The Values of Connection: A Relational Approach to Ethics

Much more than an obligation to protect our clients' rights, ethics is better understood as the very fabric that underpins and supports our most basic efforts in working with clients and interacting with others in our everyday lives. Robert Lee brings together a diverse group of voices in the Gestalt field to demonstrate the interrelations between the ethics of the therapeutic endeavor and the Gestalt tradition, from theory to practice to extensions beyond the analytic setting.

Table of Contents:
Part I: Theory: From a Field Perspective.Lee, Ethics: A Gestalt of Values/The Values of Gestalt - A Next Step. Jacobs, Ethics of Context and Field: The Practices of Care, Inclusion and Openness to Dialogues. Ullman, Living Ethically in an Interdependent World: Situating Ourselves and Naming our Values. Part II: Clinical Applications.Cardoso-Zinker, The Story of Daniel: Gestalt Therapy Principles and Values. Kramer, Lee, The Relational Ethics in the Treatment of Adolescents. Murray, Pugh, & Clance, The Ethics of Touch and Imagery in Psychotherapy: A Gestalt Resolution. Lee, Working with Couples: Application of Gestalt's Values of Connection. White, A Special Case for Gestalt Ethics: Working with the Addict - An Update. Part III: Widening the Lens.Geltman, Lee, The Relational Ethic of Understanding in Groups: A Conversation. Lichtenberg, On Treating Agents of Oppression. Parks, Lee, Men's Relational Needs Through the Trauma and Recovery From Adversarial Divorce: A Conversation. Part IV: Cultural Reflections.Wheeler, Shame and Belonging: Homer's Iliad and the Western Ethical Tradition. Copsey, Finding a Voice: Listening to the Mental Health and Spiritual Needs of the New Communities of East London. Wheeler, The Fragility of Goodness: How the Jews of Bulgaria Survived the Holocaust - A Gestalt Field Perspective.

About the Author :
Robert G. Lee, Ph.D., co-editor of The Voice of Shame (Jossey-Bass, 1996) and editor of The Secret Language of Intimacy (Gestalt Press, 2008), has worked with couples for over thirty years, conducted groundbreaking couple research, and trained and presented internationally. He dances, swims, lives and practices psychotherapy in Boston.

Review :
"Only by seeing ourselves and others as interconnected, parts of a shared field of thought, culture, and experience, can we begin to address the complex issues of what it means to live well in our modern worlds. The Values of Connection is timely and most welcome - it is a significant addition to the growing Gestalt literature. Its chapters will enrich discussion, support teachers, inform students stimulate those who practice therapy, and deepen general understanding of contemporary Gestalt thinking." Malcolm Parlett, PhD, Visiting Professor of Gestalt Psychotherapy, University of Derby, England and Editor of the British Gestalt Journal; "With The Values of Connection, Gestalt therapy has compass and map to navigate through 'a noisy multitude of competing, standards in our pluralistic world,' as one of the authors says. "A book to read and read again." Carol Swanson, LCSW, BCD, Co-founder, Portland Gestalt Training Institute; "The place of values in the literature on Gestalt therapy theory has been largely vacant until now. Still, Gestalt is built on a set of values that has been implicit in our theory and which underpins our practice as therapists. In this important new book Lee and an impressive array of writers lay a solid foundation for a fertile dialogue on ethics that is both rooted in our field theoretical tradition and opens new horizons for its further development - a must-read for all practitioners." Frank M. Staemmler, Dipl.-Psych., Editor of the International Gestalt Journal; "This book casts a fresh light on ethics. Through highlighting Gestalt therapy's revolutionary, relational stance, we are given both a foundation for working with others and a direction which opens the possibility for individuals to live well in their society and for society to welcome the richness of individual diversity." Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, Istituto di Gestalt, Siracusa, Italy"