After viewing this session, address any (or all) of the questions below. The only exception is question #11. It is a required question. Please make sure you address this in one of your posts. Our goal is to get a discussion going about how we individually and collectively might think about the session and what we would change. Don’t worry about being profound. Just have an opinion and dive in to the discussion. Feel free to disagree with each other, but please do it respectfully.
1. The therapist asks Stan to report his dream as though he were dreaming it in the present moment. What do you think are the differences between reporting a dream and re-living a dream as though it were occurring now?
2. What therapeutic value do you place on working with dreams in therapy?
3. If you were a client in Gestalt therapy, how willing would you be to work with your dreams by reliving them in a therapy session?
4. Assume that you ask Stan to try an experiment by becoming each part of his dream and giving voice to the different parts—and he refuses to cooperate with the experiment. What are you inclined to say or do next?
5. In Gestalt therapy, clients are asked to give their own interpretations of their dreams. What possible advantages can you see in Stan interpreting the meaning of his dream versus the therapist interpreting Stan’s dream? How does this compare to the use of working with dreams from a psychoanalytic perspective?
6. What most stood out for you as you listened to Stan reliving his dream?
7. What therapeutic benefit can be gained by asking Stan to put his father in another chair and talking to him? How might you introduce such an exercise to your clients?
8. What rationale can you give for asking Stan to “become his father” and talk to Stan?
9. In the dialogue enactment between Stan and his father, what do you notice most?
10. What kind of unfinished business do you think Stan has with his father that is getting in his way now?
11. As A Christian therapist, what might be some issues/interventions/approaches you might consider in this particular sessIon with Sam?
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