Videos by Philip Brownell
This is a brief description of one possible approach to creating a needed, dedicated, internation... more This is a brief description of one possible approach to creating a needed, dedicated, international gestalt therapy research organization. It was to be used as part of a pre-conference session for the Gestalt Research Conference held in Hamburg, Germany, September, 2022. The purpose of the pre-conference was to stimulate organizing of research in gestalt therapy. 124 views
Papers by Philip Brownell
Handbook of Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapies, 2023
This is a chapter from the Handbook of Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapies, Edited by P. Scott... more This is a chapter from the Handbook of Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapies, Edited by P. Scott Richards, G. E. Kawika Allen, and Daniel K Judd and published by the American Psychological Association (2023). It is a draft copy (please quote from the published version). This chapter locates contemporary gestalt therapy as belonging to the realm of the post-secular. The authors participated in a large data research project investigating spiritually-integrated psychotherapy (see other chapters), and this chapter arose from that participation.
Christianity and Gestalt Therapy, 2020
Jacob was gay. He had realized he was gay before he knew what "gay" was. He knew that he was diff... more Jacob was gay. He had realized he was gay before he knew what "gay" was. He knew that he was different. He liked sitting with girls fixing each other's hair, trying on make-up. Maybe he had a little gender blurring as well. At any rate, it did not go over well with his father.
Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: The Presence of God in Human Relationships, 2020
This is a story from the book "Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: The Presence of God in Human Rel... more This is a story from the book "Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: The Presence of God in Human Relationships." It illustrates several things while also exemplifying what a post-secular practice of Gestalt Therapy might look like.
Gestalt Review, 2014
This article considers a contemporary philosophy of science as a product of naturalism, critical ... more This article considers a contemporary philosophy of science as a product of naturalism, critical realism, and postpositivism. This contemporary philosophy of science undergirds the selection of methods for ascertaining and developing evidence to support an evidence-based practice. The article provides a description of the steps one might make in constructing one's own evidence-based practice. It also offers a contrast between the views of some prominent Gestalt therapists and the pro-research oriented perspective.
Gestalt Review
This article examines the influence of internet communication on Gestalt community from the stand... more This article examines the influence of internet communication on Gestalt community from the standpoint of the field. Drawing on current internet sources, field theorists, and Gestalt therapists, the author describes the internet and explains key field dynamics, concluding that the global field of Gestalt therapy is undergoing rapid change. It is being enriched and made more aware of itself. Consequently, its individual members experience a community made taller, deeper, more complex and more connected. Concurrently, because of this clustering, the field is converging. Internet communication is facilitating a realignment of issues and spokespersons and a new interface between the Gestalt community and the wider field of psychotherapy.
Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: The Presence of God in Human Relationships, 2020
From the book Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: The Presence of God in Human Relationships
Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: the Presence of God in Human Relationships, 2020
This from the book Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: the Presence of God in Human Relationships. ... more This from the book Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: the Presence of God in Human Relationships. It explores the ineffable and the enigmatic from phenomenological, theological, and gestalt therapy perspectives
This is a chapter from the book Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: The Presence of God in Human Re... more This is a chapter from the book Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: The Presence of God in Human Relationships.
This is a chapter from the book, Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: The Presence of God in Human R... more This is a chapter from the book, Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: The Presence of God in Human Relationships.
Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: The Presence of God in Human Relationships, 2020
In the book, Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: The Presence of God in Human Relationships, I wrot... more In the book, Christianity and Gestalt Therapy: The Presence of God in Human Relationships, I wrote stories reflective of chapter content instead of technical case studies. This is one. I may share others. This one illustrates the phenomenon of atmosphere.
Gestalt Therapy: History, Theory, and Practice, 2005
This is a chapter from a text book on gestalt therapy edited by Ansel Woldt and Sarah Toman. Kar... more This is a chapter from a text book on gestalt therapy edited by Ansel Woldt and Sarah Toman. Karen Fleming was the dialogue respondent. The chapter covers various aspects of working in community mental health from a gestalt perspective. It presents a field perspective as it was conceived in 2005. The chapter came out of my experience of working in the state funded community health system in North Carolina, USA (before the state divested itself of direct services.
Response to Hosemans and Philippson’s Letter, ‘Furthering the critique of the GTFS', 2020
This is a response to a letter to the Editor of the British Gestalt Journal attempting to further... more This is a response to a letter to the Editor of the British Gestalt Journal attempting to further the critique of the Gestalt Therapy Fidelity Scale (GTFS). The authors of this responding letter attempt to address issues related to research in general, issues related to the GTFS in particular, and issues related to the ethics of professional discussion or debate that became prominent due to the content of the first letter. (This article was published in British Gestalt Journal 29.1. To read the full issue, please visit the British Gestalt Journal website, https://www.britishgestaltjournal.com).
Global Perspectives on Research, Theory, and Practice: A Decade of Gestalt!, 2015
This book is a collection of articles that appeared in the first online journal for gestalt thera... more This book is a collection of articles that appeared in the first online journal for gestalt therapy. They span approximately a decade and include both prominent gestalt therapists and lesser known people, some who have since deceased. It is edited by Brian J. Mistler and Philip Brownell.
