More Grounds for Gestalt
Ed: Yaro Starak, Anne Maclean, Anna Bernet.
Foreground Press 1996. ( About Foreground Press )
ISBN 0-473-03891-9

Reviewed by:
Lars Berg,
Gestalt practitioner and artist, Sweden.
Editor of the Nordic Gestalt Journal
lars@berg-egenart.se

The book More Grounds for Gestalt has become a companion, a close friend, that I carried around in my pocket while reading it last winter. This feeling of friendship has its roots in a certain tone that I find the nine authors expressing themselves in, as well as in the familiarity of a common ground in Gestalt philosophy I have with most of the writers - the so called "Rosnerian Gestalt" - although the cultural setting is much different from Sweden, where I live.

The late Jorge Rosner (he died in 1994) has offered his spirit as a kind of "grandfather" to several institutes around the world - in Canada, USA, Scandinavia and Australia, just to name places I know of. During my first year of Gestal training I met Jorge in the early 80's, at the Gestalt Academy of Scandinavia, and he contributed to some of my first experiences of the Gestalt potential for creativity and spirituality. "Rosnerian Gestalt" is Jorge's transmission of Gestalt therapy practice, adding further Eastern philosophy (mainly Tibetan buddhism) to the zen-buddhism that Fritz Perls implanted - and a particular creativity and playfulness coming from his own personality. Jorge Rosner often spoke about the importance of developing respect, compassion and humility as standards for the I-Thou encounter in therapy and in More Grounds for Gestalt I find recurring references to how the infamous confrontative approach, carried out by Fritz Perls in the childhood of Gestalt therapy, has evolved to a more caring experience in the relationship of therapist-client.

And this is exactly my lasting impression after reading and re-reading More Grounds for Gestalt; the authors' caring and respectfulness for their therapeutic work and their clients, as well as for the Gestalt theory and philosophy.

The contributors of the book are Gestalt practitioners/students that work in - or have connections to - Australia and/or New Zealand and the editors Yaro Starak, Anne Maclean and Anna Bernet have managed to collect a rich variety of views of the Gestalt approach, as it has evolved in the Southern hemisphere.

The themes of the chapters are strikingly existential, also revealed by how much the writers are willing to expose themselves as experiencing subjects - although never losing sight of the theoretical perspective.

The first chapter is written by Peter Cole, who in this context is a guest contributor living in California, USA: "Interpersonal Boundaries in Hospice Work: A Gestalt Therapy Approach" - based on a talk given to the California State Hospice Association. As this talk was made in front of an audience who wasn't familiar to Gestalt therapy, Peter Cole gives us a primer of Gestalt history, terminology and principles that is excellent as part of a starting chapter, inviting a Gestalt novice reader to a basic understanding of Gestalt theory and how it has evolved out of psychoanalysis.

Along the way references are made to how Gestalt concepts can support the hospice professional in his/her challenging work. Among the most significant are the Gestalt approach of accepting "what is", not trying to change the client; the equal non-authoritarian relationship between therapist and client and the focus on here-and-now. All this makes it clearer to families and patients to stay in contact with what is - like accepting the dying process rather than to seek cure or to find comfort in the here-and-now although there is a short time left to live.

Rudolf Jarosewitsch goes on to point out the complementation of "power" and "gentleness" in Gestalt therapy, in his chapter "The Power of Gentleness in Gestalt Therapy". He explicate how Gestalt therapy has evolved into something more gentle today, with newer foundations like field theory, phenomenology and dialogue, as opposed to the early Perlsian "boom-boom therapy" (as Robert Resnick put it in an interview with Malcolm Parlett in British Gestalt Journal 1995). By intertwining "power" with "gentleness" the author takes spirituality as a relational tool into the therapeutic practice. Jarosewitsch defines "power of gentleness" as personal power, not abusive power. It is a "power with" rather than "power over" and often when a person acts out his rage - which seems like an expression of power - it's merely an act of powerlessness. The author makes it clear that "gentleness" is not the same as "being nice"; gentleness has to go both inwards and outwards. It doesn't help to be nice to others if you are hard on yourself.

Rudolf Jarosewitsch also takes a couple of Gestalt therapy shoulds at their horns, by reflecting upon how a focusing on cathartic emotional release as the goal of therapy, becomes an obstacle to the natural self-regulating process that is originally caressed in the sentence "don't push the river"; likewise how the notion of self-support as contradictory to environmental support, where confrontation of so called "phoneyness" in order to break through to "the real" self, is at the risk of abusing a fragile client. Jarosewitsch's standpoint is refreshing as a representation for a more spiritual Gestalt therapy approach and he also brings his own experiences of Tibetan buddhism and Dharma teachings into the field.

