When to use Chair Therapy

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on February 27, 2010 at 10:16pm

Only if the chair is exhibiting signs of reliving some passted trauma. Sometimes two chairs at once...

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Permalink Reply by John Cleesattel on February 28, 2010 at 4:29am

Cindy,
I don't think that many are familiar with the technique of "chair" therapy. I know I am not. Would you educate us please :)

John

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Permalink Reply by John Maclean on February 28, 2010 at 5:20am

Chair therapy is a part of Gestalt therapy and is similar in some ways to Parts Therapy.

Empty chair technique

When you go see a Gestalt therapist, the office will usually have an extra chair--an empty chair. This chair serves an important function. The "Empty Chair" technique is one of the various ways in which Gestalt Therapy can be applied which is developed and popularized by Frederick "Fritz" Pearls.

Rationale - When the client expresses a conflict with another person, through this technique, the client is directed to talk to that another person who is imagined to be sitting in an empty chair beside or across the client. This helps the client to experience and understand the feeling more fully. Thus, it stimulates your thinking, highlighting your emotions and attitudes. For example, the therapist may say, "Imagine your father in this chair (about 3 feet away), see him vividly, and, now, talk to him about how you felt when he was unfaithful to your mother." There are innumerable other people, objects (your car or wedding ring), parts of your personality (critical parent, natural child, introversion, obsession with work), any of your emotions, symptoms (headaches, fatigue), any aspect of a dream, a stereotype (blacks, macho males, independent women), and so on that you can imagine in the empty chair. The key is a long, detailed, emotional interaction--a conversation. You should shift back and forth between chairs as you also speak for the person-trait-object in the other chair. This "conversation" clarifies your feelings and reactions to the other person and may increase your understanding of the other person. (Changing Minds.org)

This method can be successfully used as an adjunct to hypnotherapy. You can have an actual empty chair in the room or under hypnosis suggest that the client visualises a chair and places the person in question in the chair.

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Permalink Reply by John Cleesattel on February 28, 2010 at 5:23am

Thanks! I understand now and see how that might be an effective tool. I can also see the similarity to parts therapy, albeit a different focus.

John

John Maclean said:

Chair therapy is a part of Gestalt therapy and is similar in some ways to Parts Therapy.

Empty chair technique

When you go see a Gestalt therapist, the office will usually have an extra chair--an empty chair. This chair serves an important function. The "Empty Chair" technique is one of the various ways in which Gestalt Therapy can be applied which is developed and popularized by Frederick "Fritz" Pearls.

Rationale - When the client expresses a conflict with another person, through this technique, the client is directed to talk to that another person who is imagined to be sitting in an empty chair beside or across the client. This helps the client to experience and understand the feeling more fully. Thus, it stimulates your thinking, highlighting your emotions and attitudes. For example, the therapist may say, "Imagine your father in this chair (about 3 feet away), see him vividly, and, now, talk to him about how you felt when he was unfaithful to your mother." There are innumerable other people, objects (your car or wedding ring), parts of your personality (critical parent, natural child, introversion, obsession with work), any of your emotions, symptoms (headaches, fatigue), any aspect of a dream, a stereotype (blacks, macho males, independent women), and so on that you can imagine in the empty chair. The key is a long, detailed, emotional interaction--a conversation. You should shift back and forth between chairs as you also speak for the person-trait-object in the other chair. This "conversation" clarifies your feelings and reactions to the other person and may increase your understanding of the other person. (Chnging Minds.org)

This method can be successfully used as an adjunct to hypnotherapy. You can have an actual empty chair in the romm or under hypnosis suggest that the client visualises a chair and places the person in question in the chair.

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Permalink Reply by Kelley Woods on February 28, 2010 at 8:18am

Hi CIndy,

I have successfully used Chair Therapy with grief issues. Allowing a client to speak freely with a lost one is extremely healing. Like John M. states, having the client "switch chairs" can let the deceased persona tell the client that they didn't leave by choice, that they didn't want to go, etc. It also allows for forgiveness from both parties.

