Transactional Analysis Journal

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Mind Your Own Gestalts!

Art Oblas
Transactional Analysis Journal 1981 11: 328
DOI: 10.1177/036215378101100415

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 Mind Your Own Gestalts!
Art Ob/as

Abstract something about my own issues with anger

Presents technique during "two chair that may need some work.
work" that enables the therapist to better Similarly, as I am interviewing "Plum"
notice and respond to his own reactions to my Adult notices that my thumbnail is
the situational dynamics of the session and scraping off the label on the felt-tipped
client. marker I picked up. By dialoguing between
my thumbnail and the marker I discover
that I am painfully scraping off Plum's
protective cover with my Not-OK (Per-
Two-chair work as developed by Perls in secuting) Parent and Not-OK (Rescuing)
the 1960's generally involves a client being Parent (Kahler, 1974). I back off, cathect
instructed to speak with someone or some- OK Nurturing Parent, stroke her for what
thing seated in an empty chair (McNeel, she has accomplished, and invite her to do
1976). This technique has a central place in more when she gets ready. I save myself the
advancing the aim of Gestalt therapy which trouble of trying too hard and eventually
"consists of bringing us into closer contact giving her (and myself) a kick.
with and greater awareness of the present." I explain this process to myself as follows
(Latner, 1974). By recognizing my own (Fig. 1):
emerging gestalten during a therapy
session, and doing some quick two-chair
work in my Adult around those forma-
tions, I gain heightened awareness of
what's going on and use that knowledge to
advance the therapeutic outcome. Taken in
at the Al level, these awarenesses might :
otherwise go unnoticed, or recognized too
late to be useful.
Examples
"Kip" becomes very angry with me as a
result of my confrontation of his playing
STUPID (Berne, 1964). My Adult notices
that my hands are gripping the arms of my
chair very tightly. I have my hands say to
each other, "Hold on tight. Don't let go." client therapist
I then become aware of my own scare and
anger, and thoughts about either backing Figure 1
down from my confrontation or escalating
over Kip's anger. I "hold on" and let him
finish, after which we talk about his Child- STEP ONE
defensive response and my feelings of being My Little Professor tunes in on
intimidated by his anger. He gains im- information that comes from any of the
portant information about his uses of this client's ego states. The broken lines are
strategy in his everyday life, and I learn drawn as they are to help differentiate
328 Transactional Analysis Journal

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between information that is available for
the therapist to discover and secret
messages (Woollams, 1974) being purpose-
fully sent.
In Kip's case, my Little Professor may be
tuning in on the scare experienced in his
Child, as an unresolved symbiotic structure
is being undercut, and the Child attempts
to foreclose that possibility with a violent
response (Schiff, 1971). In Plum's case my
Little Professor may be tuning in on an
internal dialogue between her Parent and
Child which may be something like, P2:
"Be careful, Plum! He's going to hurt you,
just like all the men in your (and my) life
have done." C2: (Responds by becoming
evasive).
STEPlWO
My Little Professor sends a non-
verbal message that my Adult can receive if
it is tuned to that channel (i.e., looking for
the information that is there).
STEP THREE
The non-verbal information is taken in
by my Adult and decoded by using
two-chair work. With the benefit of the
decoded information, I can choose a
response more appropriate than might
otherwise have been possible.
This process can be accomplished in a
matter of seconds with practice, and even-
tually, as with any acquired skill, become
more or less automatic. The essence of the
process involves recognizing the emerging
gestalten (what Lankton refers to as
"everyday trance phenomenon") (Lank-
ton, 1980) and decoding it through
two-chair work. I find it helps speed up
therapy as well as strengthen and develop
Vol. u, No.4, October 1981
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MIND YOUR OWN GESTALTSl
my intuitive capabilities so important in the
practice of effective therapy (Dusay, 1971).
Incidentally, I draw the functional Child
ego state as depicted in figure 1 to indicate
that the Little Professor can act on its own
as well as influence the AC, NC, A2, and
reparented P2.
P .S.: After writing and re-writing and re-
writing this paper, it finally began to come
together for me. But I knew it was nearing
completion when I noticed my thumb
pushed in between my index finger and
third finger, like the sign grown-ups make
when we play "I've got your nose" with
kids. For me it meant, "Breakthrough.
You've made your point!"
Art Oblas, MS, is a certified clinical
member of ITAA and the National
Academy of Certified Clinical Mental
Health Counselors. He teaches and prac-
tices in Syracuse, New York.
REFERENCES
Berne, E. Games people play. New York: Grove
Press, Inc., 1964, 157.
Dusay, J.M. Eric Berne's studies of intuition 1949-
62. Transactional Analysis Journal, 1971, 1(1), 35.
Kahler, T. The miniscript. Transactional Analysis
Journal, 1974,4(1),27.
Lankton, S. Ericksonian approaches in language,
"The .occurance and use of trance phenomena in
nonhypnotic therapies;" Workshop presented at
the Ericksonian Congress, Phoenix, Arizona,
December 3-8, 1980.
Latner, J. The gestalt therapy book. New York:
Bantam, 1973, 152.
McNeel, J.R. The parent interview. Transactional
Analysis Journal, 1976,6(1),61.
Schiff, A.W., & J.L. Passivity. TransactionalAnalysis
Journal, 1971,1(1),71-78.
Woollams, S., et. al. Transactional analysis in brief.
Michigan: Huron Valley Institute, 1974, 19.
329