Gestalt Therapy Around the World E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 780

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

The first internationally focused book on gestalt therapy to provide a comprehensive overview of current practice around the world.

• Features coverage of the history, training, theoretical contributions, and research initiatives relating to gestalt therapy in seventeen countries
• Points to future directions and challenges
• Includes extensive information on worldwide gestalt associations, institutes, and professional societies that promote the development of the approach

Leseprobe

Contents

Contributors

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part one Gestalt Therapy

1 Fritz Perls and Gestalt Therapy

Europe: Germany 1893–1933; Family Influences

European Influences: Psychiatry, Psychology, and Psychotherapy

Holland and South Africa 1933–1946: A Gradual Disillusionment with Psychoanalysis

The USA 1946–1969: The Establishment of Gestalt Therapy

Canada 1969–1970: Fritz Perls’ Final Days

References

2 Key Concepts of Gestalt Therapy and Processing

Key Concepts of Gestalt Therapy

Process and Processing

References

3 Dialogue and Contact

Empathy/Inclusion

Authenticity/Presence

Contact

Stories

Summary

References

4 Techniques, Experiments, and Dreams

Techniques

Experiments

Dreams

References

Part Two Gestalt Therapy Around the World

Europe

5 Gestalt Therapy in Austria

Theoretical Contributions

Overview of Research Contributions

Training Initiatives in Austria

Gestalt Therapy Associations and Societies

Future Challenges

References

6 Gestalt Therapy in Britain

Introduction

The Ambassadors

The Development of Training

Associations and Conferences

Publications

Research

The Future

Conclusion

References

7 History of Gestalt Therapy in Denmark

Theoretical Contributions with Overview

Overview of Research Contributions

Training Initiatives

Gestalt Therapy Associations and Societies

Future Challenges

References

8 Gestalt Therapy in Finland

History

Theoretical Contributions

Research

Training Initiatives

Associations

Future Challenges

References

9 Dawn of Gestalt Therapy in France

The Pioneers

Gestalt Associations, Institutes, and Schools

Training: Past and Present

Theoretical Contributions

Research

Ongoing Projects and the Future

References

10 Gestalt Therapy in Germany

History

Present Situation

Theoretical Contributions

Research

Future Challenges

References

11 Gestalt Therapy in Greece

Brief History

Theoretical Contributions

Research

Training Initiatives in Greece: Past and Present

Gestalt Therapy Associations and Societies

Future Challenges

References

12 Gestalt Therapy in the Republic of Ireland

The Beginning of Training

Present Training

The Irish Gestalt Society

Theoretical Contributions

Research

Future Challenges

Acknowledgments

References

13 Gestalt Therapy in Italy

Premise

Brief History

Theoretical Contributions

Overview of Research Contributions in Italy

Training Initiatives: Past and Present

Gestalt Therapy Associations and Societies: Their Foundation and Development

Future Challenges

References

The Middle East

14 Gestalt Therapy in Israel

History

Books and Articles

Research

Training Initiatives: Past and Present

Associations and Societies

Future Challenges

References

Asia

15 Gestalt Therapy in Japan

Brief History

Theoretical Contributions

Overview of Research Contributions

Training Initiatives: Past and Present

Gestalt Therapy Societies

Future Challenges

References

Australasia

16 Gestalt Therapy in Australia

Gestalt Therapy Training Centers: 1970s and 1980s

Expansion and Connection: The 1990s

The New Millennium: 2000 and Beyond

Theoretical Contributions through Books and Articles

Gestalt Therapy Associations and Societies

Research Contribution

Future Challenges

Conclusion

References

17 Gestalt Development in New Zealand

The Beginnings

Training Initiatives: Past and Present

Gestalt Australia and New Zealand (GANZ): An Association for Practitioners

An Overview of Theoretical Contributions to Books and Articles

Theoretical Contributions

Research Review

Future Challenges

Acknowledgments

References

The Americas

18 The Americas Gestalt Therapy in the Province of Quebec, Canada

Brief History of Gestalt Therapy

Past Training Initiatives

The Present Situation

The Gestalt Therapy Association

Overview of Theoretical Contributions in Terms of Books and Articles

Research on Gestalt Therapy

Future Challenges

References

19 Gestalt Therapy in the United States of America

Brief History

Theoretical Contributions in Terms of Books and Articles

Overview of Research Contributions

Training Initiatives

Gestalt Therapy Associations

Future Challenges

Acknowledgments

References

20 Gestalt Therapy in Argentina

Brief History

Theoretical and Clinical Contributions in Terms of Books and Articles

Overview of Research Contributions

Training Initiatives: Past and Present

Gestalt Therapy Associations and Societies

Future Challenges

References

21 Gestalt Therapy in Chile

Brief History

Theoretical Contributions

Research

Future Challenges

References

Part Three Reviewing the Past and Moving Onwards

22 The Present and Future of International Gestalt Therapy

Time Frame of Development

Commencement of Training Initiatives

Progress with Governmental Recognition and Accreditation

Publications of Theoretical Developments and Research

Organization and Communication

Combining the Strengths of the Institutes with the Strengths of the Universities

Openness to Exploration

Collaboration among Gestalt Therapists

References

Conclusion

Appendix 1: Worldwide Gestalt Associations, Institutes, and Professional Societies

Index

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gestalt therapy around the world / edited by Eleanor O’Leary. pages cmIncludes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-69936-2 (cloth) – ISBN 978-0-470-69937-9 (pbk.) 1. Gestalt therapy–Cross-cultural studies. I. O’Leary, Eleanor, editor of compilation.RC489.G4G4838 2013616.89′143–dc23

2012045565

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: © imagewerks / Getty ImagesCover design by Simon Levy Associates

To my nephews and nieces, who bring so much joy to my life – Martin, Denis, Eoin, Dermot, Shane, Robert, Sarah, Kevin, Alice, and Maeve.

Contributors

Nancy Amendt-Lyon, Dr. phil, MA, was born in New York and studied ­psychology in New York, Geneva, and Graz. She works in private practice (gestalt therapy, group psychoanalysis, and supervision) in Vienna. Present Chairwoman of the Austrian Association for Gestalt Therapy, she was Chairwoman of the Extended Board of the European Association for Gestalt Therapy from 1999 to 2004. She has many years of experience teaching gestalt therapy both in Austria (FS/IGT, BÖP, Akademie für psychotherapeutische Medizin) and internationally. She has served on the editorial boards of Gestalttherapie: Forum für Gestaltperspektiven, Studies in Gestalt Therapy: Dialogical Bridges, and the Gestalt Review. Together with Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, she is co-editor of Creative License: The Art of Gestalt Therapy, which has been translated into German, French, and Italian and has numerous publications on gestalt therapy and gender relations in English and German.

