Dear Readers,
I am starting this July blog a bit late due to
a lot of complex issues, both personal and social. Brisbane is now on lockdown
for about 4 days, and I personally am not choosing to get the AstraZeneca
vaccine and waiting to get the Pfizer one. However, the good news is that I am
inspired to write more and share myself online.
One of my reflections this week, was on the matter of Elderhood. I wrote a paper on “Chaos Theory and Elderhood” and this paper was accepted as a discussion paper at the AASW (Association of Social Work) international conference to be held in Brisbane in November of this year.
The other topic that I am reflecting on, is the Mentoring Initiation for men over
50 and who are ready and willing to help the young men of today in their initiation into
adulthood. This idea comes from my attending the MANSHINE event last month
where 130 men shared their stories in small and big group gatherings every day.
At this event, I noticed a small group of elder men that called themselves “old cogers." I joined them excited to hear their stories and share my own. Being with the elders there, I became inspired to design a proposal for men over 50, where they could join me in a group that will learn and experience the skills of Mentoring, leadership, initiation rites and more.
As a gestalt therapist and trainer of group
leaders, for over 20 years, I want to share my skills and knowledge with men
who can become facilitators and develop Mentoring abilities to help young men.
My own Mentor, Michael Meade, gave me a lot of tools and ideas by way of rituals,
stories, myths and poems that led me to design a "bag" of teaching tools. I
add here my own gestalt theory and practice to enhance the Humanistic
perspective.
You may listen to Michael Meade’s podcast by
clicking on the link below.
Michael Meade podcast:
What follows is a facilitators program ideas for Mentors - a gestalt approach in working with groups. Much of this content was derived from my readings of books by Malcolm Parlett and others.
1. The group is an ‘organism-environment’ field consisting of multiple forces in functional interrelationship to each other and to the whole.
2. Experience has an underlying structure
3. The group field has multi-boundaries.
4. The group field is multi-layered.
5. The group has many contexts (field
conditions), all of which affect its here-and-now process.
6. We can discover the nature and structure of
the group field both by observation and by systematic experimentation.
7. Everyone has a point of view, and no point
of view is inherently preferable to any other.
8. The observer is always and necessarily part of the situation, and affects the object of study, and vice versa.
9. We should try to distinguish ‘naïve
experience’ from theories, hypotheses, assumptions, preconceptions etc.
10. Begin by describing phenomena, rather than
trying to explain them.
11. All information is potentially relevant.
THE FIELD PERSPECTIVE
Gestalt therapy has a particular version of
field theory. Its starting point is the ‘organism-environment field’, a field
that is created and sustained from the interactions of humans (and other
animals) and their environment. In this field many kinds of factors operate at
the same time. I am a physical body, also biologically an animal, as well as a
therapist – a social role – an Australian, etc. All these are part of the
field, and all must be considered in any investigation of the field. Let me
illustrate this more concretely:
Imagine that I am a therapist who is starting a
new group. The members arrive and settle themselves in the group room. I look
around at them, noticing my own feelings and wondering what theirs are. As I
sit in the group room waiting for the group to start, my present physical
environment includes air to breathe, a chair to support my body, and a room
temperature. Looking out of the window, I can see trees
being blown by a blustery wind.
All group phenomena are 'of’' the field, in the
strong sense of being actually constituted by the field and its complex
structures and dynamics. The people and events of the group are continually
mutually influencing and affecting each other so that no events in the group
field are isolated from other events. We sometimes describe this in Gestalt as
‘co-creation’ – I create something that is in turn helping to create me…and so
on.
FIGURE AND GROUND
Returning, again to the group, I notice that it
is time to start, and close the door to signify this. Looking round, I see Jim
sitting silently, without his usual energy. I wonder what is up with him. For a
few moments, he is the centre of my attention, and stands out for me. At that
moment, I do not notice the others in the group. They have momentarily faded
into the background.
