Frank Farrelly
Frank was not a Gestalt therapist. But he combined several essential elements of Gestalt in a completely unique way. His legacy is his book, Provocative Therapy (in our library), and a few of these videos left for posterity.
The features of his work that are important are these:
- Very skillful confrontation - using non-shaming, relational playfulness
- Paradoxical exaggeration - by going much further than the client’s pathology, he ends up being ‘the crazy one’
- Therapeutic use of humour - being outrageous, saying ‘the unsayable’, using sarcasm and irony to undermine fixed positions, yet done with love and an open heart
- Refusing to be hypnotised by the tragedy of the client’s story - addressing underlying process, using phenomenological clues in the present.
Most of these are translated sessions, but even then his humour and style and affection shine through. Gestalt therapy was originally characterised by confrontation, as that was often Fritz Perls’ style, which included an emphasis on self support and taking responsibility. Although this style was copied for several decades, it is no longer a core part of the identity of the practice or theory of Gestalt therapy. Using confrontation in a skilled way is very difficult in therapy, and there are few schools of therapy which promote that anymore.
These include Radical Honesty, based on the work of Brad Blanton, which is a contemporary version of classical Gestalt group encounter; and the school of Strategic Family Therapy, which uses vertical power-based strategic interventions to disrupt fixed family systems.
There is also the skillful work of David Schnarch, who emphasised differentiation and self support, in a systemic context.
However, as Schnarch pointed out, Attachment Theory is now dominant in how we perceive trauma, and thus confrontative type of therapy has been intentionally blunted and slowed down, in order that clients are not retraumatised in therapy.
This could be an ongoing dialogue, but the literature tends to have moved away from the possibilities of a more differentiated, skillful provocative approach to therapy. Hence my posting these videos as an example of an alternative to current therapies, albeit a unique approach somewhat connected to the personality of Farrelly.
Frank Farrelly - post session discussion with client
Frank and Judy session
Frank Farrelly and Dave session
Frank Farrelly in Germany - I cant say no
Frank Farrelly in Russia - baby blue innocent eyes
Frank Farrelly in Russia - because you are slow and stupid
Frank Farrelly in Russia - I pretend to be a leader
Frank Farrelly in Russia - I want multiple women
Frank Farrelly 2005 - Talking about Provocative Therapy
Frank Farrelly interview 2011
Jaap Hollander interviews Frank Farrelly
Frank Farrelly workshop in Russia
Frank Farrelly talks to Nick Kemp
