Dialogical encounters: Contemporary perspectives on "chairwork" in psychotherapy

This article looks at the use of "chairwork" (2-chair and "empty" chair) dialogues through the lens of 5 psychotherapies: Gestalt, process-experiential therapy, redecision therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and schema therapy. Many clinical examples are provided, and they are organized into 4 overlapping groups: (a) internal in focus; (b) external in focus; (c) conflictual, that is, whether they involve the replaying of difficult or traumatic scenes from the past; or (d) corrective, which means that the emphasis is on replacing maladaptive cognitions or schemas with ones that are healthier. A potential foundation for Gestalt and cognitive-behavioral integration is proposed on the basis of the idea that gestalts are schemas (I. G. Fodor, 1996) and that chairwork is actually a form of cognitive restructuring (D. J. A. Edwards, 1989).