Dear Chuck,

(Sylvia) I'm kind of at a loss about what to write to you, since I often feel
unheard when I read your responses.  For example, I said I completely agree
with Todd's comments on experiments, yet what he says is never taught or
modeled in GATLA's training.  I have certainly never seen Todd do an
experiment.  Yet you write  "I want to be clear that I am not saying this is
the "GATLA way".  I really  liked Todd's complete description of
experimentation and its use."  --as if this is the way GATLA does it in
contrast to what I've been describing about experiments and asserting about
GATLA's approach to GT.  I makes me think that you haven't read what I've
said, or haven't taken it in.
    Similarly with the relationship.  The relationship is not the only thing
that happens in therapy; it is certainly not a complete and sufficient
condition for healing/growth.  You don't expect the client and therapist to
sit together in a kind of Zen meditation, saying nothing.  What does the
therapist say, what does he/she pay attention to and not?  What the therapist
says and does which is facilitative is based on the theory he/she holds
(either vaguely or with real learning), how he/she helps the client to become
more aware, to discover sources of self support and courage, to take risks
with new behaviors, etc. etc--all of these are methods of intervention, based
on theory.
    My opinion is that Gestalt therapy has as its central focus CONTACT
because this is life's central task, and we are concerned above with the
client's LIVING.  Every organism must have the kinds of contact with
others--environmental and personal--which permit it to survive, as well as
the kinds of contact with self and others which permit him/her/it to grow to
maturity and to some kind of fulfillment.  In therapy everything we do has as
its aim to increase the liveliness, clarity, appropriateness and fruitfulness
of the contact the client with his/her own self, with the therapist, with
other significant people, and which issues in effective actions through time
and circumstances.  The question for the therapist is, what methods can I use
to help the client have more satisfying and fulfilling contact with self and
other, in ways which will affect his/her living?  The relationship is of
primary--but not sole--importance.  The therapeutic processes which go on
within the safe surround of the therapeutic relationship are the focus of my
concern. And because what we actually do in relation to our clients is
grounded in what we believe to be true about human beings and about human
change, and what is effective in achieving vital contact, it is important to
be clear about the theory one embraces.  That is why I keep harping on the
value of holism, since without a clear embrace of the holism of human life
some important forms of contact will be ignored, and the therapy will be less
effective to that extent.
    Awareness is important, but in my opinion it is not an end in itself.
Its goal is to increase the clarity and vividness of the person's contact
with him-/herself and others--and that ultimately means the person will begin
to cope with the circumstances of his/her life and behavior therein in much
healthier and more satisfying ways.
This means, also, that the person does not try to rely solely on
self-support, but is also willing and able appropriately to seek out sources
of support from others.  We are, after, social beings, and this brings with
it both the need to be aware of others' rights and needs, and the necessity
of asking for help in certain circumstances.
By the way, I have no clue where the following quotation you give is from or
who wrote it.  "THAT TOOL IS SELF SUPPORT" is certainly from a bygone era in
Gestalt, so it must not be from a current work.

(Chuck) I keep saying this.  So now I will let someone else say it.  Maybe
his words
 are clearer then mine.  " The Goal of therapy, then, must be to give him the
 means with which he can solve his present problems and any that may arise
 tomorrow or next year. THAT TOOL IS SELF SUPPORT...We ask our patient...to
 re-experience their problems and their traumas--which are their unfinished
 situations in the present--in the here and now...In, addition...the gestalt
 technique demands of the patient that he experience as much of himself that
 he can...in the here and now...We know that the more he becomes aware of
 himself, the more he will learn about what his self is(PTC) Through making
 our patient aware, in the here and now, by concentration, of what these
 interruptions are, of how these interruptions affect them, we can
 bring(facilitate) them to real integration.

(Chuck) In PHG it talks about sitting and being in the present moment.  The
 homeostatic process of the organism will bring to the foreground the most
 pressing needs; and/or unfinished situations("that need which presses most
 sharply for satisfaction") for support and satisfaction, This is the process
 of self regulation.

(Sylvia)  The therapist does not just sit there but has some skills to
facilitate the process of self discovery (self-contact) and relating with the
therapist.

(Chuck) How Fritz facilitated(relationship) awareness was his competence.

((Sylvia) It is inaccurate to equate "facilitated" with "relationship" in
Fritz's work.  He used experiments extensively, and focused much less on the
relationship  The following statement is a distortion of Fritz's work as well
as his theory.

(Chuck) The theory he formulated is the same, to me; it is how we each
 facilitate(relate), that describes our brand of GT and our competency.  The
 relationship is what creates the space for awareness to happen. This is
 where I have a problem with what Sylvia is saying.  Somehow because GATLA
 faculty teach a method that has less experimentation...this does not address
 the effectiveness of facilitating awareness in clients, TO ME.

(Sylvia)  Facilitating is more than simply being-there.  Relating
therapeutically involves knowing something about what to do, say, ask the
client, propose, etc.  Fritz was an experimentor par excellance.
Experimentation is not the only way to increase awareness and improve
contact, but it is a major way Gestalt therapists have found, especially to
get at those personal truths which are buried in the body and which are
censored when a person sticks to a straight narrative ABOUT others and
situations.  And it has been part of the Gestalt approach from the beginning.
 Don't take my word for it; read the material in the first chapters of PHG
(1951). (or re-read my first post on experimentation) Gestalt was never
established as a talking cure; experimentation was one of the major ways
which makes it an experiential approach.

Sylvia