Abstracts for Volumes 8 & 9

Ken Evans – Vol.8 No.1

Ken Evans – Vol.8 No.1
Received 12 October 1998

Abstract: This article advocates a classical Gestalt approach – phenomenological focusing, experimentation, re-decision therapy – to brief and focal therapy in a group, based on several years' experience of running time limited therapy groups in a community mental health centre. A critical assessment is made both of the negative consequences of moving away from the classical approach evidenced in an increase in patient re-referral rates and of factors likely to contribute to a successful outcome.

Key words: two-chair work, re-decision therapy, experimentation, introject phenomenology, role lock, psycho-educational, brief and focal therapy.

Gaie Houston – Vol.8 No.1

Gaie Houston – Vol.8 No.1
Received 20 April 1999

Abstract: This article seeks to draw together the varied opinions of other writers on how best to conduct brief Gestalt therapy. It advocates well-honed diagnostic skills in the therapist, openness to trusting the client; education of the client about the possibilities of short-term work; imaginative use of creative experiment; high attention to the therapeutic relationship and to time itself.

Key words: brief Gestalt therapy, theory of change, purist, therapeutic relationship, physical contact, education, therapist flexibility.

Glenys Jacques – Vol.8 No.1

Glenys Jacques – Vol.8 No.1
Received 3 March 1999

Abstract: This paper explores the concept of structure in Gestalt therapy of which brevity may be a part. Often clients come seeking order in the face of frightening and traumatic experiences in their lives. The author suggests that Gestalt therapists might raise their own awareness of the existential issues raised by the potential pressures and limitations of structure, in particular with time-defined therapy.

Key words: brief therapy, being, chaos, time.

Joseph Melnick and Sonia Nevis – Vol.8 No.1

Joseph Melnick and Sonia Nevis – Vol.8 No.1
Received 21 January 1999

Abstract: This article outlines a theory and methodology for conducting family therapy from a Gestalt therapy perspective. We view families through the lenses of field theory, the interactive cycle of experience and systems theory. First, we focus on the creation, expression and management of intimacy as a fundamental task of all families. We then describe intimacy as being, in large part, a reflection of the ways in which the family organises itself around the issues of power (influence) and nurturing (support). last, a case study is presented which demonstrates our approach.

Key Words: Gestalt, family therapy, power, intimacy, nurturing.

Peter Philippson – Vol.8 No.1

Peter Philippson – Vol.8 No.1
Received 15 May 1998

Abstract: This paper offers a model for time-limited Gestalt therapy, with a process-focus rather than a solution-focus. I explore theoretical, practical and ethical issues connected with this way of working, and discuss the limitations of both this approach and more long term therapy.

Key words: brief therapy, process focus, here-and-now, non-managerial, gestalt shift, boundaries, five layers.

Arthur Roberts – Vol.8 No.1

Arthur Roberts – Vol.8 No.1
Received 27 January 1999

Abstract: The constructivist revolution in psychotherapy has served great purpose, but has led to a theoretical standstill. Constructivist insights passed a milestone at which their continued unexamined use became detrimental rather than beneficial. Specifically, excitement over the value of constructivism for psychotherapy has caused us to lose sight of an intricate but indeterminate order inherent in the field which constrains our experience and behaviour. This order exists prior to our concepts about it, and prior to social constructs. The origins of this oversight are discussed, its implications for several areas of psychotherapeutic theory and practice are examined, and new directions for Gestalt therapy are proposed.

Key words: constructivism, experience, field theory, language, narrative.

Janice Scott – Vol.8 No.1

Janice Scott – Vol.8 No.1
Received 4 March 1999

Abstract: This paper argues there is an important place for time-limited Gestalt psychotherapy in the provision of psychotherapeutic support, both in the public and private sector. In an age where resources are limited many individuals find short-term therapy is the only option. For other client groups it is the therapy of choice. This paper describes short-term counselling in the context of a service for qualified nursing staff in the British National Health Service (NHS). In examining the effectiveness of this form of psychotherapy, the paper emphasises the importance of using focus identification and reports how a maximum of twelve sessions plus an assessment session can be confronting, demanding and stressful. The paper also explores the implications of beginning a therapy relationship when the end is already in sight. The paper highlights the need for more research into the practice of Gestalt time-limited psychotherapy.