Continuity and Change: Gestalt Therapy Now. The 10th Biennial Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy, 2011
This is a collection of papers presented at the 10th Biennial conference the Association for the ... more This is a collection of papers presented at the 10th Biennial conference the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy (AAGT). It also contains descriptive information about the AAGT. This volume, published in 2011, constitutes a picture of the organization and of gestalt therapy at a particular point in the evolution of each.
ONLINE WILEY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY , 2015
Gestalt therapy is an experiential, evidence‐based approach originally developed by Frederick Per... more Gestalt therapy is an experiential, evidence‐based approach originally developed by Frederick Perls (1893–1970), Laura Perls (1905–90), and Paul Goodman (1911–72) as a revision of psychoanalysis. The multifaceted options available to a gestalt therapist cluster around the four main tenets of its theory, unified in a process of contacting within the therapist–client field. Contact is defined as meetings of various kinds between self and other in which the therapist can follow the emerging experience of the client, engage the client in dialogue, purposefully address some aspect of the client's field, and/or negotiate an experiment. It is at once experiential and experimental, dialogical, field oriented, and phenomenological. The general theory of change is paradoxical—people become what they might be by being what they are. This entry explains gestalt therapy in terms of its originators, philosophical base, view of persons, view of pathology, approach to psychotherapy, and evidence base.
Global Perspectives on Research, Theory, and Practice: A Decade of Gestalt!, 2015
This is a review of Joseph LeDoux's The Emotional Brain. This review appeared in the online Jour... more This is a review of Joseph LeDoux's The Emotional Brain. This review appeared in the online Journal Gestalt! and was later included in an anthology of the electronic journal's articles, which spanned the last decade of the 20th century.
Global Perspectives on Research, Theory, and Practice: A Decade of Gestalt!, 2015
This is the introductory chapter to an anthology of articles appearing in the online journal Gest... more This is the introductory chapter to an anthology of articles appearing in the online journal Gestalt!, which appeared online during last decade of the 20th century.
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Videos by Philip Brownell
Papers by Philip Brownell
Brownell, P. (June, 2014) Two-day continuing education workshop in gestalt therapy with the Social Work Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in Hong Kong, China: “Contemporary Gestalt Therapy” and “Working With Addiction”
first edition. They could rightfully be considered two different books, and
the reader might enjoy having copies of each. Comparing the two, with the
distance of an entire decade between them, is an interesting exercise. One
thing that will be consistent, I’m unfortunately sure, will be my mistakes as
an editor. So, I apologize to the chapter contributors. I have attempted to let
stand the phrasing and positioning of what these authors have given. I have
tried to put the elements of their chapters into a consistent style, but I’ve
made concessions as well. After all, the content is what is important, not so
much the style. Style, punctuation, spelling mistakes, and even reference
citations can be distracting–and for that I apologize–but read beyond,
through, and around such things. It’s what these people say that really
counts.
And my goodness. Do they ever say it. This is a long book, and it is a
thick book. I challenge people to read it, because it is a wonderful collection
of thinkers all focused on the emerging gestalt therapy research tradition.
Far from the dry and tedious subject many people might think research is, I
have been revitalized in my appreciation of gestalt therapy by becoming
involved with colleagues in this movement. I delight every time I witness
someone surprised by the fascinating things gestalt practitioner researchers
are investigating and how they are going about it.
We are moving most certainly beyond the needed, but rudimentary
establishment of an empirical support base for gestalt therapy–the evidence
that gestalt therapy works. We are beginning to conceptualize research into
the processes of change that make gestalt effective. We are beginning to see
how research can improve our training practices. We are open to expanding
this research tradition to include research into the application of gestalt
therapy theory and practice in organizational work and coaching.
We are also seeing the emergence of gestalt therapy research
communities and the teaching and supporting of research at the institute
level. As a result, ours is a much richer global gestalt community.
So, I give this book up now, having lived with it in one form or another
for the last ten to twelve years.
I look out of the window in my study. The days are growing shorter.
There is a coolness to the breeze that sweeps across the high desert and
gently shakes the sage brush. In the evenings I can hear the roar of Shoshone Falls. I know that in a couple of months it will be cold here, and I’ll have to put the heater on when I go out to my study to write. At that time I want to sit on the deck with my wife, Linda, and watch the raptors soar above the Canyon. I want to relax with no deadline coming down over my shoulders like a heavy harness driving me to work, to think, to be careful about words, periods, commas, dates, and the correct form of all those things.
I hope you, the reader, will enjoy this book. It is leaving me now, and
after awhile I won’t think about it. It will become as if someone else’s work.
Then I will pull weeds and water my trees until the snow arrives.
Philip Brownell
From the rim of the Snake River Canyon,
Above Shoshone Falls,
Twin Falls, Idaho, USA
Autumn, 2018