EMERGE COUNSELING & CONSULTING

Retroflection is the last contact form left to be discussed in my recent series of blogs on this subject. In many ways, Retroflection is one of the most common contact forms I see in my office because it's a process that can help shape depression. It's a process that says "hold back and stuff it down", or in other words "depress it", rather than share something that's meant to be shared. The energy meant for the environment is sucked in and trapped in the organism rather tha

The specific contact forms of Projection and Deflection seem to get more air time in pop-culture and movies ("You're projecting!", "Stop deflecting"). I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because they tend to be more obvious, dynamically, such as disproportional energy toward someone (projection) or no energy at all even when confronted (deflection). I say "perhaps" because without knowing the specific context, it's not clear what contact form is happening. And that form may be

In my previous blog I discussed the Contact Cycle, mentioning how disturbances to the cycle can take different forms other than contact. These disturbances are called confluence, introjection, projection, retroflection, and deflection. Here, I'll discuss the specific contact forms of confluence and introjection, once again referencing Hanne Hostrup and her book, "Gestalt Therapy: An Introduction to the Basic Concepts of Gestalt Therapy". This book does an exceptional job ex

Attuning to, following, and understanding "contact" is probably the most important figure for a gestalt therapist to track. Contact is considered a process, often described most basically as a cycle from no contact, to fore-contact, then full contact, and ending in post-contact. The language of gestalt, in general, does not assume "disfunction", instead it assumes there are important reasons for the ways we adapt. Hence, this cycle is considered a connect-and-withdrawal pr

As a gestalt therapist, I work from a here-and-now perspective with contact awareness. "Contact", in gestalt phenomenology, is described by one of my favorite contemporary gestalt writers, Hanne Hostrup, in the following way: "Organism and environment are interdependent. This interdependence is called contact." My mentors, Bob and Rita Resnick, often describe this interdependence as "what's in the room" or "what's fresh", and that can be with the client, with me, the space