Key words: time-limited psychotherapy, National Health Service, assessment, focus identification, endings, research.

Jonathan Whines – Vol.8 No.1

Jonathan Whines – Vol.8 No.1
Received 13 April 1999

Abstract: This article promotes the value of Gestalt as a brief therapy. Firstly, viewing it within the historical context of traditional long-term therapy the writer suggests that the process-based approach of Gestalt especially lends itself to time-limited work. The writer defines a specific brief therapy model which requires a clear mapping of the historical field and contact styles in order to highlight current contact styles and the meaning of the symptom-figure. The article endorses an inclusiveness towards other brief therapy models whilst maintaining the existential-dialogic core which is at the heart of Gestalt.

Key words: being and doing, symptom-figure, contact, contemporary field, historical field, narrative.

Marion Gillie – Vol.8 No.2

Marion Gillie – Vol.8 No.2
Received 12 October 1998

Abstract: Until recently, Gestalt therapy, with its existential focus on the client's phenomenological awareness, did not have a distinct and clearly defined theory of development that could be widely accepted and understood as a 'theory' in the same way that, for example, the paradoxical theory of change is understood. Wheeler (1998) has now advanced our understanding of field theory into a field model of development. This paper takes a different approach to this issue. From research on infant observation and clinical theories of practising therapists/analysts, Daniel Stem and his colleagues have developed a picture of the intersubjective world of the infant. This paper seeks to address the issue of whether the work of Stem can provide a framework that supports our Gestalt theoretical base and enrich our work as practitioners.

Key words: developmental theory, Gestalt therapy, intersubjectivity, Daniel Stem, infant observation, therapeutic relationship, interpersonal field, core self.

John Bernard Harris – Vol.8 No.2

John Bernard Harris – Vol.8 No.2
Received 27 October 1999

Abstract: This paper looks at a number of factors relating to learning and training from a Gestalt perspective. I argue that the links between therapy and pedagogy are important. More specifically, I show the basis of a Gestalt theory of growth and learning using ideas drawn from Gestalt therapy theory, and develop this in terms of both the theory and practice of training.

Key words: Gestalt therapy, growth, contact, learning, facilitation, training.

Gaie Houston – Vol.8 No.2

Gaie Houston – Vol.8 No.2
Editor's Note: This far-ranging interview with Gaie Houston, thoughtful and highly entertaining, touches on many topics that we believe will interest our readers. She puts forward a number of her ideas about love and politics; about simultaneous membership of different groups; about psychotherapy integration and the relation between Gestalt and other approaches; and about the place of drama in Gestalt experiments. She also reflects on her formative influences, on her present concerns, and her possible future. Gaie Houston was educated at Newark High School, gaining a state scholarship to go on to Oxford University. She has taught Gestalt since 1975 and is Emeritus Advisor to the Gestalt Centre, London. In addition to having a private practice and working internationally, she has written several books on Gestalt therapy, including the Red Book of Gestalt (1982) and Being and Belonging: Group, Intergroup and Gestalt (1993). Her extensive outside interests have included serving as an &elected local government representative, college lecturing, broadcasting, and writing plays (18 have been performed either on radio or stage). She has been married for 44 years to Toby Owen and they have a son and daughter and two grandchildren. The editors of the British Gestalt Journal are delighted to carry this interview with one of the liveliest and most warmly regarded Gestalt trainers in Britain today.

