I was running my hands over the stack of mail and found an envelope from Len Bergantino. That looked interesting, so I tore it open and read these words, "Gestalt Therapy runs the risk of having thrown out the baby with the bathwater, and the political climate may be all too happy to go along with it!" There was a photocopy of an article Len had recently published in the AHP Perspective, but nothing much more. I decided to call him up and find out what was going on.

The fact that Len considers himself too old for email ("I'm 55 and one of those guys who are real good with a Smith Corona.") explained my need to resort to something rare these days - a personal phone conversation. I was reminded how much more it adds. Len makes me laugh, and his sense of humor reminds me of Richard Kitzler.

I have reprinted Len's piece from the Perspective, (February/March, 1998, with permission of the AHP), and it follows below, but I wanted to share some of the ground for it as well, at least the ground of which I'm aware.

As I talked with Len I became aware that he and I do not share a similar political perspective, but we do share a similar concern. He referred to having read Fritz Perls's doomsday prophesies of a fascist dominance in future American culture, and then stated that almost everything Fritz had foreseen had come to pass. He attributes the overcontrolled professional climate to Fritz's political monsters, saying, "All the creativity has been beaten out of therapy by governmental reform." I thought it remarkable that a man I imagine would manifest crawling flesh at the sound of Newt Gingrich's name could be sounding the heart felt anguish that I myself had been sensing.

Len was adamant in feeling pushed out of the practice of his profession. He said, "Everything I was trained in is dead." He described a conversation with Brant Caudhill, attorney for the California Psychological Association, in which Len shared what he uses as informed consent for doing growth groups (see below) only to be told, "That is a fantasy in the 90's. You can't do that anymore." Why not? Because anything a psychologist does is considered psychological treatment, and it has to conform to accepted protocol. It has to be accompanied by case notes, treatment planning, and utilize only accepted and proven interventions for the established diagnostic categories. There is no place in such a system for that moment when a Gestalt therapist senses the fire, "...there's no more spontaneity; the word now is 'appropriate!'"

Len advocates a creative adjustment, a revolution if you will. He confesses that the field has become too dangerous. He cited several cases in California where psychologists had had their practices sliced up in litigation or restricted by the state boards in judgment. His adaptation is to play a lot of music, but he hopes that someone out there will challenge the status quo and make it safe to practice therapy once again.

I am reminded of watching "As Good As It Gets" and of hearing the spontaneous applause from the audience when characters in the movie criticized managed care. I had not realized how deeply our culture has become wounded. I had been scheming for quite awhile for a way to put together a combination practice, consulting, and publishing organization that would afford me the privilege of working with clients as I saw fit. I saw that people were in need of services. I had not realized how deeply they felt that need, nor had I realized how deeply psychotherapists were longing for a way to practice according to their consciences. It seems as if the two should somehow get together and let the politicians and the insurance companies consume each other!

Here is Len's article:

In the late 60's through the 80's, psychologists were trained and had a degree of freedom to practice psychotherapy in the ways reflected by this model of informed consent. Its purpose is to return psychotherapeutic practice to a degree of freedom from the "culture bind."

To those senior psychologists who remember, read with a sigh and chuckle of enjoyment. For those younger psychologists who never experienced those "good old days," they can reflect upon what has been lost today and whether they think it is worth fighting for!

Gestalt therapy personal growth groups are not psychological treatment groups. There is not a focus on continuity of care of psychological treatment, therefore there is no responsibility for continuity of treatment. The only responsibility the leader of the group maintains is "response-ability," or the ability to respond in the moment. This is what Fritz Perls, the co-founder of gestalt therapy, described as the responsibility of the gestalt therapist. There will be a focus on outrageous expansion of range and depth of personality characteristics in making personal contact; the unusual, use of off-color language; and a near total freedom from the culture bind in that hardly any attention or weight will be given to "what is appropriate" as opposed to what creates "inner freedom in the individual." Confrontation will be used. Gestalt experiment will be used.

There will be an opportunity for pieces of personal work among group members when, in a period of twenty minutes, one might be given a handle on a way of being in the world or a behavior that may redirect the course of one's life in a more positive and productive manner. This will be a piece of work in itself and is not necessarily attached to or guaranteed to lead to any other piece of work. It is hoped that these pieces of work will be in the spirit of creative experiment that may have never been done before or may never be done again in quite the way it happened this one time.

It will be expected that the group leader will do whatever is felt to have the best opportunity to enhance integration of the alienated parts of the personality and facilitate a quality of response that is richer in range and depth. It is accepted that the participant will avail him or herself of these methods-whether they like them or not at the conclusion of the work-without then yelling foul.

No treatment or progress notes will be kept, in that this is a personal growth group, not a psychtherapy treatment group.

(Adult Signature)

(Adolescent Signature)