"Six," the person might say, or "eleven," or "fifteen" —or sometimes even "one" or "two." The client almost always replies with a chronological age that fits the voice. And suddenly you've stepped through a doorway in time and you're right there in the traumatic past situation, ready to step into it more deeply and then enact it in the present.

The follow-up question is, "Where are you?"

"At my house," she might reply.

"Please close your eyes and visualize. Are you inside or outside?"

"Inside."

"In which room?" (We want to be as specific and concrete as possible. If the answer was "Outside in the front yard," then that's where we stay.)

"In the kitchen." (Or "the dining room," or "the bedroom," etc.)

Since the situation is emotionally loaded, taking a few moments for a description of the surroundings not only helps the memory retrieve the situation and heightens the sense of reality but also often reduces resistance to dealing with it. Additional useful questions, in quick succession, are:

• "Is it light or dark in the room?"
• "What color are the walls?"
• "What furniture or other objects do you see?
• "Are you aware of any sounds or smells?"

The goal of these questions is to obtain as complete and accurate a sensory representation of the situation as possible, to bring it vividly alive. After answering them, the person is likely to be fully immersed in his or her memory of the past situation, which may be a memory that has been repressed for years or even decades. (At no point should the therapist or counselor EVER suggest a possible answer to any of these questions. "False memories" often originate in the suggestions of inept practitioners.)

Then into the heart of it:

• "Who's there with you?"
• "Anyone else in addition?"
• "Are there any other perople in the house or outside nearby? Who? Do you know what they're doing?"

Get the whole cast of characters. There may be only one person, but if there are more, anyone may be important, even if only by acting as a bystander rather than intervening in a traumatic situation, or by intentionally staying away from the scene.

Next, "What's going on?"

At this point the client is reliving the event. It unfolds and is told aloud, perhaps for the first time ever.

• "Daddy is taking his belt off and telling me to take down my pants and bend over and he starts to hit me with the buckle end;" or
• "Grandpa is telling me I'm stupid and incompetent in front of the whole extended family at the Thanksgiving dinner table;" or
• "A man with a black ski mask comes in through the bedroom window and holds a knife to my throat and starts to unbutton his pants and tells me he'll kill me and my whole family if I utter a word " or
• "My diapers are soiled and I'm thirsty and hungry and looking through bars—they must be my crib—as Mom staggers in the door with some man and yells at me to shut up and stop crying and then collapses."

You're both fully there in the event. Next you can move into fuller expression, exaggeration, dialogue, or whatever fits the situation. Sometimes one working session may be enough to mourn, rage, or find the missing capacity for feeling, words, or action. Sometimes repeated sessions are needed. Then the rediscovered capacity is brought back into the present existential reality with partner, parent, subling, coworker, or whoever the issue involves, and is brought to life in the present in dialogue with that person in the empty chair or in a go-around with members of the group.

This column is devoted to sharing and discussing aspects of working techniques (and sometimes theory) used in the Gestalt process. If you have developed a useful, widely-usable addition to Gestalt work that you'd like to make available, or know of an old technique or idea that's not well known, please send it in and if it fits, we'll print it.

Contact Victor Daniels:

e-mail: victor.daniels@sonoma.edu

Ordinary mail: Psy. Dept., Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, Ca. 94928.