Dialogue and Paradox, Introduction



	Winter 1998 (ISSN 1091-1766) Introduction Home
	You Can't Do That Anymore: Editorial by Len Bergantino & Philip Brownell \| Stories About Knowing: A View from Family Therapy \| Deconstructing Individualism: An Interview with Gordon Wheeler \| Renewing Our Roots in Neuropsychology: A Gestalt Perspective on the Work of Joseph LeDoux \| Dialogue and Paradox: In Training with Lynne Jacobs, the "Dialogue-Maven"

"Dialogue and Paradox: In Training with
Lynne Jacobs, the 'Dialogue Maven.'"

Transcript of a lecture-discussion
with Lynne Jacobs, Ph.D.,
captured at the Portland Gestalt Therapy Training Institute,
March 7, 1998.

Lynne Jacobs, Ph.D. is co-author of The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy: A Dialogic/Self Psychology Approach, and various articles on Gestalt therapy. She serves on the editorial board of the Gestalt Journal. She's also a member of the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Los Angeles (GTILA), the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, and a trainer with Gary Yontef at the Gestalt Therapy Institute of the Pacific . Lynn is adjunct faculty and a board member of the Institute for Dialogical Psychotherapy in San Diego, California. She has a private practice in West Los Angeles.

Prerequisites to Dialogue

The ability to surrender to emerging experience Trust of self & other Genuine interest in the other Constant movement (fluidity, motion)

Qualities of a Diaglogic Relationship

Process Concepts Dialogical Moment Descriptions

Confirmation Immediacy (here & now)

Grounded, unreserved communication Directness (honest & open)

Presence Presentness (available to be impacted & to be impactful)

Inclusion Mutuality (equality & parity)

Barriers to Dialogue

Objectivity, observing, theorizing The inability to focus

Stereotyping

Difficulty tolerating the client's affect (joy, pain, anxiety, shame, anger, etc.) Loss of personal awareness by therapist (of self as a separate, unique, & different person)

Maya Brand: ...Right! She's the Dialogue-Maiden! I asked Lynn if she would do the lecture, and I'll sing harmony.

Lynne: We have Maya to thank for these visual aids. For those who have never seen me lecture, let me say that if I start off too fast and you don't want me to talk so fast, just slow me down, and the other is feel free to come in with questions, comments, reactions, case material, disagreements. We can mix it up; I'm not going to lose my place.

Laura Perls is the one who introduced the idea of working with Buber's I-Thou relationship in Gestalt therapy, because she studied some with Martin Buber. Almost anybody who came into contact with him - their work was changed through being effected by his ideas. Once you get infected, you don't let it go very easily. (continued in part one)

Part One | Part Two

Topical Links:

Dialogical Moment Dialogical Attitude Contact Paradoxical Change

Phenomenological Method Presence Inclusion

Working with Paranoid People Working with Character Disordered People Spirituality Dialogue & Field Theory

Dialogue & Self Psychology "I-It" vs "I-Thou" Confirmation Therapist Growth as a Bi-Product of Contact

Consult Behavioraledu.com for continuing educational credits available by studying articles on Gestalt therapy appearing in this journal. See their catalogue for courses on:

The Basics of Contemporary Gestalt Therapy
Spirituality in Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt Therapy in the Response to Trauma and Anxiety
Field Theory in Gestalt Therapy
Dialogue in Gestalt Therapy

Prerequisites to Dialogue
The ability to surrender to emerging experience	Trust of self & other	Genuine interest in the other	Constant movement (fluidity, motion)
Qualities of a Diaglogic Relationship
`Process Concepts`		`Dialogical Moment Descriptions`
Confirmation		Immediacy (here & now)
Grounded, unreserved communication		Directness (honest & open)
Presence		Presentness (available to be impacted & to be impactful)
Inclusion		Mutuality (equality & parity)
Barriers to Dialogue
Objectivity, observing, theorizing		The inability to focus
	Stereotyping
Difficulty tolerating the client's affect (joy, pain, anxiety, shame, anger, etc.)		Loss of personal awareness by therapist (of self as a separate, unique, & different person)

Dialogical Moment	Dialogical Attitude	Contact	Paradoxical Change
Phenomenological Method		Presence	Inclusion
Working with Paranoid People	Working with Character Disordered People	Spirituality	Dialogue & Field Theory
Dialogue & Self Psychology	"I-It" vs "I-Thou"	Confirmation	Therapist Growth as a Bi-Product of Contact