Archive for Therapy Tools
Making Mistakes
Posted by:Making Mistakes
Recently, I was at a conference: Together Again, For the First Time: Gestalt Therapy and Inter-Subjective Systems Psychoanalysis and had a chance to talk with Lynne Jacobs, a Gestalt therapist and an analyst, one of the co-presenters and someone I have long admired. Emotional process and relational process are central in Gestalt therapy. We track the emotional process of the client. We constantly offer situation specific support. This also includes when I've tried, and missed, meeting the client where he is. I know it's my responsibility to make the correction. I don't always know I need to. The two of us, my client and me, are fumbling our way along together. He knows what he most needs at any moment, so correcting and guiding me is certainly possible. But often it doesn't happen. What can I do?
Wholeness and the Place of Knowing
Posted by:Wholeness and the Place of Knowing
"We ignore Wholeness because we're so fixed on our object–the thing we've drawn, the thing we feel, the thing we've identified. But we ignore the fact that whatever our object is not is present as well. By splitting Reality into parts, and then focusing on the single part, we've tuned out the Whole. We've set ourselves up for confusion and despair." – Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain & Simple, 1997
I got the following in an email from a client:
"Things are getting a lot worse for me within the last week since I saw you. I am thinking about quitting Ann (personal trainer) altogether. We can talk about it tomorrow. I'm sure I can cancel the appointment on Friday. I also want to talk to you about the appropriate code to use on submitting a claim to my insurance. I want to try to make myself get a claim done this weekend. My problem is really getting myself to do anything…"
So what happens when I read this? I feel her being pulled away from her own 'knowing' and contact with herself.
Fascination and Curiosity
Posted by:Patrick, a client (not his real name), and his girlfriend went out together and had a good time, the first time in awhile. He tried to get the news on the radio on the way home. She said, "Nobody cares about that" and switched stations. A "punch in the stomach" like he wasn't "worth anything" was his experience. Negatives about her followed, a familiar pattern. As a Gestalt therapist I don't focus on change directly Fascination and curiosity are my by-words. . .they affect how I 'take in' and work. "Punch in the stomach". . ."not worth anything". . . I'm fascinated in a kind of impersonal way. Fascination, by the way, does great things for the relationship. And I'm curious. I ask questions. Experiments occur to me. (We'll come back to the questions.)
Tools for Creativity
Posted by:In therapy sessions, planning gets in the way of creativity; at least in my experience, that's true. Creativity comes from feeling our way into the client's experience. It comes from trusting the process between us. It comes from being open without a plan. Every time we do these things, we're preparing the ground for creativity.
Contact Me
Newsletter Sign-Up
