hysical state, emotions, thoughts and feelings. In the fourth session we ran out of time and I didn’t get a turn as therapist. But, I was able to watch and learn from my classmates as they were introduced and guided through stage 4 (the integration stage). While I had always been aware of the changes that took place in the client as he/she progressed through the stages, I was so enthralled in learning the technique of the therapy tat I had focused most of my attention on the therapist’s chair. I found myself concentrating mostly on the clients during this session. I clearly saw how each client responded in the various stages of Gestalt and how the whole process unfolded. Those students who were not afraid to be open and expressive specifically moved me. I was also intrigued at how effortless it seemed to employ the two chairs with these clients and how they automatically took on the appropriate posture and behavior of each chair. The fifth session was where I was able to implement all four stages in Gestalt therapy for the first time. I tended to rely a little to heavily on the facilitator to help me through the stages partly because I didn’t yet trust my ability and also I hadn’t been able to rid myself of the nervousness I experienced when being observed. At the end of the session the facilitator assured me that I was doing fine and would probably only need one more practice session to hone my skills. The next class meeting was devoted to a Gestalt workshop for those of us who had not worked with a guest yet. The workshop was designed to explore probable scenarios and to supply us with general guidelines for working with a guest. One of the more important things I got from the workshop was how to work with a resistant client, or a client who feels silly doing some of the experiments. This information would prove useful when I did work with a guest. After the workshop I had one more pra...
