touch and talk

[mattlistener]

Noel, one of the course leaders, made an interesting point today in a demo. The touch and talk aspects of Rubenfeld Synergy should *not* be understood to be operating merely in parallel.

Back before Ilana Rubenfeld herself was practicing Rubenfeld Synergy, she was studying Gestalt with Fritz Perls, doing Alexander Technique style "listening hands" on clients while Perls did Gestalt Therapy with them. They collaborated in this way for several years, as a result of which Ilana learned a great deal through her hands about what was working and what wasn't, among what the talk therapist was doing.

That was touch and talk operating in parallel. When Ilana brought the touch and talk together in the same person, they began operating as a *weave*, each channel of dialog constantly re-informing the other.

Comments

Alexander Technique

[(Anonymous)]

In addition to "listening hands", the Alexander Technique features "directing hands" and directed thought. They have a wonderful website that tells all about it at http://alexandertechnique.com

Re: Alexander Technique

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

Yup, my post above is not to discount the very significant talk component of Alexander Technique. AT (at least in Ilana's day) did not address emotional material, and Gestalt did not include any element of hands-on, so Ilana was pioneering the exploration of what was possible at that intersection.