Empty-chair Dialogues Research Articles

Exploring the applicability of the "empty-chair dialogue" of Gestalt psychotherapy in school counseling

본 연구의 목적은 학교 상담에서 게슈탈트 심리치료의 대표적인 기법인 빈의자대화(empty-chair dialogue)의 적용 가능성을 탐색하는 데에 있다. 이를 위해 우선 빈의자대화의 치료원리 및 방법을 살펴보고, 다음으로 학교 상담에서 나타나는 문제를 해결하는 차원에서 빈의자대화의 적용 가능성을 탐색하였다. 본고에서 다룬 학생상담에서 빈의자대화를 적용할 수 있는 문제로는 중요한 대상의 상실로 인한 애도, 대인 관계적 갈등, 특정 타인 및 장면과 관련된 자기주장 및 행동 연습 등이다. 이러한 문제와 관련하여 빈의자대화의 적용 가능성을 논의하였다. 이어 빈의자대화를 통해 아동 및 청소년이 당면한 문제를 해결하는 과정에서 획득되는 교육적 효과와 적용상의 한계를 논의하였다. 끝으로 추후의 연구에 대해 제언하였다.

Delivering tele-chairwork: A qualitative survey of expert therapists

Objective: Recent years have seen a significant and rapid increase in the provision of tele-therapies. Chairwork methods such as empty-chair dialogues and role-play represent a “common” category of therapeutic interventions which are utilized in many psychotherapeutic approaches. However, guidelines for facilitating chairwork in tele-therapy are currently lacking. The aim of this study was to survey expert providers regarding how chairwork is best provided in internet-delivered psychotherapy. Method: Forty one experts were recruited from a range of therapeutic backgrounds including cognitive behaviour therapy, compassion focused therapy, emotion focused therapy, psychodrama, schema therapy, and voice dialogue. Participants completed a brief questionnaire survey exploring the delivery of tele-chairwork. Responses were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Five themes were identified: (i) divided opinion; (ii) convergence between therapy and home; (iii) disconnection and depth; (iv) practical impediments and benefits; and (v) revising and re-visioning chairwork. Overall, results indicate that chairwork can be successfully incorporated into tele-therapy, but requires adaption and special considerations. Discussion: Despite challenges, tele-chairwork appears to be a feasible method of psychotherapeutic intervention. Preliminary guidelines for initiating, facilitating, and concluding tele-chairwork are presented, alongside future directions for research.

Advantage of empty-chair dialogue over emotion-focused couples therapy for a Japanese couple with marital infidelity: A case study

Couples with marital infidelity have received many therapies, but the effective therapies for them were still unclear. The present case study utilized Emotion-Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT) and Empty-Chair Dialogue Intervention (ECDI) for a couple with marital infidelity and aimed to show advantages of ECDI over EFCT. Our case was a Japanese heterosexual couple with husband’s infidelity. The husband also had alcohol abuse and bipolar disorder, whereas the wife assaulted him physically. During the first 6 monthly sessions, they were peaceful but wife’s physical assault suddenly occurred and interrupted the therapy. During the next 5 monthly sessions, EFCT was applied for them, but his hypomanic episode and her physical assault disturbed their emotionally responsive communication during the sessions. During the last 5 biweekly sessions, ECDI was applied for the wife. She imaginary dialogued with the husband’s extramarital lovers, rather than the husband. During the ECDI sessions, she had been able to fall asleep during night and her physical assault on him had been disappeared. Even after the three-year follow up since the ECDI session, her physical assault and his marital infidelity had not occurred. Comparative advantages of ECDI over EFCT were discussed.

Advantageous Use of Hypnosis in a Case of Psychogenic Vomiting

This case study describes in detail the role of hypnosis in treatment of a case of psychogenic vomiting. The patient, a 60-yearold woman, had been suffering for 9 months from episodes of vomiting which resulted in weight loss, dehydration, and hypokalemia. She was a conscientious woman with high standards of behavior, which did not allow an expression of the extreme hostility she felt toward her daughter-in-law. Hypnotherapeutic sessions reduced her anxiety, restored her sleep, improved mood, and helped deepen rapport, all of which created the ideal setting for Gestalt’s empty chair technique. Integrating hypnosis greatly enhanced the quality of the empty chair dialogue, which by bringing about a shift in the patient’s emotions from hostility to sympathy, facilitated recovery.

Dialogical Exposure with Traumatically Bereaved Bosnian Women: Findings from a Controlled Trial.

