Hi All,
I find that my mind keeps going back to Asilomar and the AAGT Conference, so I
thought that I would share a few more thoughts.
I think whoever was on the committee choosing presenters did a fabulous job.
There were so many good presentations!
One presentation that was a great and very pleasant surprise to me was by
Christine Stevens the editor of the British Gestalt Journal. It is hard to
describe, but I will try to give you a sense of its originality and effect on
me.
Christine combined a poignant film of the now abandoned Spode ceramic factory,
her "rescuing" some unfinished lamp bases, working with them in
various ways, a very sensual film of her shaping clay accompanied by the amped
up sound that her hands made sliding over and shaping the clay (sounded like
soft "New Age" music) and a pair exercise in which one of the pair
shaped a hunk of this clay by "feel,"while the other person stayed
silently in contact with the shaper. I paired off with the wonderful Stella
Resnick who I hadn't seen for more than 35 yrs. All of the above created
a deeply moving experience for me!
Another: Kooch and Victor Daniels' presentation on Tarot and GT, taught me the
concept of "an emotional stack": how very often underlying the first
emotion a person expresses is another emotion and under that another, and so
on. They had the client choose pictures from various tarot decks to illustrate
each emotion; however, I used this concept in my group therapy group last night
without tarot cards.
On a lighter note, Kooch and Victor Daniels also did a great job of organizing
a wonderful night of entertainment for us around a fire pit outside. It began
with a Mexican Shaman blessing individuals (anyone who chose to participate)
with smudging by fire, then leading us in a ritual where we formed a circle
around the central fire, lit our candles by sharing our light with the person
next to us, and connected our small light (in our imagination) to the larger
central fire. There was additional paid entertainment, but what stands out for
me is how many of us, when invited by the MC, stepped up to the microphone and
told jokes, sang songs, and recited poems. Humans entertaining humans.
Warmest Wishes,
Elinor
