[Ailist] "Getting Ready" for AI/Gestalt Center Support Programs

[David J. Snider]

Hi Don

Thanks for letting us know your experience of being "seriously put  
off" and then "overwhelmed in a very positive way" by AI.  So much of  
what you report feels familiar.

One of the things I like best is your story of progress that leads  
you toward INFJ preferences.  Your experience fits my conviction and  
experience that we do indeed have powerful ability to move beyond the  
selves that we have lived for years.

I was just reminded tonight by correspondence from John Carter, of  
the Gestalt Center for Organization & Systems Development, of how  
significant work at what was then the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland  
has been in helping me break loose from my INTJ preferences and from  
my fear of my emotions.  Of course my fear of my emotions led me to  
be uneasy and often scared of others' emotions!  Getting out of that  
cage was made dramatically easier with the support of the Gestalt  
Center faculty and colleagues in our 20-participant group.  I doubt  
if I could have made "the break" without their support.   My Gestalt  
experience also helped me get on a personal "track" that enabled me  
to embrace an AI approach to life and to my consulting.  It also  
enabled me to gain competence in using my own emotions and responding  
to other' emotions in my consulting practice.

For any of you who want an intensive, personal/professional growth  
experience that may be life-changing take a look at the choices at  
http://www.gestaltosd.org/  Some of the programs go on for months/ 
years.  Introductory programs can give you a feel for the approach  
and a sense of whether it is for you in a day or two.

If these programs attract any of you, please let me know if I can  
help you know whether work at the Gestalt Center for Organization &  
Systems Development might fit your interests and needs.

Best to you,

David

David J. Snider, Ph.D.
David Snider Associates
   Consultants On Personal and
   Organizational Development
17214 Wildemere
Detroit, MI 48221
O: 313 342 8060
Fax: 313 342 8650
davidsnider at mindspring.com


On Mar 12, 2007, at 10:58 AM, Don Austin wrote:

>
> Hello David,
>
> I have INTJ preferences (as opposed to "I am an INTJ").  Actually,  
> after 55
> years of life and testing INTJ for at least a dozen times over the  
> years, I
> now test INFJ.  I find MBTI, and LSI, and EC, and AI all to be very  
> helpful,
> and sometimes very powerful.  I have often overused them, and I  
> think that
> most people who find them meaningful do overuse them.
>
> AI is experiential at its heart, in my opinion.  When I first read  
> the name
> and description, and had it described to me by David Cooperrider,  
> despite
> some prior experience that could have predisposed me toward AI, I was
> seriously put off BY THE DESCRIPTION.  When I first actually DID  
> AI, I was
> overwhelmed in a very positive way.
>
> I believe that as essential as AI is, it would not be such a big  
> deal if we
> lived in a culture that did more of AI sorts of interaction routinely.
> However, we are seriously screwed up, so AI IS very important.
>
> I do not believe that trying to correlate disposition toward AI  
> with MBTI
> types is going to be very useful to you, in the end, although it is an
> intriguing question (there are SO many intriguing questions for  
> INTJ types,
> are there not?).  Every MBTI type can have unique reasons for  
> shying away
> from AI, so your INTJ reasons are not someone else's.
>
> Don
>
> Don Austin, Ph.D.
> Bedrock Effective Action
> Developed for You-with You
>
> Cobblestone Coaching
> http://cobblestonecoaching.com
> 78 Water Street, P.O. Box 21
> Elizabethtown, NY 12932
> 518-873-6891
>
>