Walter Arnold has a Masters in Philosophy and advanced special training in gestalt therapy (VET). His background training consisted of philosophy, ­anthropology, filmmaking, granite sculpture and avant garde dance performed at the professional level. He is a licensed psychologist and a licensed psychotherapist. He served as a yearly visiting lecturer at the University of Helsinki, has conducted workshops at the University of Cork, Ireland, and has lectured at gestalt therapy conferences. A founding member of the International Gestalt Therapy Association (IGTA), he has been chairman both of IGTA and of its Journal Committee which established the International Gestalt Journal (IGJ) in 2002. A former member of the Philosophy Committee of the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy, he has written books on Contact-Dialogue Experienced: On Gestalt Therapy (1998) and Culture, Identity and Language (1999). He has published articles on gestalt therapy and the meaning of a mother tongue. He has translated the Finnish epic “Kalevala,” which is considered as one of the greatest epics of the world. As a tennis coach, he is on the court every ­morning at seven.

Despina Balliou has an MSc in Counselling Psychology. She is a gestalt ­psychotherapist, trainer, and supervisor and is a member of the European Association of Gestalt Therapy. She has trained in traumatotherapy’s method EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing). She is holder of the European Certificate of Psychotherapy and is accredited by the National Accreditation Centre for Continuing Vocational Training.

Janine Corbeil is a psychologist in private practice in Montreal. She obtained a Masters Degree from the University of Montreal. Her postgraduate ­training consisted of studying with Carl Rogers in Chicago, learning about group dynamics and psychodrama in Paris, undertaking a postgraduate intensive program at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland (1973–1974), a one-month program with Virginia Satir in Montreal (1980) and a further one month on Illana Rubenfeld’s gestalt synergy program in New York (1980–1981). She founded and directed a training center for the study of gestalt theory and practice, the Centre de croissance et d’humanisme appliqué (CCHA), in Montreal (1974–1989), served as a trainer of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland for Multiversité in Brussels (1976–1979), and was a guest trainer during the ­following years for the same institute. She was in charge of a three-year gestalt training program in Nantes, France (1983–1986), and continued to travel to France as a trainer more or less until 1993. She still offers supervision and ­training in Montreal. She has published some fifty articles on gestalt in Quebec, the USA, and France and has co-authored books in Quebec and France.

Serge Ginger was born February 6, 1928, and died on November 1, 2011. He was a clinical psychologist and a trainer in gestalt therapy. His first training and professional practice was in the field of education. He founded several ­associations, initially for disabled youth and subsequently in the field of psychology and gestalt therapy. Serge founded the SFG (Société française de Gestalt) and, with his wife Anne, the EPG (École parisienne de Gestalt), both in 1981, the International Federation of Gestalt Training Centres (1991) and the FF2P (Fédération française de Psychothérapie et Psychanalyse) in 1995. He remained active till the end in the negotiations between government and accredited ­psychologists for the legal recognition of their practice. He published several articles and authored/­co-authored 27 books, a great part of them on gestalt ­therapy: its theoretical basis, ethical practice, and guidelines for supervision. His final article was one which he wrote in co-operation with Anne Ginger, namely “A practical guide for humanistic psychologists” (2011). Some of his books have been translated into several languages.

James Hammink, MA, is a psychologist. He works in private practice doing psychotherapy, teaching, and supervision and is particularly interested in the interface between psychological self-development and meditation practice. He is co-founder of the Center for Integrative Gestalt Practice.

Katia Hatzilakou has an MSc in Clinical and Social Psychology (AUT). She is a gestalt psychotherapist, trainer, and supervisor and a member of the European Association of Gestalt Therapy (ex-Chair of NOGT and External Relation of EAGT) and the Association of Greek Psychologists. She is a holder of the­ European Certificate of Psychotherapy.

Dr Francisco Huneeus grew up in the USA and then moved to Chile, where he received his MD from the University of Chile. He was recruited by Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a research associate in neurobiology. In 1970, while undertaking a psychiatry internship, he came upon a paper written by Fritz Perls published by Real People Press. He started Editorial Cuatro Vientos, publishing Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, and continued with translations of books on gestalt therapy, the first book being on neuro-linguistic programming, and gestalt body work with illness by Dr Schnake, President of the Independent Publishers. He is a ­practicing psychiatrist in the public health system working with working-­class clients. He has published Language, Thought and Disease and is currently working on the effects of the media on the minds of individuals using gestalt theory. He is a member of the Editorial committee of The Gestalt Review. He plays horn in chamber groups, cycles to work every day in downtown Santiago, and directs a dance improvization group.

Antonia Konstantinidou holds an MSc in Clinical and Social Psychology (AUT). She is a gestalt psychotherapist, trainer, and supervisor. She is a member of the European Association of Gestalt Therapists and the Association of Greek Psychologists. She is a holder of the European Certificate of Psychotherapy.

Professor Yoshiya Kurato is Director of the Gestalt Institute of Japan and a Visiting Scholar (2009–) at Sophia University (Japan). He obtained a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts (USA) in 1975, lectured at San Francisco State University (1975–1976), and obtained a Diploma in Gestalt Therapy in 1978 from the San Diego Gestalt Training Center. He is Professor Emeritus of Osaka City University, past president of the Japanese Association for Humanistic Psychology, and board member and trustee of The Japanese Certification Board for Clinical Psychologists. He is also a lifetime member of the Association for Humanistic Psychology (USA). Translator of Perls’ books Gestalt Therapy Verbatim and The Gestalt Approach and Eye Witness to Therapy into Japanese, he runs workshops in gestalt therapy and has published books and ­articles on gestalt therapy in Japanese.

Almut Ladisich-Raine was born in 1944. She has a Diploma in Psychology and is a licensed clinical psychotherapist in her own private practice since 1978, having gained experience working as a clinical psychologist with psychiatric and addicted patients. She trained with Jim Simkin and Erving and Miriam Polster in the 1970s and is one of the early pioneers of gestalt therapy in Germany. Co-founder of the Institute of Integrative Gestalt Therapy, Würzburg (IGW), she has worked as a trainer and supervisor for the last thirty-five years, as well as being co-founder of the DVG – the German roof-organization for gestalt therapy. She has been guest lecturer at several universities (LMU, Munich;University of La Paz, Bolivia; Sigmund-Freud-University, Vienna; and Fuzhou University, China) and has ­published several papers on the topic.

