Gestalt Resources
Experimentation: Bringing Practice to Life
The definition of an experiment:
‘doing something new’ ~ an attempt to do or try something new, or a trying out of something to see what will happen. (Encarta Dictionary)
Fritz Perls introduced active experimentation into Gestalt Therapy to aid awareness, and to encourage the client to try out new behaviours in the safety of the therapy room (Clarkson & Mackewn).
The process of active experimentation allows the client to explore their inner world and to explore new ways of being, and to integrate all into real life situations with safety and support.
Fritz Perls as well as other contributors to Gestalt Therapy, advocated the principle that human beings learn better through embodied experience rather than by talking ‘about’ something (Lewin et al cited in Mackewn).
The Gestalt experiment brings therapy and practice to life. It transforms ‘talking about’ into action, and living through enactment. It has many benefits in the therapeutic space, from heightening awareness, to trying out and integrating new ways of relating and being. It is effective in surfacing polarities, completing ‘unfinished business’, and in encouraging self-responsibility, self-support, and authentic relating.
The Gestalt experiment ranges from short awareness exercises such as attention to breathing, and exaggerating movements, to more involved enactments, such as the ‘empty chair’ process, ‘live enactment’ and ‘dream work’. The Gestalt experiment can involve the therapist and client alone, or other group participants within a group setting.
Preparation and timing are important elements in developing and initiating more involved experiments in the therapeutic relationship. The level of risk of the experiment must be in alliance with the degree of self-support and safety felt by the client in the here-and-now situation, as well as being of relevance to the immediate process. The level of risk in the experiment is determined by checking and maintaining contact with the client throughout their process. In some cases the experiment may need to start off with small achievable steps and increase in difficulty over a period of sessions.
Perls Hefferline & Goodman refer to the excitement of the ‘safe emergency’ as the balance between mobilising the client’s energy within the experiment whilst maintaining a feeling of safety for the client to proceed.
Flexibility is required by the therapist in initiating any experiment. The therapist needs to let go of any rigid outcome, and to up-grade or down-grade an experiment as necessary. Ultimately, the Gestalt experiment is co-designed by the therapist and client to be within the reach of the client, but there are no guarantees, the outcome of the experiment can never really be pre-determined or controlled by either the therapist or the client. This is the proverbial ‘unknown’ in Gestalt Therapy and the discovery of every moment as it arises in the ‘here and now’ of process work.
Referenced Texts:
Clarkson, P & Mackewn, J., Key Figures in Counselling & Psychotherapy: Fritz Perls
Zinker, J., 1991, Creative Approaches to Gestalt Therapy
Polster, E & Polster, M., 1973, Gestalt Therapy Integrated
Mackewn, J., 1997, Developing Gestalt Counselling
Woldt, A & Toman, S., Gestalt Therapy: History, Theory & Practice
Felt Squares for experiment work
10 felt squares of differe
nt colours – each pack $55 including postage
Laminated Photos for experiment work
7″ x 5″ large photos – set of 40 laminated photos $95 including postage
6″ x 4″ smaller photos – set of 40 laminated photos $75 including postage
(Photographer: Pauline Zylstra)
If you are interested in either of the above please call Dinah on 0439 752 710 or e-mail dinahbuchanan18@gmail.com
Designing an Experiment
(A simplified version of Perls, Hefferline & Goodman’s Model (1951/1973) by Clarkson & Mackewn (1993).
Precondition: A precondition for setting up any experiment is that the client is willing actively to attend to what they are feeling, thinking, doing, saying and to enhance their awareness through imagery, body sensation, non-verbal communication, description, movement or enactment.
Stage 1: The theme of an experiment is focused on an ’emerging figure’ ~ something of immediate interest to the client and the therapist ~ something which has ‘energy’ for both.
Stage 2: The therapist suggests and designs, in cooperation with the client, an experiment ~ through which the client can explore their current field of awareness, irrespective of the outcome.
Stage 3: The client is invited to explore feelings, thoughts, ideas and parts of self (parts work and shadow work) through creative media: Imagery, Dreamwork, Felt squares, chair work, objects, art work, visualisations.
Stage 4: Dialogue between parts of self is facilitated by the therapist ~ awareness and insight is accessed for integration and growth.
Stage 5: Debriefing the experiment and ‘meaning making’ ~ making sense of what just happened in the experiment.