John Kirti Wheway – Vol.8 No.2

John Kirti Wheway – Vol.8 No.2
Received 1 October 1999

Editor's Note: We are pleased and proud to publish here the first 'Marianne Fry Memorial Lecture', given by John Kirti Wheway on 11 September, 1999. The newly established annual lecture, honouring Marianne Fry, is intended as a vehicle for continued serious exploration of the boundary between Gestalt and spirituality. Marianne Fry, who died in 1998 (and whose obituary appeared in the British Gestalt Journal, 7,1) made explicit and frequent connections between her spiritual life and principles of Gestalt therapy. In this lecture, John Kirti Wheway, a close friend of Marianne, takes Montaigne's Essays as his starting point for a remarkable personal statement – a reflective, honest, searching enquiry into therapy, its relation to spirituality in a secularised world, and his own development of selfhood. Montaigne's self exploration, based on direct experience of 'the lived human life' provides (Wheway suggests) a model for a 'liberal spirituality', revealed here as based in wholeness, 'the embeddedness of the human in the non-human world', the centrality of breath, and the presence of the 'disinterested witness' observing the 'story-telling self'. (John Kirti Wheway's lecture formed a central part of the first 'Gestalt and Spirituality Gathering', which was organised by Gestalt SouthWest and held at Hawkwood College, Gloucestershire, England. A second Gathering will be held 22-24 September, 2000, at Gaunt's House, Dorset, England. For details see the notice in this issue.)

Elisabeth Wingfield – Vol.8 No.2

Elisabeth Wingfield – Vol.8 No.2
Received 12 December 1998

Abstract: Performance anxiety amongst classical singers and musicians is extremely common and causes many psychological, emotional and physical problems. It also prevents many singers and musicians from reaching their full potential. It is a complex problem with many contributing factors. In this article I write about the common field conditions of many classical performers, the layers of contributing factors in performance, and how Gestalt theory and practice can be helpful in understanding and working with some of the problems facing singers and musicians.

Key words: performance, anxiety, phenomenological method, awareness, introjection, retroflection, Gestalt cycle, field, singing.

Lynne Jacobs – Vol.9 No.1

Lynne Jacobs – Vol.9 No.1
Received 6 April 2000

Abstract: The following article is largely a stream-of-consciousness reflection on being a racially-conscious white therapist in racially divided America. It focuses specifically on working with African-American patients, addressing such themes as white anxiety, white skin privilege, lack of awareness of whiteness as a socio-political power construct, and white guilt. An illustrative case example takes the reader through how the themes listed shaped the therapist's subjectivity and alternately enhanced and inhibited the therapeutic process.

Key words: race relations, cross-cultural therapy, whiteness, black-white relations, sociology of therapy.

Kearns and Daintry – Vol.9 No.1

Kearns and Daintry – Vol.9 No.1
Received 22 March 2000

Abstract: This article examines shame phenomena as they occur for supervisor and supervisee in the supervision of trainee psychotherapists. We offer some examples from our work as supervisors of trainees to illustrate the field conditions – both in the room and in the wider socio-cultural and intra-psychic fields – that support shame in the supervisory relationship. We discuss recognising and working with some common defences against shame. Finally we offer a model for supervision to support the supervisee and supervisor to acknowledge and to survive the consequences of their human frailties.

Key words: shame, supervision, Gestalt therapy, education, transference, training institutes.

Malcolm Parlett – Vol.9 No.1

Malcolm Parlett – Vol.9 No.1
Received 26 April 2000

Note: The present article is based on a public lecture (entitled 'Human Abilities and Survival: Psychotherapy in a Global Field') given at the University of Derby on February 24, 200() (an inaugural lecture on the author's appointment in the University as Visiting Professor of Gestalt Psychotherapy).

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to reflect on the future of psychotherapy in a greater context of society and global change. The first half is about psychotherapy in general. There are both optimistic and pessimistic scenarios concerning world problems, globalisation, and changes in our ways of life. Psychotherapists need to be aware that distress and confusion may be shared at a mass level in society. This calls for a fundamental review of our profession – its purposes and methods. The field theory perspective provides a basis for such thinking. The second half of the article focuses on the Gestalt concept of 'creative adjustment' as basic to a field-based psychotherapy of the future. Gestalt education and therapy might be considered as involving learning and practice with five aspects of creative adjustment, identified here as 1. Responding; 2. Interrelating; 3. Self-Recognising; 4. Embodying; and 5. Experimenting. Their status as human abilities, necessary for human beings in the face of global changes, is discussed.


Key words: globalisation, mental health, Gestalt therapy, field, creative adjustment, human abilities.

