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Gestalt Therapy: Mini-Lectures

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Jim Simkin died of leukemia in 1984, 64 years old and at theheight of his powers. Jim had studied with and then co-led therapyand training groups with Fritz Perls, but he developed his own style, which was more methodical and less flamboyant than Fritz. In the last ten years of his life he provided psychotherapy training to psychologists, psychiatrists and clinical social workers who came from all over the world to study with him in his dramatic training center on the Big Sur coast.

Since the essence of gestalt therapy is experience, and much of what Jim did resulted from his making use of what he observed in a patient's voice tone and subtle non-verbal behavior, it is hard to make complete sense of the therapy sessions transcripted in this book. The book probably better serves as a reminder of what he could do to those who saw Jim work in person. Still, there is good pithy material here about Jim's working concepts as a therapist, and about his brand of this "existential-phenomenological" therapy. And, aside from a few poorly made videotapes, the transcripts are the best samples we have of the work of a remarkable and dedicated therapist who lived what he taught.