The point is a general one: in perception, we
do not see all things equally. At any given moment, some things are 'figural',
and grab our attention. Then something else stands out for us, and the previous
figure recedes into the background. We are continually organising and
re-organising our experiences of ourselves and the environment into a series of
'meaningful wholes' or gestalts in this way.
MULTIPLE BOUNDARIES IN THE GROUP FIELD
In Gestalt theory, experience occurs at the
boundary between the organism and its environment. This boundary is sometimes
called ‘the contact boundary’, and its operation is what creates the world as we
experience it.
‘Contact’ – being in touch with objects – is
the basis of both our sensing of the world, and our action within it. Contact,
in Gestalt theory is ‘the simplest and first reality’. It is through this
contact that the boundaries that come to define us as human organisms and as
people in the world come to be constructed. Let me briefly show how this
occurs.
For our purposes, it is useful to think of
three different boundaries operating in the formation of experience. First is
the so-called ‘self’ boundary. This includes my body-boundary (skin surface)
and the sensory organs which operate in it and which give me my basic
experience of the world – sights, sounds, smells, surfaces and so on. Next is
the ‘Me’ boundary. This is where I begin to get a sense of myself: who I am,
what I want. I do this by making choices about which bits of the world are
important and interesting to me, and which are not. I identify with some things
and alienate myself from others, giving myself a sense of I and not-I. Finally,
is my ‘Social’ boundary, where I can be aware how others and I would describe
or characterize me.
THE GROUP FIELD HAS MANY LAYERS
Both the group leader and the group members are
trying, in their different ways, to gain insight into the structure and
dynamics of the group field, right here and now. I would like now to consider a
way to divide up and focus in on current process that is of particular interest
and use to group leaders. This involves identifying three natural 'levels' of
group life: the individual level, the interpersonal level, and the
group-as-a-whole. If the group leader understands these levels, then he
can organise his observation and intervention in the group setting by choosing
to concentrate, as appropriate and useful, on the behaviour and experience of
group members as individuals; on the interactions between individuals, and on
the 'group-as-a-whole', the group system.
I believe that this way of looking at group life in terms of 'levels' stems directly from Gestalt’s holistic roots. When we talk of levels, we are talking about the hierarchical ways in which the group field is structured by natural and social forces, and our attempts as group leaders and members to gain insight into this structure both by how we conceive it and how we act within it. AS A WHOLE
SEVERAL WAYS TO NOTICE THE GROUP ZONES OF
AWARENESS
(i) Here and Now: This is what goes on in group
sessions, the here-and-now process of the group. In field theory, this is what
is 'real', our primary therapeutic focus. A few of the relevant field factors
which constitute the group process are: the physical conditions of the group
room, group member's current feelings and desires, individual contact styles,
contact patterns between individuals (pairs and sub-groups), energy levels and
so on.
(ii) There and Now: This zone includes factors
relating to the current (spatially) external field in which the group operates.
This includes group member's current lives outside the group and between
sessions, the location of the group room, events in the world that may be
impacting on the group in some way (in the electronic age, spatial distance is
irrelevant). The current pandemic is creating a need of spatial distance.
(iii) Here and Then: This refers to the group's
history, what has happened to group members in previous sessions. This includes
their memories of what has happened, and fantasies and stories about the past.
(iv) There and Then: This largely refers to the
past history of group members - their life stories.
DISCOVER THE NATURE AND STRUCTURE OF THE GROUP
FIELD BY OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENTATION
Uncovering the structure of the actual
situation is a key task for the leader and the group together. Sometimes this
is done by observation, noticing something, perhaps making a comment, and
sometimes by an experiment, trying something out to see what happens. When we
do this, the underlying structure is often made more visible. A feature of
group life that was not in individual or group awareness suddenly becomes
figural.
The more we understand how this process of
exploration and discovery works, the more we can systematically endeavor to
make the field structure visible by exploration and experiment: ‘What will
happen if I/you/we….?” Some simple but relevant questions that group leaders
and members might ask themselves are:
· What, in general, seems possible or not
possible here and now?
