The Empty Chair As a Tool to Promote Self-Awareness and Interaction in Groups

Although Perls originally practiced Gestalt therapy primarily as an individual form of treatment, others subsequently have expanded the approach to working with groups in a way that encourages more interaction among group members (e.g., Glass, 1972; Feder & Ronall, 1980). For example, using the empty-chair technique, invite an individual who has only shown his friendly, “nice guy” persona in his interactions with other group members to put his critical, judgmental side in the empty chair. After giving this side a voice with accompanying affect, the member is then asked to experiment with engaging others in the group from this perspective, expressing criticisms and disagreements as may be appropriate to his relationship with each group member. Group members are then asked to respond, leading to more authentic group interaction. Additional examples can be found in discussions by other authors (Woldt & Toman, 2005; Yontef & Jacobs, 2005).