I have used it in cases of miscarriage or abortion with wonderful results.

Another great application of this technique is to let the client connect with their younger self so, while it may have regressive components, it eliminates going to any grievous events and allows opportunity to reframe perceptions and attitudes from the past. Conversely, one can visit and observe their future selves, too, getting insight, motivation and building belief through this perspective.

As you can see, Chair Therapy is plastic, just like our work!

Best wishes,

Kelley

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Permalink Reply by Randy Shaw on February 28, 2010 at 9:24am

Yes I like Kelley's fluid application of "chair" therapy, because I've found that when a person is focused into their emotional mind there is bypass of the critical faculty and many things that need healing can be available.

Even like above, as Kelley utilizes it with grief issues, if you think about it - this is regression but you don't have to announce it. Where is the grief coming from? A past event.

I believe that the contents of the Subconscious mind, the "mind" itself is 4 dimensional, where there are no time and space restrictions, and once we help a client use imagination or emotion they bypass the limited thinking mind and everything is available, and my emphasis is on those experiences that are unresolved - not just traumatic.

With grief for example, I've found some folks are holding onto the grief with the mistaken belief and fear that to let go the grief, is to loose contact with the loved one. But once I help the person release the grief, and resolve any unresolved feelings and experiences about the loved one, then there is ROOM for the feelings of love, etc. There is no room for love, if grief and fear fill the body.

The first time I underwent chair therapy I was working with Gil Boyne, and I was blown away that as I was getting "stuff" off my chest talking to my mother, he tapped my on my head and told me to be my mother and talk to her son --- thoughts and words came out of me FROM HER POINT OF VIEW which I had known all along but could not accept because of the pains of so many things she had "done" to me. Later I realized that I had so much more empathy for my mother and understood her feelings incredibly more, that forgiveness was easy and very comforting. I also realized that what Gil helped me accomplish in just one session, would have taken years in traditional psychotherapy, if even that amount of time.

One of the things I noticed, and this is before I focused in on regression work myself, is that during the "chair therapy" I was going back to --Regressing--- experiences with my mother where healing needed to be done. The Regression was spontaneous, and this is because the feelings I was carrying about my mother came from specific experiences, and since the subconscious mind works by association and emotion it took me back into the causing experiences of my adult pains, to finally let go the emotions.

The great thing is that once we finally let go the stored and trapped emotion the perception in the SM changes - can change - and will respond to reframing and direct suggestion with incredibly increased compliance.

So whether we call it regression or not, once in the SM - where emotions rule and those emotions are connected to past events -doing chair therapy provides the client's subconscious mind with an opportunity to "get the junk up and out, to be seen, respected and released."

The greatest value in releasing the emotions, whether in the now or in regressed to events is it always provides some insight that allows the client to improve thinking and behavior, and increases clarity and empathy, and to move forward in some way that was not possible before as the emotion/negative feeling was too strong.

I like to use the kitchen table a lot, it provides a safe distance for the client and sometimes the client is so emotional we don't need a chair or table, they are IN THE EVENT and are revivifying it to FINALLY get out everything that was trapped in the first time the event occurred.

I've found that regression occurs spontaneously in chair therapy, but there may be no reason to point that out, because the goal is????

The goal usually is to help the client facilitate a breakthrough, an improvement. As I think back, I've never encouraged or told a client to stay completely in the now when doing chair therapy, as I knew that when they brought up past events, those events needed attention, respect and releasing.

So, back to Cindy's question: no we don't HAVE to include regression, but why restrict the healing potential by having the client only stay in the now, when the problems are from the past and their SM is spontaneously "reminding them" about where the feeling and perception came from and gives us an opportunity to finally resolve it.?

Best to you,
Randy Shaw

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on February 28, 2010 at 2:54pm

I recommend searching out what R. Bandler has on the subject... Chair Therapy (tm) is an interesting contrivance. Power to your people.

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Permalink Reply by CindyLou on February 28, 2010 at 6:51pm

Thanks everyone. I can see that chair therapy is most beneficial under hypnosis.

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