· What can be done or not done?
· What can be said or can’t be said?
· What can be felt and what is rarely or never
felt?
· What do we know and what do we avoid knowing?
· What are the present enabling and restraining
forces around possible group events?
So even though several people are in a group
room together, their phenomenal experiences are all different. They will have
different perceptions, needs, desires and backgrounds. No two people will
experience the group process exactly the same, and sometimes perceptions will
vary very widely indeed. There is therefore no absolute objective 'truth' about
how the group really is. The best we can hope for is an inter-subjective,
negotiated view of what is going on which allows for multiple perspectives.
The implications of this for group processing
are profound. Even if we think that a situation is repeating itself, we must
recognise this is literally impossible. Every situation and every experience
is, if we consider it fully enough, unique, different to any which has preceded
it. This does not mean that there are not regularities, that one situation will
never resemble another, but that the resemblance is always partial and limited.
THE OBSERVER IS ALWAYS PART OF THE TOTAL
SITUATION AND AFFECTS EVERYBODY.
In groups we are all observers sometimes,
noticing things that happen or do not happen, aware of ourselves, others, the
group in the situation. And we are also subject of observation by others. We
act and are acted upon in turn.
This applies to the group leader as much as to
any other group member. The group leader has an important role to play in the
group, but he always remains part of the group field. The idea that the leader
is (or should be) a separate, objective figure who must somehow distance himself
from the other group members in order to study them does not fit with a field
theory perspective. No longer, in this relational universe, can we study
anything as separate from ourselves. Our acts of observation are part of the
process that brings forth the manifestation of what we are observing.
BEGIN
BY DESCRIBING PHENOMENA, RATHER THAN TRYING TO EXPLAIN THEM
If we take a phenomenological approach, then
several things become clear. The first is that our knowledge of the group comes
through the experience of all its members. Not just the group leader, but also
everyone who is in, and experiencing, the group has something to offer. there
is no single truth about what is happening in the group or about group process.
If several people have a similar experience, which they then interpret in a
similar way, then there will, to that extent, be a consensual reality, but it is
not ‘the truth’ of the situation.
Perhaps the group has a feeling of stuckness
that we cannot understand, until we realize that several people are feeling
angry with the leader but are not voicing this feeling. Once we realize that
this is happening, we have an ‘Aha!’ experience. So that’s what was going on!
Suddenly the energy rises, and people start to relate more freely…
BEGIN BY
DESCRIBING PHENOMENA, RATHER THAN TRYING TO EXPLAIN THEM
This theme encourages us to initially focus on
our immediate and concrete experience, and not to rush to explanations and
theories too quickly. Of course, we can
never escape theorising at a conscious or unconscious level entirely, but we
can learn to recognise the continuum between more concrete description at one
end, and more abstract theorising at the other. Once we appreciate this, we can
combine our observing and theorising more effectively.
CONCLUSION
The gestalt work with groups is not the only
way to describe and work with group process, and no way is ‘truer’ than any
other approaches. Whether you use the Gestalt approach described here, or
prefer some other, the approach you use is a means to an end, and the end is
helping you and group members to get greater understanding of the complex and
constantly changing facets of the overall group process.
READING LIST
John Harris [1995], 'Working with Large Groups
and Teams', Topics in Gestalt Therapy Vol 3 No 2
Malcolm Parlett [1991], 'Reflections on Field
Theory', British Gestalt Journal, Volume 1 No 2
Peter Philippson & John Bernard Harris
[1992], Gestalt: Working with Groups, Manchester Gestalt Centre
*Peter Philippson [1995], 'Why Shouldn't We
Interrupt?', Topics in Gestalt Therapy Vol 3 No 2
Ernesto Spinelli [1992] The Interpreted World:
An Introduction to Phenomenological Psychology, Sage Pubs 1989
Starak, Yaro (2012), Group Work Skills.
Shaw Martin The Branch From the Lightning Tree .White Cloud Press
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