Dr Nurith Levi, MSW, is certified in Family Therapy and is a graduate of the Faye Ratner Gestalt Program at Tel-Aviv University and founder and chairperson of the Israeli Association of Gestalt Therapy. A member of the European Association of Gestalt Therapy, she trains and leads gestalt workshops ­throughout Europe. Dean of students and senior lecturer at the Beit-Berl College, she also works in private practice in Tel-Aviv as an individual, family, and couple therapist.

Anne Maclean has a background in education and community work. In 1991, she was co-founder, administrator, and a faculty member of the Gestalt Institute of New Zealand. She has been in private practice as a gestalt therapist, an ­organizational consultant, a supervisor, and a teacher of group work and ­supervisory skills. She is a writer and editor and was a co-editor of, and ­contributor to, two collections of New Zealand and Australian articles: Grounds for Gestalt (1994) and More Grounds for Gestalt (1996). In 2002, her book The Heart of Supervision was published in the USA. During 2004–2005 she established the Gestalt Journal of Australia and New Zealand and co-edited the first two ­volumes. In 2011,Te Waka Huia – The Treasure Box was published in New Zealand, a book about the esoteric wisdom of the ancient Maori culture which makes invaluable sense in today’s world.

Dr Joseph Melnick is a clinical and organizational psychologist, co-chair of the Cape Cod Training Program of the Gestalt International Study Center (GISC), and a member of the board of GISC. He is a member of the professional staff, as well as a former board member, of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. Founding Editor of Gestalt Review, a contemporary peer-reviewed gestalt journal, he has published extensively on various aspects of the gestalt therapy approach, such as group process, intimacy, ethics, countertransference, organizational development, and conflict. Most recently, he has co-edited (with Edwin C. Nevis) Mending the World: Social Healing Interventions by Gestalt Practitioners Worldwide, a book of case studies by gestalt organizational consultants, and is currently completing a book on the Cape Cod Model of Gestalt Therapy with Sonia March Nevis. He is also the creator of “The Us Factor,” a combination of a workbook and DVD series on how to improve your marriage. He teaches and trains worldwide.

Professor Eleanor O’Leary completed her Ph.D. entitled “Person centred ­therapy: core conditions and core outcomes” in 1979. The thesis was ­subsequently published by Cork University Press as The Psychology of Counselling. She has held a number of academic positions including Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Psychology at University College Cork, Ireland, and Visiting Professor at Stanford University, California. She has authored several books, the most recent of which is entitled New Approaches to Integration in Psychotherapy (with Mike Murphy, 2006). She has received international ­recognition for her work, which has included approximately fifty articles in the field of psychotherapy, and has presented keynote addresses at international ­conferences. The combination of her academic and clinical expertise gives her a broad insight into the development of gestalt therapy.

Brian O’Neill, BA(Hons), MAPS, is co-director of the Illawarra Gestalt Centre, and visiting faculty member of gestalt training programs in Australia, the USA, and Europe. He is past President of the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy (AAGT), founding editor of the Gestalt Therapy Forum (New York), and is on the editorial boards of the Gestalt Review and Studies in Gestalt. He and his wife Jenny have written extensively on gestalt therapy, particularly couples and family therapy. He is a senior fellow in mental health at the University of Wollongong, was awarded the Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Gold Medal for achievement in research, education, and practice by the Governor General in 1996, and is currently the senior clinical manager for Catholic Family and Community Services in Queensland.

Peter Philippson, MSc, is a gestalt psychotherapist, trainer, and writer. He is a Founder Member of the Manchester Gestalt Centre, Full Member of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy, Teaching and Supervising Member of GPTI in the UK, Senior Trainer of GITA in Slovenia, and past President of the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy. He is author of Self in Relation (Gestalt Journal Press, 2001), The Emergent Self: An Existential-Gestalt Approach (UKCP/Karnac, 2009), and Gestalt Therapy: Roots and Branches (Karnac, 2012). Peter is a teacher and student of aikido.

Myriam Sas Guiter obtained her psychology degrees from the University of Buenos Aires. Co-founder of the Gestalt Association of Buenos Aires, she ­has served as program director, scientific secretary, and senior faculty. She leads the Colloqium in Gestalt in Buenos Aires, where she invites outstanding gestalt therapists from all over the world to give presentations. She has spread the gestalt approach to groups in her college seminars and is dedicated to clinical practice with adults, to relational aspects linked to submission in couples, family, and the ­community and as a supervisor. Among her published articles are “Ideas para el vivir” (Ideas for living), “Exigencia y cambio” (Demanding and change), “Recuperación emocion­al del docente” (Emotional recovering for teachers), and “Sobre certezas e ­incertidumbres” (About certainties and uncertainties). A founding member of the International Gestalt Therapy Association and member of the Board of Directors, she was Chair of the Inaugural Conference Committee in Montreal 2002. She has ­presented at conferences in Spain, Canada, USA, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, and Argentina. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Latin Review of Gestalt Therapy and of Aware, an online review of gestalt therapy in Brazil.

Professor Shraga Serok, born in Poland, 1929, immigrated to Israel in 1949, and earned his PhD from Case Western Reserve University, USA, in 1975. He ­completed a three-year postgraduate program at the Gestalt Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975 and undertook additional gestalt training with Laura Perls, Isadore From, and Erv and Miriam Polster. He was a founder member and professor of the Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel, and has served as its chairman. Professor Serok was the founder of the Faye Ratner Gestalt Program at Tel-Aviv University and its director for twenty years. He introduced the promotion of gestalt therapy into Israeli academia. His professional ­experience includes teaching human development, psychopathology, and gestalt therapy. His research has been concentrated in various areas of psychotherapy, and the ­development of a theory of applied gestalt therapy in social integration. He also has a thriving private practice. Professor Serok has published two books and over fifty articles in international journals and is widely known for his presentations and workshops at international conferences.

Mikael Sonne holds an MSc in Psychology and is a clinical psychologist. He is founder and, since 1984, director of the Aaarhus Gestalt Institute, Denmark, which is accredited in psychotherapy by the Danish Psychological Association. He conducts programs in leader training within a gestalt therapy framework and is co-founder of the Center for Integrative Gestalt Practice, and board member of the Gestalt Therapeutic Forum in Denmark. His book on Integrative Gestalt Practice, which is co-authored with Jan Tønnesvang, was published by Hans Reitzelin January 2013.

Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, psychologist and licensed psychotherapist, is founder and director, since 1979, of the Istituto di Gestalt HCC, the first school of gestalt psychotherapy in Italy. Since 1994, the Institute has been approved by the Minister for Universities, according to the Italian law on psychotherapy. She is a well-known gestalt therapy international trainer, a Full Member of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy, past president of the Italian Federation of the Associations of Psychotherapy (FIAP), past president and first Honorary Member of the European Association for Gestalt Therapy (EAGT), and past and Honorary President of the Italian Association of Gestalt Psychotherapy (SIPG). She has, since 1985, edited the Italian journal Quaderni di Gestalt and has co-edited the international journal Studies in Gestalt Therapy: Dialogical Bridges. She has written many articles and chapters published in various languages, has edited five volumes and written two books, the most recent being The Now-for-Next in Psychotherapy. Gestalt Therapy Recounted in the Post-Modern Society (Franco Angeli Publisher, Milan, 2011).

Professor Jan Tønnesvang, PhD, is Professor of Integrative Social and Personality Psychology and head of the Research Unit for Integrative Psychology at the Department of Psychology, Aarhus University. He is co-founder of the Center for Integrative Gestalt Practice and a board member of the Gestalt Therapeutic Forum in Denmark. He has a keen interest in using theoretical psychology to sustain the development of practice in organizational, therapeutic, and ­pedagogical contexts. He is a widely used speaker and teaches at undergraduate and graduate levels, and in different educational programs regarding leadership, therapy, and ­pedagogical professions. He has written books on topics regarding the self, the psychology of religion, and psychological oxygen in pedagogical and ­organizational contexts. His book on Integrative Gestalt Practice, which is co-authored with Mikael Sonne, was published by Hans Reitzel in January 2013.

Yianna Yiamarelou has an MA in Clinical Psychology. She is a gestalt ­psychotherapist, trainer, and supervisor, member of the European Association of Gestalt Therapy, and holder of the European Certificate of Psychotherapy.

Preface

Three outstanding events have had a significant influence on my life – having a personal experience of Jesus when I was seven years old, coming in contact with gestalt therapy in the late 1970s, and having the privilege of being present at the visionary shrine of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2011. This book deals with the results of coming in contact with gestalt therapy. This experience opened a new door in my life at a very fundamental human level that was enriched further during my training. The metaphors for this experience have been chosen by me on the covers of my two books on gestalt therapy – lightning representing an illuminated world in my first book and a light bulb in the second.

My first book on the subject of gestalt therapy in 1992 was in the first instance aimed at our Irish trainees, as they had reported difficulty in grasping the meaning of some of what is frequently referred to as the “Bible” of gestalt therapy, namely, Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman’s (1951) Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality. Subsequently, it was brought to my attention that, for the same reason, students at the Gestalt Institute of Santa Cruz bought this book in bulk when they attended conferences in London.

The first objective of this book is to expand the issues discussed in my 1992 book, which is the basis for the first four chapters of this book. One contribution of gestalt therapy lies in its attention to feelings, thoughts, behavior, and the body. Clients develop the ability to center and ground themselves particularly through the use of breathing and to become aware of their bodily experiences. They are able to live in the here and now of their lives and notice and take cognizance of ­moment-to-moment changes in their internal and external world. They can express and accept feelings and, where relevant, finish unfinished business either from their past or present life. They move towards interdependence and self-­support rather than maladaptive dependence on others and develop further ­self-responsibility. These changes emerge from the dialogical relationship that exists between the therapist and client. While a number of the concepts and ­principles discussed in this book remain close to the view of gestalt therapy as laid down by the original founders, the author brings her own stamp to the subject, particularly in the chapter on dialogue and contact in her attention to empathy, authenticity, and story. The impact of two of the great theorist-practitioners of gestalt therapy, Erving and the late Miriam Polster, can be found in the sections relating to contact in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, attention is given to the appropriate use of techniques and dreams in gestalt therapy, while Joseph Zinker’s work on experiments is also considered. Relevant examples are given in each of the three areas.

Since the death of its founder in 1970, gestalt therapy has continued to be developed and expanded worldwide. The second aim of this book is to explore major features of gestalt therapy around the world, such as history, training (past and present), theoretical contributions, research findings, and future ­challenges. Seventeen gestalt therapists have contributed to this work. Chapters 5 to 21 reflect the international composition of the contributors. Four continents were ­represented, while work in gestalt therapy in the fifth, Africa, is reported in Chapter 12.

Reports from the contributors show that Fagan and Shepherd’s (1972) ­reference to the scarcity of published material in gestalt therapy has been addressed. Edited books such as the present one and Woldt and Toman’s (2005), and authored books including Joyce and Sills (2001) and O’Leary (1992), published by ­international publishers Wiley and Sage, have ensured that knowledge of gestalt therapy has been disseminated to a much larger professional and lay readership. The decision that this book should be an edited one was true to the gestalt ­principle that experience is one of the best methods of acquiring knowledge and recognized that empirical knowledge of developments within gestalt therapy in many countries was readily available. One of the strengths of such edited books lies in the inclusion of a large number of the foremost contributors in the field. The subheadings outlined by the editor ab initio were selected so that the extent of achievement and deficit in certain areas would emerge. One example is that of Chile, in that the subheading relating to associations encouraged the ­establishment of a professional gestalt therapy association in 2010 as a direct consequence of the efforts of the contributor from that country.

Research in gestalt therapy has had a mixed history, as is evident in this book, where attention to theoretical articles far outweighs those based on empirical research articles. Nonetheless, there has been a notable improvement in output since I stated in 1992, “Research in gestalt therapy is still in its infancy. An ­exposure to investigative methods and research analysis as part of gestalt therapy training is both desirable and long overdue. This would probably result in new research endeavours” (O’Leary, 1992, p. 120). A subsection dealing with research to be found between Chapters 5 and 21 illustrates the progress that has been made in the majority of the countries examined.

Having addressed the two aims mentioned above, the final chapter presents a summary of international achievements in gestalt therapy based on the book and suggests some desirable initiatives for the future.

References

Fagan, J. & Shepherd, I.L. (Eds). (1972). Gestalt therapy now, Middlesex: Penguin Books.

Joyce, P. & Sills, C. (2001). Skills in gestalt counselling and psychotherapy, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

O’Leary, E. (1992). Gestalt therapy: Theory, practice and research, London: Chapman and Hall.

Perls, F.S., Hefferline, R., & Goodman, P. (1951). Gestalt therapy: Excitement and growth in the human personality, New York, NY: Julian Press.