In her chapter "The Gift of Time" Diana Neutze gives a touching description of her personal journey into the illness Multiple Sclerosis, to lost ability to move and left to a life in gloominess. Through earlier experience of yoga and an interest in philosophy and psychology Diana manages to subdue her melancholy by learning to live here-and-now. To live in-the-now is here put in a painful existential light, where the author's struggle to maintain a meaningful life can give us without such an illness a deeper sense of the possibilities that lie in actually living the concept.

Diana Neutze beautifully paints the image of time concretized and in her extreme position pinpoints the likewise painful and joyous manifestations of everyday life in process. Her writing in both prose and poetry unfolds the reality of time on a level where we probably seldom are bound to slow down to experience it.

Yaro Starak addresses the split state of Western civilisation in his chapter "Gestalt Therapy and the Concept of `Splits´". He describes how disturbances in the self-regulating process make us split our awareness into polarized aspects, as a "`survival response´, an involuntary loss of awareness in a situation where we experience the power of others over us. This begins in early childhood when we are most vulnerable to power relations with adults. As we grow up, we continue to relate in a similar way with our own relationships and with ourselves". As the antidote to these frozen ways of relating, Yaro Starak prescribes "the Law of Natural Order" and he polishes the healing tools of Gestalt therapy with references to historical, philosophical and scientific knowledge, and by this comes to the core of Gestalt theory. By staying with the basic principles of Gestalt therapy the therapist can "...fascilitate a path to recovery, by changing the power relation experienced in childhood to a love relation in the therapy setting, in the therapy group and, eventually, in the client's own life". The author gives a moving example of this change, in a verbatim case study, where the careful and respectful attitude from the therapist towards the client paves the way for the client to experience both sides of his split - and gradually integrating them, healing his wound.

The simple title of Kathy Mackenzie's chapter is "Joy". The author goes into an exploration and a search for joy, asking herself "What is Joy and how does it feel? Where do I feel it?" As a ground for her search she finds that "the organism expands awareness by acknowledging `What is?´" and when she suddenly experiences the full quality of a moment in her car she hears herself call from within: "EVERYTHING'S OK IN THIS MOMENT, EVERYTHING'S PERFECT IN THIS MOMENT! PHEW!!". She then concludes: "I'm allowing myself to enjoy this moment. This moment is part of me, my life - as important as the gravest time. I feel whole." Kathy Mackenzie joyfully struggles with, and squeezes the meaning out of, concept by concept in her search for the essence of Joy. Her process of exploring seems to mimic her own findings; it is in her moments of hesitation and letting go of a track that suddenly "the real thing" emerges. With excitation I follow the author in her process, where Joy comes and goes and comes back - unplanned and merely as the fruit of letting the process continue.

Anne Maclean contributes with a poem: "Shadow". I've been lucky to receive and read some e-mail from Anne and I'm always struck by the beauty of her writing - her words evoke poetic images in my mind, even as she tells about the current weather in her part of the globe. In "Shadow" I recognize images that transform themselves into either photographic sequences from the material world of light and shade or as metaphors of inner states, feelings and concepts. Not unlike reading a Zen haiku. My awareness shifts from different poles of meaning, either seeing closely observed phenomena in everyday life of a garden or symbolic references to phenomena of mind. Like sitting at the foot of an oaktree, with my senses open to the caleidoscopic movements of flickering light, as rays of sun burst through the foliage. What can I say?

In her chapter "The Paradox of Change and the Treaty of Waitangi" Eveline Doerschel reveals a deeply moving story of a journey through separation, grieving, integration and wholeness. She manages to grasp a muiltilayered field, extending from her own personal experiences to the collective implications of the colonization of New Zealand. Through all of this the author expresses a great portion of respect, compassion and humility, as she describes her process of leaving one culture to integrate herself into a new and different one. As she learns about the history of her new country, she does so by interacting with it as represented by human beings that are carrying the conflicting forces of guilt and betrayal as historic reminiscence. Among the experiences I had reading this chapter, there is a particular sequence that caught my attention and became a kind of aha-experience for me; the concept of "owning land". The author gives an initiated reference to the historic evolution of the New Zealand culture, where the Maori people, the early settlers of this land, made a treaty with representatives of later settlers, named the Pakeha people, coming mostly from European cultures. The reason this treaty became a betrayal for the Maori - and a reason for guilt for the Pakeha - was the difference in how the concept of "owning land" was interpreted.

