2011 - Volume 20 No.2
FRANK-M. STAEMMLER: The Now is not what it used to be . . . The meaning of time in
Gestalt therapy or the times of meaning in Gestalt therapy
CHRISTINE STEVENS et al: The UK Gestalt psychotherapy CORE research project: the findings
MARC-SIMON DROUIN: Object Relational Gestalt Therapy (ORGT) and evidence-based
practice
SHARON BEIRNE: Encountering Object Relational Gestalt Therapy as presented by
Gilles Delisle
In His Own Voice
CHRISTINE STEVENS Interviewing Gilles Delisle
Letters to the Editor
MALCOLM PARLETT Fields in practice: a response to Neil Harris and to Francis Taylor
Book Reviews
ROB TYSON Bringing continental European thinking to bear on the AngloAmerican hegemony in the development of Gestalt theory and
practice.
A review of Aggression, Time, and Understanding:
Contributions to the Evolution of Gestalt Therapy by Frank-M.
Staemmler
KATY WAKELIN Why are panic attacks and anxiety everywhere, and what can we do
about them? A review of Panic Attacks and Post Modernity: Gestalt
therapy between clinical and social perspectives edited by Gianni
Francesetti
HELEN GEDGE Learning through play. A review of Creating Children's Art Games
for Emotional Support by Vicky Barber.
PETER PHILIPPSON An occasion for pleasure. A review of On the Occasion of an Other
by Jean-Marie Robine
Opinion
PETER PHILIPPSON The mind and the senses: thinking in Gestalt therapy
Obituaries
SEÁN GAFFNEY Obituary: Edwin Nevis (1926–2011)
ROB FARRANDS Obituary: Edwin Nevis (1926–2011)
Abstracts for Vol. 20 No. 2
FRANK-M. STAEMMLER – Vol.20 No.2
Abstract: This paper is based on a keynote lecture that was given at the biannual conference of the Gestaltterapeutisk Forum in Copenhagen on March 26, 2011. Therefore it includes some special references to Denmark and Søren Kierkegaard. The title of the conference was 'The Now: The Meaning of Time in Gestalt Therapy'. The author investigates the question, how the Now can be understood in ways that are in accordance with Gestalt therapy's roots in phenomenology, Gestalt psychology, and holism. He points out that temporality and meaning-making are closely linked together, which leads to the idea that there is no absolute Now. Instead, it is proposed that the duration of a respective Now should be defined with respect to the complexity of the meaning that is to be created. A holarchy of Nows is proposed, in which 'individual sensory Nows', an 'integrated sensory Now', a 'semantic Now,' a 'situational Now,' and a 'hermeneutic Now' are inherently interrelated.
Key words: Gestalt psychology, holism, meaning, now, phenomenology, time.
Christine Stevens, Jane Stringfellow, Katy Wakelin and Judith Waring – Vol.20 No.2
Abstract:This is the account of a three-year research project within the Gestalt therapy community in the UK. It is an example of clinically-based, mostly quantitative research carried out in a methodical and rigorous way, using voluntary effort and minimum funding. The results can be compared with national databases of similar UK studies and show that Gestalt psychotherapists are as effective as therapists trained in other modalities working in the NHS and in primary care.
MARC-SIMON DROUIN
– Vol.20 No.2
Abstract: Psychotherapy outcome has been of great interest for the last fifty years. Empirically supported psychotherapy and evidence-based treatment are influencing current thinking about variables that can and should be validated in psychotherapy. After first presenting a critical review of evidence-based treatment, I will try to evaluate where ORGT stands in the light of recent results obtained in research on psychotherapy.
Key words: Object Relational Gestalt Therapy, psychotherapy, evidence-based practices, therapeutic principles, personality disorders, effectiveness.
SHARON BEIRNE
– Vol.20 No.2
Abstract: In the context of Gestalt psychotherapy being situated within an evolving psychological therapies profession, I present a discussion, along the lines of an appreciative enquiry, around some of the key concepts and illuminating features of Delisle's ORGT model, based on Delisle's delivery of his approach over a two-day workshop I attended in March 2011. Starting from the foundations of Gestalt psychotherapy to current influences, I make reference to some of the strengths and limitations of Gestalt theory and practice highlighted by Delisle, and reflect on the enduring elements of Fritz Perls' legacy. I consider the principal discussion points in relation to working with clients with borderline personality disorder and underscore two features of Delisle's model: the use of hermeneutics, which includes an element of interpretation; and working with past experience, as one of the parts of the four-dimensional field presented by Delisle. I include reference to the underpinning developmental theory within Mentalisation Based Therapy (MBT) and neurobiological explanations within neuroscience on some of the neural functioning patterns of borderline personality disorder, drawing links to concepts of Delisle's model. The impetus for writing this article was primarily a profound experience I had during an exercise at Delisle's workshop, and my enjoyment of the conceptual nourishment that the theoretical material offered, as well as my appreciation of Delisle's efforts to include a developmental theory of health and pathology into Gestalt theory and practice. Overall, my reflections are a deliberation of Gestalt theory and practice at the juncture of now.
Key words: Object Relational Gestalt Therapy (ORGT), development, contact, field, attachment, mentalisation, capabilities, neuroscience, Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM), borderline personality disorder.
CHRISTINE STEVENS Interviewing Gilles Delisle
Gilles Delisle is a senior Gestalt trainer and practitioner and founder of the Centre d'Intégration gestaltiste (CIG) in Montreal, Canada. As this interview explores, his career spans his training with some of the founding figures of Gestalt therapy to his current role as President of the Advisory Council on Psychotherapy to the Government of Quebec. This interview took place in Manchester UK on 7 March 2010 following a two-day workshop organised by Christine Kennett where Gilles presented his Object Relational Gestalt Therapy model (ORGT). A small group remained behind at the end of the conference to participate in the interview, and some of the comments and questions in the text are from members of the group.