Woldt, A.L. & Toman, S.M. (2005).Gestalt therapy: History, theory and practice, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Acknowledgments

In the first instance, I wish to say a sincere thank you to each of the sixteen authors who contributed a chapter relating to gestalt therapy in their particular country. These chapters provide an overview of gestalt therapy including ­history, ­theoretical developments, research, training, associations, and future challenges.

I am grateful to the following friends and colleagues, each of whom made a considerable contribution: Denis O’Sullivan, Michael O’Sullivan, and Aidan O’Shea for comments on the chapters authored by me; Denis for also compiling the Appendix; Mary Morrissey for observations on the initial drafts of Chapters 5 to 21 (excluding Chapter 12); Mary O’Donoghue for checking the references; Laura Maybury for contacting the contributors in relation to the submission of the first draft; Mary Murray for contributing to Chapters 2 and 4; Elizabeth Behan and Eileen McSweeney for observations on Chapters 1 to 4; and Anne Kelliher for remarks on Chapter 3.

I would also like to acknowledge my many friends, too numerous to mention, who have encouraged me throughout my career.

A special word of thanks is due to Alice Elliott and Celia Mooers Squires of Media-Psych, San Diego, for allowing me to reproduce the script of the Impasse film by Fritz Perls and to Pauline Tallon, Joachim Beug, Brian O’Donoghue, John O’Hanlon, and Rosita Hellstern.

My appreciation of the staff at Wiley could not be greater. The patience exhibited by Karen Shield was exemplary when the unexpected happened and I was hospitalized and subsequently involved in a lengthy convalescence. Victoria Halliday ensured that the work progressed on its recommencement, while Darren Reed and Leah Morin undertook the final tasks.

Finally, I wish to pay tribute to my brothers and sister, John, Joan (O’Callaghan), and Bob, sisters-in-law and brother-in-law, Bridget, Jerry, and Kitty, who, as always, were so supportive of the endeavor. A special word of thanks is due to Jerry and my nephew, Martin, each of whom contributed ideas relating to their specialist areas.

Part One

Gestalt Therapy

Its Beginning, Theory, and Techniques

1

Fritz Perls and Gestalt Therapy

The Beginnings

Eleanor O’Leary

Fritz Perls, the originator of gestalt therapy, was born in Berlin in 1893. He lived in Germany, Holland, South Africa, the USA, and Canada. Psychoanalysis was his main therapeutic interest during his period in Europe. However, this was to change as his gradual disenchantment with the approach emerged. In New York in 1951 and 1952, together with Paul Goodman, Ralph Hefferline, and his wife Laura, he finally synthesized his earlier influences into a new paradigm, namely gestalt ­therapy. He eventually left the USA to found a gestalt community in Canada. He died shortly afterwards while presenting a workshop in Chicago in 1970.

Europe: Germany 1893–1933; Family Influences

Little is known of the family facts relating to Fritz Perls, a German Jew by birth. When he was three years of age, his family decided to move to a more fashionable neighborhood in Berlin. He referred to himself as “an obscure lower middle class Jewish boy” (Shepard, 1976, p. 1).

His mother (Amelia Rund) grew up in an Orthodox Jewish environment, while his father (Nathan Perls) was Grand Master in the Freemason Lodge. His father was quite reclusive in his habits. He had a room to which his meals were brought, and when he went out he did so alone. As a child, Fritz witnessed his father ­physically abusing his mother. Despite his parents’ strong religious beliefs, Perls (1972) declared, “I could not go along with this hypocrisy” (p. 59). Referring to his lack of belief in a higher power, Shepard (1976) stated, “He declared himself an atheist and remained one until the end” (p. 21). In his book In and Out of the Garbage Pail, Perls (1969a) proclaimed, “All religions were man-made crudities, all ­philosophies were man-made fitting games. I had to take responsibility for myself” (p. 60).

Perls was the youngest of three children, two girls and one boy. His feelings for his two sisters could not have been more different, in that he loved Grete while he described Else, who later died in a concentration camp, as a clinger. Yet this ­observation of Else may not have been justified. Grete stated in Gaines (1979), “our sister, Else, would hang onto mother. She could not go by herself. No one knew until much later that she had congenital neo-blindness” (p. 2).

Although he hated his father’s behavior, Perls considered his childhood to be a happy one. Grete and he were close companions as they played in the streets of Berlin. Swimming in the summer and ice-skating in the winter kept their young hearts joyful. The beginning of his interest in acting was encouraged in ­adolescence when an older neighbor, Theo Freiberg, invited him to participate in plays in their respective homes. They became a “company” (Shepard, 1976) that offered plays to neighboring communities with Theo as Director. This love of theater was ­further enriched when his mother took him to opera performances, while his mother’s brother, Julius, brought warmth into his life.

A contradictory aspect in Perls’ young life was the behavior of his uncle, Herman Staub, his mother’s other brother, who Perls claimed was Germany’s greatest legal theoretician. This uncle, the pride of the family, sexually abused Perls’ friend, 13-year-old Lucy. Perls’ (1972) words “All that facade of respectability” (p. 202) point to his disillusionment. Yet, despite his disapproval, he ­subsequently rationalized his own promiscuity by claiming that his uncle’s behavior gave him a license for his own. Perls (1972) also recalled in his autobiography that a sentence from a lecture given by psychoanalyst Paul Federn made an impression on him, the sentence being “You cannot fuck enough” (p. 56). Yet it is worth recalling that personal responsibility for one’s actions is one of the key concepts of gestalt therapy.

For someone who became famous in his adult life, his early reputation as a young scholar was poor, having failed seventh grade three times. This failure was in no small part due to his revolt against his anti-Semitic teachers. However, at age fourteen, circumstances altered his outlook when a teacher encouraged him to become involved in drama. Having already pursued drama as a child, there was a fortunate element of synchronicity in such encouragement. His participation in drama taught him the importance of the relationship between words and action.

After graduating from secondary school, Fritz began medical studies in Berlin. Due to an elongated heart, a stoop, and asthma, he was deemed to be medically unfit to serve in the German Army. However, after battles such as Verdun in 1916, where the Germans suffered 460 000 casualties, fitness standards were lowered, permitting Fritz to enlist. He served as a medical officer and experienced the ­horrors of trench warfare on the Western Front, including gassing. He suffered a minor head injury and also had to make hard decisions on the treatment of injured soldiers. He was promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1917. At the end of the war, he resumed his medical studies at the Frederick Wilhelm University in Berlin and qualified as a doctor in 1921. This was followed by training in psychoanalysis at the Psychoanalytic Institutes in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Vienna. By the mid 1920s he had stopped communicating with his father.