Ruth Wolfert Volume 9 No.2

Ruth Wolfert Volume 9 No.2
Received 12 September 2000

Abstract: In the beginning is field, and it is contact in the organism/environment field that is the first and simplest reality. This radical view fonns the basis for Gestalt therapy theory. There are no fixed entities interacting to produce an effect; rather there is a contactual field effect that produces us in the moment. Side by side with this revolutionary view are holdovers from the past, particularly an individualistic focus on satisfying wants. This article looks at the Gestalt therapy view of self in the light of science and Buddhism. It offers evidence from physics, physiology and neuroscience for the view that a contactual field effect produces experience and reality in the moment and shows what Buddhism could offer Gestalt therapy theory and practice to allow it to live up to the promise of its field theory.

Key words: Gestalt therapy, self, self-image, field theory, physics, neuroscience, Buddhism, meditation, contact, experiencing, wants.

Ken Evans Volume 9 No.2

Ken Evans Volume 9 No.2
Received 20 November 2000

Editor's Note: The following is an edited and shortened version of the Second Annual Marianne Fry Lecture, published by kind permission of the Lecture's organisers. These lectures honour the life and work of Marianne Fry, the noted and much loved British and German Gestalt trainer, who died in 1998. Their purpose is to explore the relationship between Gestalt therapy and spirituality, an exploration of central concern to Marianne Fry. Ken Evans' lecture is a remarkable description of his wife's (Mairi's) struggle with cancer, her extraordinary courage and commitment to exploring tully what was occurring for her at every stage, their joint preparation for her death, and the final parting between them. It is a compelling account about dying consciously. The realism of this chronicle stands in sharp contrast to the secrecy, deflections, fear, and denial that frequently surround dying and also cancer as an illness. As Mairi's life ebbs away, Ken and Mairi 'trust the process', contact continues, and love deepens. In publishing parts of this unforgettable lecture and first hand account, by a leading figure in the Gestalt community in Britain, we readers are privileged to share in the experience of living with dying. We thank Ken Evans for his openness and generous willingness to share what happened with us. As he himself recognises, his therapy and Gestalt background provided support for him to remain open to the full emotional intensity of the experience,

Key words: dying, cancer; contact, Buddhism.

Marion Gillie Volume 9 No.2

Marion Gillie Volume 9 No.2
Received 26 July 2000

Abstract: Where shame plays a central role, as it does in eating disorders, Kaufman (1989) believes that accepted theories and methods of treatment have largely failed'. In this paper I argue that it is likely that the bulimic client has experienced insufficient support in the field for important needs, and consequently, has experienced a significant rupture in the intersubjective field. Bulimic behaviour is their creative adjustment to their current environment, the client's way of managing unacceptable' feelings and needs. I conclude that it is essential that the therapist understands the dynamics of shame and knows how to work with the client's shame response in a way that enables the bulimic client to reveal the hidden (messy) part of herself'. In this paper I offer an overview of the current thinking on shame from a Gestalt perspective and relate this to the clinical practice of working with bulimic clients, drawing on real case material to illustrate the implications for clinical practice.

Key words: shame, Bulimia Nervosa, eating disorders, intersubjectivity, sense of self co-created field.

Lynne Jacobs Interviewed by Jenny Mackewn Volume 9 No.2

Lynne Jacobs Interviewed by Jenny Mackewn Volume 9 No.2

Editor's Note: The British Gestalt Journal is pleased to publish the following interview with Lynne Jacobs, who describes herself as a Gestalt analyst'. Lynne Jacobs teaches, writes, and studies both Gestalt therapy and psychoanalysis. Lynne, who acknowledges she loves living in both worlds' is co-founder; with Gary Yontef, of the Gestalt Therapy Institute of the Pacific and is also a training and supervising analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis. In this interview, she describes the development of her twin career; her passionate interest in relational themes', the links with intersubjectivity and object relations theorists, and her interest in working to explore character structure. Redefining transference, and also the traditional Gestalt interruptions to contact', she concludes the interview with acknowledging how important it can be to make mistakes'. We are grateful to Jenny Mackewn, for her perceptive questioning and for her framing of an outstanding interview with one of Gestalt's contemporary leading thinkers.