Hello,
Below you will find an invitation to participate in a research project. The invitation is from Clara Hill, a well-known researcher at the University of Maryland who was one of the Mentors in Residence at the most recent Gestalt Therapy Research Conference held in Santiago, Chile.  It involves the construct of “therapist immediacy” and so would be relevant to gestalt practice. I include a paragraph defining “immediacy” so that you can recognize it in case you are not familiar with the term.  The paragraph comes from a meta-study on therapist self-disclosure and immediacy, and I can send that back channel to anyone who wants it.  First the paragraph and then the invitation. (Im=therapist immediacy)

Phil

Im can be defined as “a discussion of the therapeutic relationship by both the therapist and client in the here-and-now, involving more than social chitchat (e.g., ‘It’s nice to see you’)” (Hill, 2014) or “any discussion within the therapy session about the relationship between therapist and patient that occurs in the here-and-now, as well as any processing of what occurs in the here-and-now patient-therapist interaction” (Kuutmann & Hilsenroth, 2012). Im thus involves therapists talking about the therapy relationship in the present moment with the client, and includes asking about immediate feelings and thoughts (e.g., “How are you feeling talking about this with me?”), expressing immediate feelings (e.g., “I’m feeling annoyed that you are frequently late for sessions”), drawing parallels with other relationships (e.g., “You said no one seems to care about you. . . . I wonder if you feel that I don’t care about you?”), making the covert overt (e.g., “You seem so quiet. . . . I wonder how you feel about being here?”), acknowledging a breach in the relationship (e.g., “We seem to have reached an impasse”), and trying to repair ruptures (e.g., “I apologize for saying something offensive to you”). Intentions for Im include encouraging clients to express unstated feelings; attempting to negotiate, enhance, or repair the therapy relationship; and modeling appropriate ways to interact with others during conflict (Hill, 2014). Other terms that have been used to describe this construct are metacommunication, relational events, processing the therapy relationship, discussions about the here-and-now in the here-and-now, in vivo work, and present-focused
work.
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Hi Phil

I hope you're doing well amidst all this pandemic. We're doing a study on therapist immediacy and hoped you might be willing to complete a brief survey and also pass it along to your gestalt community.  Recruitment email follows.  We would be most appreciative.  Many thanks, Clara

We would like to invite you to participate in a study about barriers to using immediacy, a helping skill that can facilitate open and direct communication about the therapeutic relationship.
 
If you are a licensed therapist, or a graduate student trainee who has completed at least 1 practicum, in clinical or counseling psychology, social work, counseling, psychiatry, or a related mental health field, and are 18 years of age or older, you are eligible to participate in this study. You will be asked to complete measures regarding your attitudes toward using immediacy, measures of communication style, a measure about your theoretical orientation, and demographic items. It should take you 15 minutes to complete. This study has been approved by the University of Maryland IRB [IRB #1464216-2].
 
If you wish to proceed to the survey at this time, please click on the following link: https://umdsurvey.umd.edu/jfe/form/SV_bOrsYdOToKkO71r
 
Thank you for your consideration.

Clara E. Hill, PhD
Jon Mohr, PhD
Justin W. Hillman, Doctoral Student
Greta Jankauskaite, Doctoral Student
Judith A. Gerstenblith, Doctoral Student
Department of Psychology
University of Maryland, College Park, MD USA
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