British Gestalt Journal © Copyright 2016 by Gestalt Publications Ltd. 2016, Vol. 25, No.2, 57–65 Letters to the Editor Dialogue following a review of chairs we are always involved in a psychodramatic process. Strikingly, the story of the Perls–Moreno Transformational Chairwork link has, essentially, been written out of the history of Gestalt therapy (e.g. Yontef and Jacobs, 2013; Woldt Scott Kellogg and Tolman, 2005), although it is fairly well-known in psychodramatic circles (e.g. Moreno, 2015). Received 20 June 2016 I also believe that during the Esalen years in California, Perls essentially created a second therapy. I Dear Editor, have named the two approaches the ‘1951 model’ (after PHG), and the ‘1969 model’ (after Gestalt Therapy I have great admiration for the British Gestalt Journal Verbatim). (In the past, they have also been referred to so I was quite pleased to discover that my book, as East Coast and West Coast Gestalt.) As I wrote in Transformational Chairwork: Using Psychotherapeutic my book, Dialogues in Clinical Practice (2014), had been reviewed in your publication. However, I was baffled The gestalt therapy that developed during the Esalen and dismayed when I actually read Sharon Beirne’s years included the core components of: (1) awareness; review, ‘Making the technique the approach: a distant (2) an emphasis on living in the here-and-now; (3) existential responsibility; (4) the integration theory’ (2015, Vol 24:2), as it appeared that she had of polarities; and (5) work with dreams, and the missed many of the essential elements of what I had Chairwork-centered group was the vehicle in which set out to accomplish. Before addressing the specifics of many of these ideas were made manifest. (p. 9) my concerns, I wanted to touch on a few clarifying and foundational ideas. The central inclusion of Chairwork and the use of role- To begin, Chairwork is an experiential method that reversal – of embodying and giving voice to another is based on the idea that it is not only healing and person or an inner polarity – gives major support to the transformative for clients to speak from their various idea that the 1969 model was, in fact, a psychodramatic internal voices, parts, modes, or selves, but also for model of therapy and transformation. them to enact or re-enact scenes from the past, the While some have argued that the two models present, or the future. It is also, in my experience, an were later integrated, I think that is incorrect. The extraordinarily powerful form of healing – perhaps differences between the two models run quite deep one of the most effective methods in the entire and seem fundamentally incompatible to me. Of note, psychotherapeutic armamentarium. Perls did not even mention the PHG book in his 1969 Chairwork, at heart, is a psychodramatic technique autobiography, In and Out the Garbage Pail. Further, that was created by Dr Jacob Moreno. Starting in 1942, in a profoundly symbolic moment, the dancer and Moreno began to have weekly open psychodrama musician Gabrielle Roth recalled sitting outside at sessions at his institute in New York City. This Esalen reading a copy of PHG. Fritz came up, grabbed program lasted for decades, and during that time the book from her, and threw it over the cliff (Roth, in many psychologists, sociologists, and psychotherapists Gaines, 1979). Together, these stories paint the picture – as well as artists and other creative individuals – of a man who had rejected his earlier work. On the took part in them. It appears that Dr Perls began to other side, Isadore From (1984), a leading proponent of attend the sessions in the early fifties – shortly after the 1951 model, helped to deepen the divide when he the publication of the Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman wrote that ‘Psychodrama … is not consistent with the book (1951). He would be a regular attendee for a decade method of Gestalt therapy’ (p. 9). and it was during this time that he learned Chairwork After Perls’ death, this division became more from Moreno. Perls, however, brought his own energies crystallised. The East Coast/1951 model became the to psychodrama or, more specifically, monodrama foundation for what we think of as contemporary, (Dayton, 2005), and developed a psychotherapeutic relational Gestalt therapy – the kind of work that Ms art form that went far beyond what Moreno had Beirne is an expert in. The West Coast/1969 model envisioned. This means that when we are working with would play a catalytic role in the development of a 58 Scott Kellogg range of integrative psychotherapies, including Schema at work in the Chair-based dialogues and enactments therapy, Redecision therapy, Voice Dialogue, Emotion- that becomes a creative force in the therapeutic process Focused therapy, and Internal Family Systems. – independent