The Rules and Games of Gestalt Therapy
Adjacent
The ground rules of Gestalt groups: stay in the present; address people instead of talking about them; say “I”, not “it”; follow awareness down to the body; say what lies behind a question.
The chapter sets out a short list of rules and an open-ended list of games. The rules are the principle of the now; I and thou; “it” language and “I” language; the awareness continuum, which moves attention from labels to bodily experience; no gossiping, meaning no talking about someone in the room instead of to them; and questions, which a client is asked to recast as the statement behind them. Among the games is making the rounds, in which one person speaks to each member of the group in turn.
Read beside Circling Europe’s five principles, the overlap is plain: owning your experience, staying with the level of sensation, being with the other in their world. So is the difference. The rules are asked of a client in therapy; in a circle everyone keeps them, the facilitator included.
What it doesn’t show
A description of technique by its practitioners. It tests nothing.
Not read in full. The rules are summarised from two 1973 papers that quote the chapter with page numbers: Peavy in the Canadian Counsellor, and Witchel’s convention paper (ERIC ED082090).