Memorable Moments in the Therapeutic Relationship

Abstract

Recently I have felt the desire to document some of the memorable moments that I have been able to experience as a Gestalt therapist, both in individual and group therapy.’ These memorable moments are among the peak experiences that I remember as having been particularly daring, productive, and fulfilling to both the patients and myself. Recounting these vignettes now, after some time has expired, runs the risk of sounding trite or trivial to the noninvolved reader. Nonetheless, I will take this risk and describe several moments of encounter when I was especially challenged by the therapeutic situation and mustered all my intuition and theoretical knowledge to create an appropriate and unique intervention. The custom-made interventions that I will attempt to describe in their respective contexts were intended to fit the demands of each relational field; they were also aimed at producing something novel and valuable to those involved (see Amendt-Lyon, 1999, 2001a, b). The writing experience brought home to me how difficult it is to best capture the essence of creative interaction in the therapeutic setting and to define creativity.