One of the most significant events in Perls’ life was his meeting in 1926 with Lore (Anglicized Laura) Posner, who later became his wife. He was successful in obtaining an assistantship with the gestalt physiological psychologist, Kurt Goldstein, at the Institute for Brain Damaged Soldiers where Laura was working. She had studied with the gestalt psychologists Kohler and Koffka at the University of Frankfurt, and with existential theologians Paul Tillich and Martin Buber.

Perls’ (1972) description of his marriage in 1930 is surprising given his ­emphasis on self-responsibility. He commented, “At that time Lore pressed for marriage. I knew I was not the marrying type. I was not madly in love with her, but we had many interests in common and often had a good time” (p. 49). Furthermore, Laura (Gaines, 1979), referring to the description by Perls, stated, “It simply was not true. I never expected that he would marry me, or that he would marry at all. And I did not care. For more than three years before we were married I was his lover, and still I certainly did not press” (p. 8). A statement by Laura (Gaines, 1979) is particularly poignant: “I was so much in love with him, I gave everything to him, and he took it and kept on taking” (p. 20). For Perls, self-responsibility did not include fulfilling his own personal obligations.

Laura and Fritz had two children: a girl, Renate (born 1931), and a boy, Stephen (born 1935). Two years after Renate’s birth, Fritz began speaking English (he was already fluent in French), although he was embarrassed by his German accent when speaking it. Fritz showered Renate with affection for the first four years of her life. He delighted in introducing her to everybody. His change in behavior, Perls (1969a) claimed, was due to being blamed for everything that went wrong – a reason that did not justify his withdrawal from a young child. His view of Renate is apparent in a statement he made in 1972, when Renate wrote to him with a picture of his grand-daughter, Leslie: “For once a letter without asking me for something, but I am sure the letter is an overture for a request that likely will come via Lore” (Perls, 1972, pp. 275–276). His son, Stephen, confirmed that Fritz did not appreciate what he called “leeching” – “Fritz was critical … of my sister; he often felt that (she) was leeching on him” (Gaines, 1979, p. 93). His fondness for his grand-daughter, Leslie, can be seen in his description of her as a “cute and bright copperhead” with “something real about her” (Perls, 1972, p. 172). His treatment of Renate was not unlike that he displayed towards his sister, Else. Renate (Gaines, 1979) stated, “Fritz left me out of his whole life” (p. 17) – a sad conclusion for the daughter of someone who was to help so many in his lifetime.

His son, Stephen (Gaines, 1979), emerges as an even-handed and reasonable individual. His recollections give a first-hand picture of his relationship with Fritz. He stated, “My father was never angry; he was simply so busy with his own things. It was more just kind of a non-involvement that became part of my ­lifestyle” (p. 26). Speaking of his father’s generosity, he stated, “Most of the time, Fritz was generous, but not really. It was a contest that we had throughout life. He was very generous with money if he were asked for it, but he would never offer it first” (pp. 109–110). Perls (1972) appeared to have no difficulty with regard to generosity, stating that Stephen was “rather phobic and stubborn in asking and accepting any support” (p. 264). Stephen (Gaines, 1979) offered an explanation for his approach to Fritz with respect to money. He stated, “Takers annoyed him. So, by asking him for something I would wind up being a taker and he would have no respect for me” (p. 110). An interesting comment by Stephen is as telling of Laura as it is of Fritz, “Basically, I hated my father and his pompous ­righteousness, but he could also be loving and warm. How much my attitude was influenced by my mother’s hatred of him, how much she poisoned us children with it, I could not say” (p. 173). Yet there were good times in Stephen’s life as a young boy. Speaking of his youth in South Africa where he was born, he stated, “We took trips to the veldt area to look at the animals, or down to the ocean. But mostly I remember talking about my father, and him not being there. We had nice grass and grounds where we lived so I would bring my friends over occasionally” (p. 26). These excerpts covering some of Stephen’s thoughts portray Fritz as a non-involved parent who was generous with money when asked and whose son hated his pompousness but also saw his mother’s hatred of his father. For his part, Stephen concluded, “He is still father to me, though certainly not my image of what a father should be” (p. 275).

Having considered Fritz’s personal life, the next section will consider five main influences in the development of gestalt therapy, namely Freud, Reich, Friedlander, the gestalt school of psychology, and existentialism.

European Influences: Psychiatry, Psychology, and Psychotherapy

A large number of influences played important roles in the development of gestalt therapy. This orientation towards development was reinforced recently by Yontef (2005), who stated his preference for assimilating new possibilities into gestalt therapy, “I have not seen any framework which works better as an integrating framework for me as a psychotherapist than gestalt therapy” (p. 98). A valuable overview of the subject is Crocker’s (2005) statement that “Gestalt therapy is an example of the Aristotelian paradigm, a way of understanding that focuses upon concrete and specific individuals, situations, and events, seen in their environmental context, and attempts to understand the nature of change and how things – particularly living things – come to be as they are and to behave as they do. This is a marked contrast to the … Platonic paradigm, which focuses on unchanging ­universal essences that are imperfectly exemplified in the changing world” (p. 66).

Freud

Perls met Freud for the first time in 1936 during a brief visit to Vienna from South Africa, to which he had immigrated in 1934. He described his relationship with Freud as polemic and stated in his autobiography “Freud, his theories, his ­influence are much too important for me. My admiration, bewilderment and vindictiveness are very strong. I am deeply awed by his suffering and courage. I am deeply awed by how much, practically all alone he achieved with inadequate ­mental tools of ­association-psychology and mechanistically-oriented philosophy” (Perls, 1969a, p. 45).

One important assumption of psychoanalysis was that contact with a therapist could result in consciousness of feelings, experience and behavior for patients and assist them to deal with new behavior and overcome neurosis. This assumption was adopted by gestalt therapy, but with an emphasis on awareness rather than on consciousness.

Perls’ concern with the present was bolstered by Freud’s observation of transference (Naranjo, 1972). Naranjo stated “although at first the analysis of the present was a tool or a means for the interpretation of the past, many today regard the analysis of childhood events as a means toward the understanding of present dynamics” (p. 60). However, Perls viewed the present as the essential ­component and termed Freud’s concept of the unconscious as that of which we are unaware.

It was the difference in their view of time that differentiated Freud and Perls. For Freud, the first five years of life was paramount to subsequent personality development, while for Perls the present lived reality of individuals was the matter to which persons needed to pay attention. Yontef (1993), in contrasting the ­differences between gestalt therapy and psychoanalysis, referred to reality contact over transference, active presence over a blank screen, dialogue and phenomenological focusing over free association and interpretation, field theory and process over Newtonian dichotomies.

