Gestalt becomes: AMAZING MOMENTS WITH BEN
Hello,
I have been running a "Gestalt" group here at the Rubbersoulyoga studio in Athens, GA. for over two years. Next month we are going to change the title to AMAZING MOMENTS WITH BEN. Nice eh? Anyhow I think that this might be a good shift and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what I could make the content of this class be. I always like to work backwards, title first then content, rich eh? So....what would you expect if you were going into a class called AMAZING MOMENTS? I am thinking that it is going to be part transpersonal cross-training...part psycho-somatic emergency tarot reading, mixed with breathwork and meditation. Sound good? Any suggestions????
I would love hear some thoughts...
Love,
bn
Good to see you back. I'd be interested to hear how your group is going.
I get the impression you want something unusual. There are lots of variations (some of them probably illegal in Georgia!). My personal favorite is a dream-swap workshop. The group needs to have some experience with Gestalt, so they know the ropes. Everybody works on somebody else's dream. The 1st person tells their dream the standard way, present tense. The 2nd person listens carefully. Then the 2nd person does an open seat with the 1st person's dream. Have them take some time to enter the dream, and tell it in the first person, present tense. Then you lead them through a work session just as if it were their own dream. For people who are into Gestalt practice it usually turns out really well. This is especially useful for people who are interested in leading dreamwork groups themselves, because it loosens up their ideas about work.
In a workshop I like the idea of the circle -coming from Ireland and how ramblers sit in cresents about the hearth. In a circle to have objects in the center- these can be random or theme- wood, stone, seaweed, candle, book, string and each person who wants to be involved can pick something they feel drawn to. That person speaks about the object- through the object. It has had some really interesting self discoveries!
Also a telephone, and each person in turn can have a 'conversation' a way of bringing resolution to their life- Unsaid Messages. What you would want to say if you could go back in time. Or to someone in the present.
In my store, once, I did a 'Secrets Window' which might be slightly passé now. (The idea taken from a store in New York) It may be overdone now. It became a book and there is a webpage. But fun, in that, as people remain nameless it can be more 'open' in a way. People then discuss the secrets- and it allows for others to be forward with what they might consider secrets. A way of allowing the shadow side to come through.
Good luck with your Amazing Moments With Ben. You could also do a class called 'When Even Boring May Be Amazing.' Watching paint dry. Watching grass grow. Watching a turtle walk. A class in finding the amazing in the everyday boring details of life.
Hey Ben...