Discussions on Gestalt Experimentation

Gestalt Marathon’s DREAM PROCESSING viz EXPERIMENTATION: an interpretation

Introduction:
In Gestalt Marathon the processing of dream is the culmination of all small group processing and its importance cannot be emphasized more since it is in this processing that a client’s awareness of his being is at its highest. Dream processing is the core effort that the marathon’s success relies upon. Facilitators shall exhaust all means to provide necessary gestalt facilitation. Readily available in a facilitator’s disposal is the most important process tool in dream processing, which is, experimentation. It is for this reason the undersigned humbly ventures into it with this interpretation.
This interpretation rests in a belief that educating the clients about the mechanics of experimentation is as important as the group process itself. No individual will open himself to awareness if he doesn’t understand why he is doing such things.

An interpretation and application of the process of experimentation in processing dreams:

The purpose of experimentation is to presentize past events of a person’s life or a dream in order to heightened awareness.
There are two things to consider during experimentation. First is INFORMED CONSENT in which facilitators shall explain to clients that a particular scenario found within the dream or the whole dream itself will be acted out for the purposes of eliciting awareness. Facilitators should explain the importance of presentizing past events in the context that past events which were mostly threatening or traumatic are repressed in subconscious. Presentizing it would help the facilitator and client discover repressed emotions relevant to the event, if there is any. Primarily important is the client’s willingness to explore possibilities. A mutual trust and confidence built between facilitators and clients is instrumental in delivering awareness wherein a possible experience of satori will likely to happen by the client or both client and facilitator themselves. This educating portion can be done before the BIG group by the lead facilitator.
Second is gradualism. The essence of experimentation is to heightened awareness through exaggeration and/or creating an absence of something. Should the facilitator decide to exaggerate an event; he should do it in manner that is gradual especially if it is threatening or traumatic in nature. Gradualism comes in two forms, (1) increasing and (2) declining. Increasing gradualism means from zero stimulation to heightened stimulation while declining gradualism means that most heightened stimulation is presented first then slowly regressed into lesser stimulation to no stimulation at all. Most importantly, the facilitator should be able to create a non-threatening atmosphere designed to elicit openness from the client to explore those repressed events.
Likewise, it is of gestalt premise that every aspect of the dream is representative of the person himself; hence, it is important to explore polarities through the use of empty-chair technique or shuttling. After having been able to put into awareness a person’s polarities, it is imperative to create an integration of all aspects of the person’s being. Like for example, he can hate and at the same time love a person. The primary focus in this processing is the person himself since it is presumed that issues with the other persons have already been dealt with during the processing of rosebush, stream, diver, and/or antique shop techniques.
Moreover, during experimentation, facilitators should not and will not try to inflict physical pain to a client no matter how little it is. Inflicting physical pain could provoke clients and may likely create a scenario that may be difficult to handle by the facilitators and would undermine the general process objective of the gestalt marathon. Most often than not, clients have more than enough pain in them, what they need is an avenue for expression. Although, this interpretation does not categorically state that inflicting physical pain is wrong. Used in little amount and with careful handling, it could be of very good use but for the purposes of safety for both client and facilitator, it is being discouraged.
It shall not be forgotten also that every time a client is push to shove or being frustrated and agitated, it is the duty of the facilitator to see to it that it will not do harm than good to the client’s being. This is the most crucial part that facilitator should contemplate upon ourselves; that is, knowing when to frustrate and agitate and when to give support and tender care. A person is very fragile that a facilitator’s mistake could make or break his client’s being.
It is my impression that facilitators are most often prone to yield in agitate-frustrate facilitating technique where clients are belittled, asked to scream and swear, etc. There is nothing wrong in it as long as it is calibrated to elicit self-support and handled properly. When agitating, support mechanism should be readily available for facilitator’s disposal any time the client needs it. Such support mechanism would vary from simple making the rounds (fingers out technique) to various emotional and/or psychological support given through the likes of hugs, assurance, attention, and etc. Yet, it is the duty of the facilitator to make sure that all support mechanisms (appreciations, etc.) are genuinely meant and regulated in accordance to the general objective of the marathon. The unregulated excess of such support mechanism could very well undermine the marathon especially if it will defeat the purpose of bringing self-support to clients. Foremost known to many, bringing about self-support relies heavily in agitation-frustration techniques. As GGG himself once said, “sometimes, the best way to be kind to a person is to be cruel to him”.
There are times that facilitators overlooked the equally important component in XPR which is the client’s innate need not to hold on to destructive emotions such as anger, hate, rage, etc. Contingent upon our basic goodness is our need to grow and to survive which make it safe to say, that human being, given the right recourse does not need long exposure to anger, hate, rage, etc. XPR without yielding awareness is dangerous and may be destructive since the client’s emotions were heightened and the absence of awareness could result to reinforce his fixation over that destructive emotions. Making sure that awareness would be elicited in XPR is the utilization of GRD where DEMAND should be maximized. That the client upon full utilization of XPR shall demand upon himself that being destructive is not what he innately is. Awareness of our potentials to hate, and any negative emotions as defined by society is as good as our awareness to our potential to love, and all positive emotions as defined by the society. In any case, fixation to any of these potentials is not healthy.
It shall be noted also that emotional atmosphere level of the clients must be in accordance to the process flow set by the lead facilitator. That is to say, every small group processing has its own unique desired emotional reaction level. Especially before EE’s, emotional level of all clients must be tamed so as to deliver a good collective emotional expression. This collective emotional expression is one of the most effective therapeutic tool we can derived from group dynamics implored in gestalt marathon. The presence of other individual who similarly feels as what the client is feeling makes a good source of cathartic flow within his own system.
Although, it is also important that during small group processing, no unfinished business that surfaced into consciousness shall be left without closure. Again, there lies a great deal of responsibility in the facilitator’s shoulder which is to process the client full-string during small group process and at the same time contain and tame the over-all emotional level of all clients in accordance to the marathon’s flow. Never the less, if closure is not feasible, the best that a facilitator could do is to try to bring closure into the client’s awareness, and if not, perhaps the fact that it cannot be closed is closure already.
Needless to say, Gestalt Therapy is client-based and non-issue directed therapy where individual processing should not be directed by the facilitator, clients should be given full discretion upon their individual awareness as to how they would react in a particular processing activity. Mindful that a client might engage in GAMES it is also the duty of a facilitator to set parameters so as to achieve maximum effect of the marathon as a whole. When supposed client’s unfinished business presents before him; being a facilitator he should be able to set parameters in order to create an avenue for awareness and growth for the client.
In general, facilitating experimentation shall utilize all available gestalt processing technique such as good grounding in identification, semantics, reversals, GRD, empty-chair technique for polarities, and integration. It is my understanding also that not all aspect of the presentized event or dream shall be acted out, only those important and relevant ones.
Let it not be forgotten also that gestalt marathon is a group therapy that takes its strength upon the mechanics of group dynamics, let alone the presence of genuine individuals among the group is therapeutically cathartic. Thus, in all means applicable, use the group in every experimentation.