Reich

Perls trained as a psychoanalyst with Wilhelm Reich in 1931 and 1932 and was supervised by Otto Fenichel and Karen Horney. Both Horney and Reich ­considered that a minimum of the traditional clinical routines was desirable for an effective therapeutic relationship. Perls’ (1972) description of Horney was as “one of the few people I really trusted,” notwithstanding her words to Perls as related by him: “The only analyst that I think could get through to you would be Wilhelm Reich” (p. 49). Perls portrayed Reich as “vital, alive, rebellious” (p. 49) and “eager to discuss any situation, especially political and sexual ones.” Bowman (2005) stated that Perls was fascinated by Reich’s work, while Perls observed that “With him (Reich), the importance of facts began to fade” (p. 49).

For Reich (1949, 1969), the patient’s form of expression rather than their words was paramount. This approach was new in a field which until then had been dominated by the talking cure. Yet, we have only to reflect on the communication between mother and baby to realize that it is established in the first months of life through non-verbal means such as facial expression, movement of limbs, crying, smiling, and laughing – long before verbal interaction occurs.

Emotions, in Reich’s (1949) view, indicated a flow of body energy. He held that frustration of needs leads to a contraction of the body since people store unacceptable emotions in their muscles and internal organs (Clarkson & Mackewn, 1993). Reich coined the term “muscular/character armouring” to refer to this tightening of muscles. Its function was to keep strong emotions such as anger, fear, or rage at bay. ­Non-expression can often emerge through attitudes of the family, school, or society in general, which state that you cannot express yourself.

Reich (1949) sought to relax muscles through freeing blocked emotions and energy. In order to do this, he started touching patients where tension was located and relieving it. He used his thumb or the palm of his hand to dissolve any ­muscular rigidity. Progress was measured by a softening of the muscles. Following Reich, Perls (1969b) stressed body sensations as an avenue to awareness in gestalt therapy. Although psychoanalysis was well developed, Reich felt that it lacked the techniques to bring about cure. He held that a relationship existed between the way people used their minds and the way that they used their bodies. Smith (1976) found several aspects of Reichian analysis in gestalt therapy, including paying attention to the body, being actively involved in therapy, working through ­powerful emotions, and exploring how the client felt in therapy.

In speaking of Reich, Bowman (2005) stated, “The renegade analyst who most directly contributed to gestalt therapy was assuredly Wilhelm Reich” (p. 7). What became an important tenet in gestalt therapy, namely, organismic self-regulation, first came to Perls’ notice through Reich. As Bowman pointed out, despite Reich’s initial pioneering of the area, he moved away from his emphasis on attention to the body, while Perls made it a stepping-stone in the development of gestalt therapy.

It is also of note that Reich broke away from Freud in 1930, as Reich believed that the present was more important than what had happened to a person in the past. From then onwards, he began to attend to his patient’s physical responses during therapy. Furthermore, as a psychoanalyst he had sat behind his patients, but from the late 1930s he sat next to them in order to establish greater contact with them. Reich was expelled from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association – an ironic conclusion to his psychoanalytic involvement, where he had been mooted as the possible successor of Freud. The expulsion was a harbinger of what was to happen to Perls. For both had dared to expand the holy grail of psychoanalysis.

Friedlander

Perls (1972) paid tribute to philosopher Sigmund Friedlander, from whom he learnt the meaning of balance as “the zero-centre of opposites” (p. 70), or, using Friedlander’s (1918) terminology, as the zero point of creative indifference. Perls also referred to this point as the creative void, so named since individuals are not aware of anything concretely and are at peace with themselves and others. They are experiencing a being rather than a doing orientation to life.

In his theory of creative indifference, Friedlander (1918) held that every event is related to a zero point from which a differentiation into opposites takes place. “These opposites show in their specific context a great affinity to each other. By remaining alert in the centre, we can acquire a creative ability of seeing both sides of an occurrence and completing an incomplete half. By avoiding a one-sided outlook, we gain a much deeper insight into the structure and functioning of the organism” (Perls, 1947, p. 15). Given the importance of balance between ­opposites in gestalt therapy, Perls’ recognition of Friedlander was not surprising. The ­subject of balance and polarities will be explored in more depth in Chapter 2.

The Gestalt School of Psychology

The gestalt school of psychology, founded by Max Wertheimer (1880–1943), was mainly concerned with perception, learning and related theories. According to Bowman (2005), the Berlin School of Gestalt Psychology (Wertheimer, Koffka, Kohler) was “revolutionary in identifying perception as a holistic process” (p. 9). The perceptual experiments of these psychologists opened the way for studies showing how motivation affects perception and still later to the therapeutic insights of Perls, who synthesized laws of simple perception first into a system of psychotherapy and further into a humanistic view of the person’s existence. According to gestalt psychology, individuals structure and impose order on their own perceptions.

Perls (1947) cited Wertheimer’s succinct formulation of gestalt theory as ­follows: “There are wholes, the behaviour of which is not determined by that of their individual elements, but where the part-processes are themselves determined by the intrinsic nature of the whole” (p. 27). This quotation serves to illuminate the very close connection between gestalt theory and gestalt therapy in particular when wholeness is being discussed. Heidbreder (1961) pointed out that a melody is independent of the sensory elements of which it is composed. It may be played in different keys and/or intensities while still remaining the same melody.

Wertheimer (1880–1943) criticized Wundt for explaining sensory experiences in terms of elements. Through his experiments, Wertheimer proved that ­individuals perceive their surroundings as a whole. Thus, the integral nature of the person was a tenet held by the gestalt psychologists. The gestalt psychologist Kurt Goldstein demonstrated this clearly through his work with brain-damaged ­soldiers. Injury to the brain affected not only the brain itself, but also the entire behavior of the person.

Thus, during the early part of the twentieth century, a group of experimental psychologists, called gestalt psychologists, developed theories of perception. They believed that humans perceive the world in wholes or patterns. In Chapter 2, ­further consideration will be given to this belief under a discussion of the concept “gestalt.”

Existentialism

The influence of existentialism on gestalt therapy is reflected in Corey’s (1985) reference to gestalt therapy as “a form of existential therapy” (p. 274). Perls ­frequented coffee houses with a view to becoming acquainted with the existential thinking of the time. According to Patterson (1986), “He was influenced by the existential emphasis on individual responsibility for thoughts, feelings and actions on the immediate experience – the now, the I–Thou relationship, the what and the how rather than the why of experience and behaviour” (p. 344). These existential concepts are to this day evident in the theory and practice of gestalt therapy and will be discussed in the next section of this chapter.

