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Welcome to Gestalt Tools and News.
You're receiving this newsletter because of your relationship with me - through training, psychotherapy, spiritual healing work, colleagues, or friendship. I welcome your feedback.
Below are some ideas about fascination and curiosity. You'll also find information about the *Free Sample* Consultation Group on January 11th, where you can discover new possibilities in yourself and your clients. And there's a special price offer for the January 25th workshop.
If you want to unsubscribe, it's easy to do - just go to the bottom and click on "unsubscribe."
Marilyn Lammert,ScD, LCSW
Psychotherapist/Clinical Social Worker
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| Fascination and Curiosity
As a Gestalt therapist I don't focus on change directly Fascination and curiosity are my by-words. . .they affect how I 'take in' and work.
Patrick, a client (not his real name), and his wife went out together and had a good time, the first time in awhile. He tried to get a weather report on the radio on the way home. She said, "Nobody cares about that" and switched stations. A "punch in the stomach" like he wasn't "worth anything" was his experience. Negatives about her followed, a familiar pattern.
"Punch in the stomach". . ."not worth anything". . . I'm fascinated in a kind of impersonal way. Fascination, by the way, does great things for the relationship.
And I'm curious. I ask questions. Experiments occur to me. (We'll come back to the questions.)
I ask him to stand and with his hands up, palms facing me, I push against his hands. He loses his balance. I suggest he plant his feet solidly, focusing on the place in his midsection that feels like his center. I push again. I notice something as I push -his legs don't bend. He is bracing himself- quickly realizing this makes him more of a pushover, not less.
I ask him when he feels like he's "worth something." I want to see what's inside. "Playing keyboards," something he's done most of his life. Where in his body does he feel that? Stomach area--diaphragm. How does it feel?
Relaxed, comfortable. Visuals? Warm pearl, smooth, shiny, cream-colored. A tree with a big trunk.
He imagines the earlier scene with his wife. From this place of body experience, it feels different.
I move from fascination to what to do next. How to respond to help him explore his experience. Then back to fascination and curiosity, and so on.
'Fascinated and curious' questions: "what came next. . .and then what happened?" "Who was involved?" "How did you feel when that happened?. . . and how do you feel now?" "Want do you feel in your body?" "What stopped you from doing that?" "What did you want? . . . and what do you want now?" Richer detail, which means fresh perspectives.
This awareness of body experience, it's a tool. A tool to use to shift experience. It's a way of knowing.
Gestalt therapy is not so much body-oriented as it is whole-person oriented. I am fascinated with the whole person. |
| *Free Sample*: Gestalt Consultation & Study Group - January 11th: 10:30AM - 12:30PM
Feeling stuck or at a loss is not uncommon for therapists. The experiential approach we'll be using is based on the idea that we often have the wisdom we need to get unstuck and find our way, but don't always have direct access to it.
In this group, we'll focus on feeling into the client's experience at the same time we're with our own. Being absorbed in this way together naturally gives rise to the kind of creative experiments Gestalt is known for.
The group is structured so that people can learn together and feel safe and supported. You'll have opportunities to practice new ways as you choose to do so. Attention will be paid to personal and interpersonal boundaries. We'll focus on direct experience, awareness, close attention to contact between therapist and client, and experiments.
We'll talk about theory as it relates to our experience.
Email me so I know to expect you: pakm78@gmail.com
10:30AM - 12:30PM
5117 Manning Drive in Bethesda (Click here for a map)
For information: 301-951-9645 or pakm78@gmail.com
Ongoing group: 2nd Monday, 10:30AM-12:30PM
Monthly / $45 Per Session / Category 1 CEU
Gestalt Therapy Workshop - Monday, January 25th: Noon - 3:00PM *SPECIAL OFFER BELOW*
This 3-hour relationally-oriented Gestalt workshop will enhance your clinical skills. Whether you are seeking to further your Gestalt experience, want greater freedom and creativity to engage with your clients, or want to integrate gestalt concepts into your current practice, this workshop will enhance your clinical practice. Basic Gestalt concepts and methods will be discussed as well as a live Gestalt therapy session demonstration.
Monday, January 25th, 2010 SPECIAL OFFER: $50 Before 1/8
Noon - 3:00PM ($75 After January 8th)
5117 Manning Drive in Bethesda
Cat. 1 CEU's (Social Work)
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| AAGT/NE Regional Conference
January 23, 2010
New York City
9:30AM - 4:30PM
Together Again For the First Time:
Gestalt Therapy and Inter-Subjective Systems Psychoanalysis
Meta Center New York - 213 W. 29th Street
Regular Registration: $120
Student: $75
AAGT Member*: $110
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| Meet Connie Ridgway
 Connie Ridgway is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a Licensed Massage Therapist, and a musician. She takes an integrated approach to healing, encouraging our natural state of wholeness. Psychotherapy is body-oriented, and includes Gestalt, Voice Dialogue, Guided Imagery and principles of mindful awareness.
Sounding and Centering Groups combine singing, body-centered exercises and meditation. The goal is to nourish ourselves while being there for others. These regular monthly "Sounding and Centering" groups can be sampled on the 4th Wednesday of each month. The next Free Sample is on Wednesday, January 27, from 10:30-11:15am. Contact Connie at Connie@FullCircleCreativeHealing.com for more information.
Cranio-Sacral Therapy, an elegant form of bodywork, has the ability to be a bridge between body and psychotherapy approaches. Cranio-Sacral Therapy is a gentle, hands-on method that is a natural partner to psychotherapy. It is deeply calming and relaxing, able to gently let surface old wounds (of body and mind) that might stay buried with more aggressive forms of bodywork. It often helps alleviate discomfort and anxiety. It increases the body's access to more fluid, bypassing the tendency for the body to resist changes in the muscles or connective tissues. Cranio-Sacral therapy is done fully clothed.
To get regular encouragement to care for yourself, keep joy and move more easily through discouragement, you can also sign up to receive Connie's e-newsletter: "Grace Notes." Sign up through her website at www.FullCircleCreativeHealing.com. |
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