In this trial, we compared the relative efficacy of dialogical exposure group treatment using Gestalt empty-chair method with a supportive group in the treatment of symptoms stemming from traumatic loss in a post-war society. One-hundred and nineteen women whose husbands were either killed or registered as missing during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina were quasi-randomized to seven sessions of group treatment with dialogical exposure or to an active control condition. Both interventions resulted in significant improvement from baseline to post-treatment for both kinds of loss, in terms of post-traumatic symptoms, general mental health and grief reactions, with the exception of depression and traumatic grief in the control condition. Regarding mean effect sizes (Cohen's d), pre-treatment to post-treatment improvements were moderate (d = 0.56) for the dialogical exposure group and small (d = 0.34) for the supportive group. Treatment gains were maintained at least until the 1-year follow-up. In controlled comparisons, dialogical exposure was superior concerning traumatic grief (Cohen's d = 0.37) and post-traumatic avoidance (d = 0.73) at post-treatment. Results show that short-term dialogical exposure group treatment was moderately effective in treating traumatically bereaved women. Research attests to high levels of symptoms among post-war civil populations, in particular, when a loved one was killed, which can lead not only to trauma reactions but also to severe separation distress. Grieving the loss of a loved one is hampered if the death remains unconfirmed. Unconfirmed loss could be conceptualized as unfinished business in terms of Gestalt therapy, which offers empty-chair dialogue for resolving unfinished business and grief. Dialogical exposure therapy (DET) supports the client in gaining awareness of and expressing his or her inner dialogues concerning the traumatic event, using Gestalt empty-chair method. Short-term DET was effective in treating traumatically bereaved women but showed little additional effects in comparison with a supportive group treatment, so further research is warranted.

The stages of change during empty-chair dialogues in Gestalt Therapy

The stages of change during empty-chair dialogues in Gestalt Therapy

The curative factors that client’s perceive as having changed during effective empty-chair dialogues in Gestalt Therapy

The curative factors that client’s perceive as having changed during effective empty-chair dialogues in Gestalt Therapy

Differential effects of emotion-focused therapy and psychoeducation in facilitating forgiveness and letting go of emotional injuries.

This study compared the effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy (EFT) involving gestalt empty-chair dialogue in the treatment of individuals who were emotionally injured by a significant other with therapy in a psychoeducation group designed to deal with these injuries. In addition, this study examined aspects of the emotional process of forgiveness in resolving interpersonal injuries and investigated the relationship between letting go of distressing feelings and forgiveness. A total of 46 clients assessed as having unresolved, interpersonal, emotional injuries were randomly assigned to an individual therapy treatment of EFT or a psychoeducation group. Clients were assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up on measures of forgiveness, letting go, depression, global symptoms, and key target complaints. Results indicated that clients in EFT using empty-chair dialogue showed significantly more improvement than the psychoeducation treatment on all measures of forgiveness and letting go, as well as global symptoms and key target complaints.

Resolving unfinished business: Relating process to outcome.

This study related the process of the resolution of unfinished business with a significant other to therapeutic outcome in a population of 26 clients who suffered from various forms of interpersonal problems and childhood maltreatment. Clients were treated in emotion-focused, experiential therapy with gestalt empty-chair dialogues. Those clients who expressed previously unmet interpersonal needs to the significant other, and manifested a shift in their view of the other, had significantly better treatment outcomes. The presence of the specific process of resolution in the clients' empty-chair dialogues was also found to be a better predictor of outcome than the working alliance. Degree of emotional arousal was found to discriminate between resolvers and nonresolvers.

Gestalt Empty-Chair Dialogue Versus Systematic Desensitization in the Treatment of a Phobia

Abstract Twenty-three introductory psychology students at a state university were selected as snake-phobic subjects on the basis of subjective and objective criteria and randomly assigned to one of three groups: Gestalt empty-chair dialogue, systematic desensitization, and no therapy. Following treatment, measures were taken of subjects' avoidance behavior and their subjective experience. Both empty-chair dialogue subjects and desensitization subjects showed significant improvement on the objective measures, as compared to the no therapy control group. No other group differences were found. The authors concluded that the present study is evidence for the efficacy of the Gestalt empty-chair dialogue in the treatment of simple phobia.

Resolving "unfinished business": Efficacy of experiential therapy using empty-chair dialogue.

Resolving "unfinished business": Efficacy of experiential therapy using empty-chair dialogue.