Holland and South Africa 1933–1946: A Gradual Disillusionment with Psychoanalysis

In 1933, Fritz made his way to Amsterdam through the German–Dutch border with only one hundred marks (approximately twenty-five dollars), in his ­cigarette lighter, while Laura and Renate stayed with his parents in Germany. The rise to power of Hitler combined with his increasingly anti-Semitic ­policies led to this decision. When Laura and Renate arrived in Amsterdam, all three of them lived in an “icy apartment with below freezing temperature” (Perls, 1969a, p. 41).

The following year, as a result of a visit by Fritz to Ernest Jones in London, Perls with his wife, Laura, and their first child Renate immigrated to Johannesburg, South Africa. Two years after their arrival in South Africa, Fritz and Laura’s ­second child, Stephen, was born. In the same year, Fritz established the South African Institute for Psychoanalysis.

While in South Africa, a notable event occurred in Fritz’s life. In 1936, he traveled to the International Conference of Psychoanalysis in Marienbad, then in Czechoslovakia. There, he presented a paper entitled “Oral resistance” that questioned the anal stage as being the basis for resistance. Bowman (2005) commented on the paper as follows: “The Perlses’ theory of dental aggression was viewed as heresy and was summarily dismissed” (p. 7).

While attending the congress, Perls made an appointment to meet Freud. Previously, while in Vienna, he had not approached Freud, which he explained as follows: “The Master was there, somewhere in the background. To meet him would have been too presumptuous. I had not yet earned such a privilege … In 1936, I thought I had. Was I not the mainspring for the creation of one of his institutes and did I not come 4,000 miles to attend his congress?” (Perls, 1972, p. 56). At the appointed time, Freud appeared and remained in the door-frame. Perls explained that the purpose of his visit was to present a paper at the conference and to meet Freud. The encounter lasted for only four minutes. Perls was taken aback at Freud’s first question, “When are you going back?” The encounter, although a disappointment, was a life-changing event for Perls, in that it freed him to move away from the psychoanalytical approach and to develop his own approach further. The first significant work in that direction appeared six years later in his Ego, Hunger and Aggression (Perls, 1947). Concepts outlined in that book included the present moment, incomplete ­emotions, the holistic approach, and the authentic contact of the therapist with the client. In it, he also formulated what are now referred to as retroflection, introjection, and projection. Although still couched in Freudian terminology, he affirmed taking responsibility for oneself and paying attention to the body.

It was not surprising that the holistic approach formed part of Perls’ thinking at this time since Jan Smuts (Prime Minister of South Africa) was admired by Perls. While the word holism comes from the Greek word “holos,” which means whole, the concept of holism is usually attributed to Smuts’ introduction of it in his book Holism and Evolution (Smuts, 1926). Holism will be considered in greater detail under the heading of Gestalt in Chapter 2.

From 1942, Fritz worked for four and a half years as a psychiatrist with the South African army and was promoted to the rank of captain. During this time, he was based in the local hospital in Pretoria, thirty-five miles from Johannesburg. Ironically, he had fought for Germany in the First World War but now found ­himself on the opposite side due not only to his environmental location, but also to his awareness of the injustice of Nazism which had resulted in his leaving Germany in the first instance. His son, Stephen (Gaines, 1979) described his ­parents’ view of South Africa, “From the family’s standpoint South Africa was a cultural desert. Nothing going on, just dull, dead … The Afrikaners were focusing on the blacks of Africa, and their orientation did not seem to be that much different from the Nazis and naturally that was against both my parents’ views. They wanted to get out of there before they got into the same routine they had been through in Germany” (pp. 31–32).

The USA 1946–1969: The Establishment of Gestalt Therapy

Fritz went to New York via Canada in 1946 and was followed in autumn of the following year by Laura and their two children. They intended to establish a school of psychoanalysis, but the Psychoanalytical Association of New York rejected their personal approach to psychotherapy. Undaunted, they went into private practice as therapists. Fritz built on his theatre background by studying Moreno’s psychodrama. Both Fritz and Laura paid attention to posture and ­movement. In so doing, they drew from Laura’s lifelong experience in modern dance and Reichian bodywork, and her acquaintance with the Alexander ­technique of body work.

A ground-breaking event occurred in 1952, when Fritz, Laura, and Paul Goodman founded the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy. What has become known as the “bible of gestalt therapy,” namely Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman’s (1951) book Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality, had been published in the previous year. In 2005, Parlett (2005) spoke of the “continuing influence of the founding text” and went on to state, “Their text remains the starting point for any contemporary gestalt theorist. Some writers stay close to its language, concepts and theoretical priorities, whereas others stretch the original ideas in new directions and change the language. All agree that the book was years ahead of its time in its inception of human beings in society and in pointing the way in therapy” (p. 42).

The inauguration of the Cleveland Institute for Gestalt Therapy occurred in 1954. Perls went on a tour promoting gestalt therapy by giving workshops in Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles, while he left the institutes in the care of Laura, Goodman, and Weisz. Eventually, he drifted apart from them and went to Miami where he spent five years (1955–1960), during which time he was active both as a trainer and therapist. He also had a two-year affair with a thirty-­two-year-old woman, Marty Fromm. In his autobiography, he described her as “the most ­significant woman in my life” (Perls, 1972, p. 62). However, Marty broke off the affair. He then decided to go on an 18-month trip which included San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Israel, Germany, and Japan­­ ­during which he stayed 2 months in a Japanese Zen monastery searching for satori (an awakening)!

Perls returned to the USA in December 1963 and in April 1964 was appointed consultant psychiatrist to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, at the ­invitation of the writer Michael Murphy. Esalen (called after an Indian tribe who performed their rituals there) was 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of San Francisco. Sinay (1998) says “Esalen became what it would keep on being – a kind of Mecca for the new paradigms. The most brilliant representatives of the new therapies met and left their track there” (p. 64). These included Lowen, Berne, Satir, Grof, Bateson, Grindler, Bandler, and Watts. He remained in Esalen until 1969 and continued to develop the gestalt therapy approach, resulting in the publication of his third Gestalt Therapy Verbatim (Perls, 1969b). During his six years there, he introduced the “hot seat” and the “empty chair” (both of which will be outlined in Chapter 4) as he sought to bring a more active dimension into his work.

Canada 1969–1970: Fritz Perls’ Final Days