at the request of their organizations.

No matter what the client?s concern is, McGrath uses the same basic methodology.

She and the client begin by identifying one or two work-related problems to focus on. Step two is to discuss the client?s feelings about the problem. In step three, McGrath and the client come up with action strategies and work on developing new skills. A client with abusive colleagues might work on assertiveness skills, for example. The final step is to develop a verbal contract outlining the actions a client will take and a timeline as to when they will be accomplished, plus a follow-up structure to make sure the goals are met. Coaching takes place in person, by phone or even via teleconferencing, with clients contracting for a minimum of two $200- to $250-an-hour sessions.

The results are sometimes spectacular. McGrath has helped almost a dozen clients double already-high incomes, for instance. Once McGrath?s clients see the results she can help them achieve in their own lives, they often invite her to apply similar techniques with individuals or groups of individuals in their workplaces.

For example, the company president of Electromark, an upstate New York manufacturing company of high tech signs, hired McGrath to develop a leadership team that could take over for him when he was away from the plant developing new business. In a series of site visits, McGrath worked one-on-one with the team members and then brought them together in a group. McGrath taught them how to work with each other, identify problems, resolve conflicts and even develop meeting agendas. The company president told McGrath it was one of the company?s best interventions.

McGrath even helps companies interview job applicants. A Wall Street firm specializing in high-risk investments, for instance, hired McGrath to help select an office manager. McGrath convinced the firm that they would be better off rejecting the 'nice, warm, fuzzy mother types' in favor of an applicant who had previously worked for a boss with the same demanding personality profile as the firm?s own chief executive officer.

'Since I?ve never been trained as an I/O psychologist, I?m not going in there and telling them how to run their businesses, reorganize their human resources systems or develop their mission statements,' says McGrath. 'Instead of looking at problems from a systems view, I?m working on problems that are basically clinical or behavioral and individual in nature.'

Hardiness training

Unlike McGrath and Puder-York, Maddi slipped into organizational consulting almost by accident.

Curious about the impact of AT&T?s deregulation in 1981, he and his University of Chicago students launched a study of workplace stress at Illinois Bell as employees weathered what is still regarded as the largest upheaval in corporate history. The results of Maddi?s intervention, which he dubbed hardiness training, were so striking that he founded a consulting firm called the Hardiness Institute to share the techniques with other organizations. Maddi is now the institute?s president and a professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California at Irvine.

Maddi and his vice president, clinical psychologist Deborah M. Khoshaba, PhD, now offer training and other services that help clients stay healthy and productive during downsizing, mergers or other workplace changes. Interventions typically begin with the HardiSurvey, which assesses how much stress a person is experiencing and how hardy their attitudes are. Clients then undergo the 16-hour HardiTraining course, which is based on a workbook developed by Khoshaba and Maddi that consists of exercises designed to teach trainees how to cope with stress, seek social support, relax, eat right and exercise. At various checkpoints, trainees report their progress to Maddi, Khoshaba or other licensed trainers. Although clients can do the course on their own or in small groups, the goal is always the same: to promote the hardy attitudes of commitment, control and challenge.

Maddi and his team also consult with organizations interested in making their workplaces more conducive to hardiness. After a work-climate evaluation, for instance, they might suggest that a large company organize employees into small, project-oriented groups. The institute also offers executive coaching, team-building workshops and psychotherapy.

The services Maddi offers represent a good complement to traditional I/O interventions, he says.

'The typical ego orientation the clinical psychologist brings to this consulting task can have a needed mellowing effect on the prevailing task orientation that is natural to organizations and non-clinical consultants,' Maddi wrote in a Consulting Psychology journal article last year. 'It is a combination or fusion of ego and task orientations that is most likely to encourage the workplace needed in these turbulent times.'

Rebecca A. Clay is a writer in Washington, D.C.

Ellen McGrath, PhD, will be chairing two symposia, sponsored by Divs. 29 and 42, on executive coaching at APA?s Annual Convention. 'Coaching women in business: pitfalls and potential for psychologists' will take place at 11 a.m. on Aug. 16 in the Golden Gate Salon A-2 of the San Francisco Marriott. 'Coaching in business: Be strategic and don?t take it personally' will take place at 1 p.m. on the same day in the same room.

With co-authors Deborah Khoshaba and Arthur Pammenter, Salvatore Maddi will be offering a talk on 'The hardy organization' at the APA?s Annual Convention on Aug. 18 from 8?8:50 a.m. in room 222 of the Moscone Center?South Building. Maddi will also be receiving the RHR International Award for outstanding contributions to consulting psychology.