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From: Woody
Date: 10/13/03
Time: 12:38:05 PM
Remote Name: 216.240.101.40
Hi Kristina:
"Talking to" an issue is a tried and true Gestalt technique with over 50 years of successful use. It arose in response to the psychoanalytic tendency to "talk about." If you have an issue with your mother, for example (and who doesn't), it would help resolve the issue to talk to her about it. But what if she had died? The Gestalt therapist would suggest that you talk to her anyway, imagining that she is present in the room. Then, having said your piece, the therapist would put you in her place and have you answer, until there is a kind of dialogue, all actually within you of course. This method was also used very successfully with psychosomatic disorders. Suppose you had a chronically sore back that was not due to physical problems. The Gestalt therapist might have you have such a dialog with your back, working from the assumption that you are unhappy with the way your back is, so that there is a split -- a dis-integration -- between you and your back. A dialogue with your back, as described above, can help to bring about a re-integration, i.e., get you and your back working together cooperatively once again.
It is the same with stuttering. Stutterers are often angry with their vocal tracts or some part of it that seems never to work the way it should. Or they are simply angry at, or ashamed of, their stuttering. In such a case, talking to the vocal tract or the stuttering can help to heal the split and re-integrate the stutterer with his or her vocal tract (or stuttering) which, is of course a part of the person. This can help to prevent the descent into self-loathing and/or shame that occurs so often, and it can also heal such a split when it already exists. The behavioral result is less struggle, forcing, and avoidance.
I hope this helps. It is not easy to explain such a concept in a limited number of words.
Woody