This video depicts renowned therapist and teacher Erving Polster artfully and adeptly plying his trade with Gerald, the type of client we have all struggled with: bright, cynical, emotionally detached, overly-intellectual, and seemingly determined to defeat this therapist as he has previous ones.
Full Description:
This video depicts renowned therapist and teacher Erving Polster artfully and adeptly plying his trade with Gerald, the type of client we have all struggled with: bright, cynical, emotionally detached, overly-intellectual, and seemingly determined to defeat this therapist as he has previous ones. Polster summarizes his approach: "Obvious therapeutic techniques will alienate him. Instead I'll try to stay in close contact with him, more like a savvy uncle than a therapist, meeting and matching him with sarcasm, humor, confrontation, and common sense. Everything I say will be as close to the truth and responsive to our interchanges as possible."
In numerous vignettes over the course of treatment, we watch Polster continuously engage him in here-and-now interactions, matching wits, joining him with humor, and challenging his defenses with a delicate balance of confrontation and empathy. Erving and Miriam Polster provide illuminating commentary, sharing with the viewers mature wisdom garnered from a lifetime of practicing therapy and training thousands of therapists. It is hard to imagine any therapist who will not benefit from the viewing of this video.
Erving Polster, PhD is the Director of The Gestalt Institute of San Diego, and the author of several important books, including Gestalt Therapy Integrated, Every Person's Life is Worth a Novel, and From the Radical Center: The Heart of Gestalt Therapy, as well as dozens of articles and chapters.
"Thanks for your super quick reply! I love that video. I think it's the best individual therapy demonstration I have seen." Nick Gazzola - PhD, Coordinator, Educational Counselling University of Ottawa, Canada
"This powerfully dramatizes an effective approach to therapy with a highly resistant, intellectualized client. Consisting of vibrant, even humorous exchanges, this video will be helpful to therapists of a variety of theoretical orientations" Todd Corywell - Ph.D. Psychologist, Seattle, Washington
"Polster's video was riveting, leading to considerable class discussion. The encounter between therapist and client was often provocative and encouraged much lively class discussion and debate. As such, the video was particularly instructive and covered a broad range of sessions that allowed the viewer to witness client-therapist change and growth over time." Tom Mabee - PhD Adjunct Graduate Psychology Faculty Nova Southeastern University, Florida
"This video is a marvelous teaching instrument for demonstrating the efficacy of the full presence of a master therapist. It will inspire every psychotherapist, irrespective of orientation." Rich Hycner, Ph.D. - Author, Between Person and Person: Toward a Dialogical Psychotherapy Private Practice, San Diego, CA
"In this video we can see a master psychotherapist working with humanity and elegance tackling one of the most difficult challenges: The patient that steadfastly resists treatment. Polster has much to teach any therapist about the power of the therapeutic relationship." Yaqui Andr s Mart nez Robles, Ph.D. - Director, Existential Therapy Studies Circle, Mexico City
"...for therapists who really struggle with those extremely intelligent, cynical, arrogant and challenging male clients this could be a life-saver." Tony Verner - Psychotherapy in Australia
"...presents a fine example of living Gestalt Therapy. Polster is a master, and his video bears repeated watching ? for the technique and for the heart." Will Handy, MSSW - Milton H. Erickson Foundation Newsletter
by Erving Polster, PhD