of clinical theory. I certainly sense that Given this framework, I think that some of my Perls had this experience and I believe that those who concerns about Ms Beirne’s review will make sense. regularly practise Chairwork will discover their own To begin, she made a number of gracious comments version of this as well. about the quality of my writing and for that I Gestalt therapy became famous in the 1960s am grateful. because of Fritz Perls’ ability to give extraordinary An overarching issue in her review is her attempt demonstrations and workshops. It was dissemination to understand my book within the framework of based on storytelling, not theory building. I have a her 1951-influenced Gestalt therapy model. She deep belief in the power of story and have always found is centrally concerned about what takes place at case examples to be my greatest teachers. Building the contact boundary and what takes place in the on this, the Transformational Chairwork book is, relational space. Understanding my work from this fundamentally, a book of stories and scripts. It is about perspective is not likely to be very successful. It is people struggling to heal from grief, to overcome a framework that is not appropriate for the task, not trauma, to find and use their voice, to reduce their only because it is a model that is either non- or anti- suffering significantly, to engage with the complexities psychodramatic, but also because it is a model that of love, to wrestle with the shadow, to choose courage does not place a central emphasis on inner multiplicity, over fear, to escape from the prison of addiction, and to polarities, and enactment – all vital components of the stabilise and rebalance their internal forces so that they Chairwork experience. may live lives of greater meaning, purpose, freedom, A core criticism is that I did not place Chairwork and creativity. Unfortunately, Ms Beirne makes no within a broader model of development, personality, mention of this and, sadly, she also makes no mention and psychopathology. I do, in fact, centre much of of my chapter on polarity work. In this chapter, I shared my work on the Schema Mode Model – which is a a number of 1960s Gestalt therapy stories. While model of psychopathology based on inner multiplicity. some of these are well-known, others have fallen into However, both in this book and in my trainings, I obscurity. This was my favourite chapter because these take a trans-theoretical or structural approach to encounters were filled with so much emotion, drama, Chairwork. My goal is to familiarise therapists with beauty, and healing. I also know from my trainings the core dialogue structures and show them different that most therapists are completely unfamiliar with ways of using Chairwork in their clinical work. The them and they find these accounts to be both riveting hope is to empower them to integrate Chairwork into and inspiring. their own theoretical framework rather than requiring Ms Beirne seemed unhappy with what she felt was or insisting that they adopt mine. This strategy has an overly individualistic approach to treatment and been welcomed and deeply appreciated by those who repeatedly emphasised the central importance of the have come to work with me – and I have used it as a therapeutic relationship. In terms of the former, I very foundation for the book. much take an individualistic approach to treatment A related issue, that Ms Beirne responded to, was as I am fundamentally concerned with the client’s my contention that Chairwork is too powerful to be inner suffering and personal empowerment. In terms contained by any one therapy and that the dialogue of the latter, the therapeutic relationship is, of course, work has its own logic. A useful metaphor may be found of central importance and the foundation of the in the world of music. As a colleague once pointed out, therapeutic process. What I think that she and other musicians often discover that when they improvise or contemporary Gestalt therapists do not always realise is compose music on, say, the guitar or the piano, that that there is a profoundly relational dimension at work the instrument itself seems to have its own logic; that in the Chairwork encounter. First, dialogues are always certain melodic or harmonic ideas are more natural or relational in that they concern either a connection organic to certain instruments. Joni Mitchell is a case with another person – past, present, or future – or a in point. Having suffered from polio as a child, she had connection with an internal voice, mode, self, or part. some coordination and fine motor difficulties with Second, Chairwork sessions are often highly evocative her left hand. This led her to embrace what are called and emotional and this often fosters deep bonding modal or open tunings on her guitar.