Gestern • 41 Min.

• Learn Frank Rubenfeld’s concept of the “now in process” and how it differs from the here-and-now • Understand why the difference between two people’s nows is the ground of contact in Gestalt • Hear why “What are you feeling right now?” can isolate a figure from its ground when used by rote • Explore the therapist’s own process — admitting “I’m stuck” and sharing delight — as authentic, transparent contact • See how figure formation and the awareness cycle connect to tracking your own experience in the room In this fourth conversation, host Vinay Gunther and veteran Gestalt therapist Frank Rubenfeld take up the “now” — a quintessentially Gestalt topic, and one Fritz Perls summed up in the pithy line that there is only the now. Frank begins by separating the here-and-now (present-moment awareness grounded in sensory and physical experience) from what he calls the there-and-now (the mind wandering to the past, the future, or a dream), and argues that both are simply different places to be in the now. From there he introduces his own contribution, the “now in process”: a now that stretches beyond the present moment to include moments already lived and moments still to come, held together by an activity. Using the example of a client who talks very fast while the therapist feels increasingly flooded, Frank shows how two people can share the same activity yet have very different nows — and how naming that difference opens real contact. The conversation then tests the idea against Gestalt theory: the critique of a figure-bound, moment-by-moment style of Gestalt, the Polsters’ view of contact as an episode with a shape over time, a professor and student who stay in their roles instead of making contact, and students who fall back on “What are you feeling right now?” when they don’t know what else to do. Both therapists then turn to the therapist’s own process — Frank’s talk at a community clinic in Oakland where he stopped and said what he was feeling, Vinay’s demonstration session where he admitted “I’m stuck right now,” and Frank’s delight at seeing a returning client — before exploring how tracking your own figure alongside the client’s, and the awareness cycle behind figure formation, supports authentic, transparent contact. The episode closes with reflections on conversational rhythm over the phone and the spaciousness that comes from admitting not knowing.