I always love and share your descriptions of various therapies- and now this one! This one warms my heart because at almost 72, about to scale down my practice over the coming year, i look back over my career and feel fortunate to have had the chance to learn from such folks, and to have followed my early gut feeling that we need in therapy to work within the experiencing moments; Gendlin’s tuning in to the body-mind communication, Rogers’ unconditional positive regard, attachment and Johnson’s Emotion Focused Therapy, internal family therapy, EMDR, Coherence Therapy (Bruce Ecker started out at Esalen and brings such tender presence to such an elegant neurological research based therapy, CT)! You mention the counterpoint to experiential therapies, CBT, which has been mainstream- (i hope it won’t prevail) - the path CBT took left me sort of cold. But I want to share a little story- because you are a teacher and historian of our profession; as a grad student I got to attend just a 1 day workshop by Aaron Beck, the father of CBT, and while his protégé Christine C-- (Courtois?) was that day smoothly descriptive of a rather mechanistic sounding (at least to me) approach to behavior management 🤢, Dr Beck was conveying something deeper, more sensitive- he shared a video of a session in which he was so genuinely and warmly present and with the young man… and he pauses the video and says to us- “and There we hit the hot emotion!”. It electrified me in the same way that Sue Johnson and Bruce Ecker later would; it wasn’t “just” any emotion, it was tied to a core belief/meaning internally that drove engagement with one’s life. I felt from that day that all his CBT protégés were somehow missing the heart of what he was going for, which felt like he was midwifing this young man’s connection with his alive-experiencing self; a harbinger of these experiential therapies to come- which are richly, viscerally meaningful and satisfying and shifting to clients, and has everything to do with love, belonging, safety, self-in-relationship to one’s world. This is just a footnote of appreciation to a perhaps unlikely experiential therapy inspiration of mine. All in all, so much beautiful convergence from so many wonderful people toward such wonderfully valuable experiential therapies that feel so respectful and honoring of our clients, in the process of working together. It’s hard to bring myself to taper back my practice now, but time is quickening, and other joys beckon. It remains to be seen whether i will close the practice completely or keep a day or two ongoing. So grateful and glad of voices and teachers like you, giving valuable guidance for the future of our field!
Oh, what deep and rich reflections! Thank you! And thanks for sharing the story about Beck. That is so good to know. I recently learned that Beck explored an idea he called 'modes' that sound a whole lot like parts...and I wonder if this was another example of the students just not grabbing it, or seeing the richness there (but rather sticking to the 'linear model' that thoughts can feelings). Because I think he was pointing toward schemas / parts...which are much more emotionally impactful than just conscious thoughts. In any case, good to know that he had real heart when he was working. I assume you've seen my series on coherence therapy? Bruce is near and dear to my heart. Although I wish I could have had the chance to know someone like Gendlin. So many masters out there! ;)
Thanks. Your vidéo are really great and allow for non psychotherapist to understand what we found so far. I think a summary of these findings could be highly valuable for leadership training and leader coaching to allow them to understand how their behaviors and the environment culture affect how people are living things and the ripple effect on the group.
I LOVE Hakomi! Ron Kurtz was a really important figure during the beginning of the experiential therapy movement (and apparently was even thinking about memory reconsolidation before he passed away, which is really cool!). I love watching videos of his work, and his ability to enter into the inner world in a clear and compassionate way. Thanks for asking! ;)
Whoa - "buried" in here in the middle of this series - seriously valuable and impactful explanations. THANK YOU. So powerful.
Mam I know y u r gold.....the 3 hr analysis of ur parents
I always love and share your descriptions of various therapies- and now this one!
This one warms my heart because at almost 72, about to scale down my practice over the coming year, i look back over my career and feel fortunate to have had the chance to learn from such folks, and to have followed my early gut feeling that we need in therapy to work within the experiencing moments; Gendlin’s tuning in to the body-mind communication, Rogers’ unconditional positive regard, attachment and Johnson’s Emotion Focused Therapy, internal family therapy, EMDR, Coherence Therapy (Bruce Ecker started out at Esalen and brings such tender presence to such an elegant neurological research based therapy, CT)! You mention the counterpoint to experiential therapies, CBT, which has been mainstream- (i hope it won’t prevail) - the path CBT took left me sort of cold. But I want to share a little story- because you are a teacher and historian of our profession; as a grad student I got to attend just a 1 day workshop by Aaron Beck, the father of CBT, and while his protégé Christine C-- (Courtois?) was that day smoothly descriptive of a rather mechanistic sounding (at least to me) approach to behavior management 🤢, Dr Beck was conveying something deeper, more sensitive- he shared a video of a session in which he was so genuinely and warmly present and with the young man… and he pauses the video and says to us- “and There we hit the hot emotion!”. It electrified me in the same way that Sue Johnson and Bruce Ecker later would; it wasn’t “just” any emotion, it was tied to a core belief/meaning internally that drove engagement with one’s life. I felt from that day that all his CBT protégés were somehow missing the heart of what he was going for, which felt like he was midwifing this young man’s connection with his alive-experiencing self; a harbinger of these experiential therapies to come- which are richly, viscerally meaningful and satisfying and shifting to clients, and has everything to do with love, belonging, safety, self-in-relationship to one’s world. This is just a footnote of appreciation to a perhaps unlikely experiential therapy inspiration of mine.
All in all, so much beautiful convergence from so many wonderful people toward such wonderfully valuable experiential therapies that feel so respectful and honoring of our clients, in the process of working together. It’s hard to bring myself to taper back my practice now, but time is quickening, and other joys beckon. It remains to be seen whether i will close the practice completely or keep a day or two ongoing.
So grateful and glad of voices and teachers like you, giving valuable guidance for the future of our field!
Oh, what deep and rich reflections! Thank you! And thanks for sharing the story about Beck. That is so good to know. I recently learned that Beck explored an idea he called 'modes' that sound a whole lot like parts...and I wonder if this was another example of the students just not grabbing it, or seeing the richness there (but rather sticking to the 'linear model' that thoughts can feelings). Because I think he was pointing toward schemas / parts...which are much more emotionally impactful than just conscious thoughts. In any case, good to know that he had real heart when he was working. I assume you've seen my series on coherence therapy? Bruce is near and dear to my heart. Although I wish I could have had the chance to know someone like Gendlin. So many masters out there! ;)
So inspiring
Thank you so much
I’m really loving this series ❤
I really enjoy your videos. Thank you!
Thanks. Your vidéo are really great and allow for non psychotherapist to understand what we found so far. I think a summary of these findings could be highly valuable for leadership training and leader coaching to allow them to understand how their behaviors and the environment culture affect how people are living things and the ripple effect on the group.
Yeah, that's an interesting idea! And also, thanks for the kind words! ;)
Thank you Tori. What do you think about Gestalt in comparison to experiential therapies?
❤❤❤
Classical psychoanalysis is so associated with "Frasier" types.
It’s a great money grab! 😂😂
I don't think I get your point here ...
I’ve heard Skinner did think of thoughts as behaviours, what is now known as radical behaviourism.
Hi. How does ACT fit in this story? Is it old or also experiental?
What do you think about hakomi?
I LOVE Hakomi! Ron Kurtz was a really important figure during the beginning of the experiential therapy movement (and apparently was even thinking about memory reconsolidation before he passed away, which is really cool!). I love watching videos of his work, and his ability to enter into the inner world in a clear and compassionate way. Thanks for asking! ;)