To the Maori owning land means being responsible for the land in the same way you own your feelings; you have them and you live through them and you share them with others. Noone would actually claim the right to keep a piece of land for himself. For a Pakeha owning land was mainly a way of posessing a piece of land, with the right to exclude others from entering or settle down on it. This meaning was never translated to the Maori before signing the treaty.

What touches me about the Maori understanding of "owning" is how it shows a "simple" solution to our Western problems of ecological and cultural destruction, where we use "power over" as the main vehicle for economic and political development. "Owning" in the Maori sense would make every individual more involved in what happens with both nature and human beings in our world.

The theme of paradoxical change is so interwoven in Eveline Doerschel's writing that it seems to live a life of its own in the background. Occasionally it becomes figure, as her story unfolds in a very personal and integrative way, involving her own paradoxical change process as she opens herself to possible ways of change for the people in her new culture.

In "The Root Cause" Anne McIvor reveals the basic principle of self-regulation in living organisms; the power of self growth as well as the need for nurture - a good enough environment for the organism to support its growth.

The author concludes: "I also note that although no tree is prefect, most are healthy and adequately adjusted to their surroundings, growing this way or that in response to their environment. And so it is with people."

Anne McIvor has a professional background as a florist and describes how she brings her knowledge of, and feeling for, natural growth and how to meet the demands of misgrowth, into her practice as a Gestalt therapist. She has a refreshing perspective on the impact of patience, both as a therapist (awaiting the right moments to intervene) and as a client (submitting to his/her own process, instead of "pushing the river" for more than is natural).

Plants grow at their own pace (if not stressed by artificial and overpowered nutriment) and, transmitted to therapeutic practice, this wisdom becomes the crucial point of reference for what Gestalt therapy is about: "the more you become what you are, here and now, change is inevitable".

How much we ever claim that Gestalt therapy relies on non-verbal communication, we are forced to come back to the fact that dialogue and verbalizing is at the heart of therapy. Imke Janus dives into the waves of language in her chapter "An Exploration of Language in Gestalt Therapy".

I find here still another perspective from which I can connect to basic Gestalt concepts; e.g. the perspective of thinking, talking and writing in ways that support or hinders the process of making contact. As language and culture are closely linked together the exploration in this chapter becomes for me a kind of "total" experience, where language means not only verbalizing but also the process that builds up to the act of communication as well as its continuation into true dialogue with another human being.

Imke Janus describes the concepts "field theory", "phenomenology" and "dialogue" as a ground for the use of language and goes on to investigate language as adaptations to contact. By chosing the word "adaptation" rather than "resistance" or "defence mechanism" she takes a stand for the more caring attitude in the therapy setting, viewing confluence, introjection, projection etc. as the best possible ways at the time to adapt to the process of self-regulation. This chapter is full of illuminating examples of ways to enhance the beauty of human communication, as well as of the myriads of possible stumble stones, inherent in language, that get in the way for contact and growth.

When the author ends up describing the use of metaphors and images, physical expression, the many qualities of the human voice and the inherent self-acceptance in free speach, she concludes much of what I find as an undertow in most of the chapters in this inspiring book: the expression of lived experience, reflected through the framework of Gestalt theory - and coloured differently by the personality of each author.

I recommend it warmly.

Lars Berg.

In 1993 three Gestalt psychotherapists, Yaro Starak (Brisbane), Anne Maclean (Christchurch NZ), and Anna Bernet decide to establish a way of publishing Gestalt material from practitionrs, trainers and students. Anne and her partner Michael undertook the major editing and publishing layout and design work. So Foreground Press was established and contributions sought . In 1994 Grounds for Gestalt was published and sold out within a very short period of time. The on-going excitment from that edition is the Spanish translation (Aportaciones a la Gestalt) which came out last year through the good services of Gestaltists in Spain and Yaro Starak, who not only is fluent in Spanish but also works there each year presenting workshops.

In 1995 the process was put in motion again and in 1996 More Grounds for Gestalt was published. This time with an increased number of copies. This is a paper back of 173 pages (190 x 130mm - ISBN 0-473-03891-9) with full colour cover, the art work being once again a student assignment.

The price is $20.00 (NZ) + $2.00 p & p. or $17.50 (Aus) + $1.50 p & p

Individuals may order by email, simply providing your name and postal address. The book will be sent economy air with invoice for payment. Anne.Maclean@Chch.plaNet.org.NZ or Staraky@sociall.socialnet.uq.edu.au Training Institutes who wish to buy copies will receive the usual 35% discount for 3 or more copies. If using ordinary mail write to either:

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