Hey everyone, Kelly Mahler, occupational therapist, and I wanted to take the time to continue talking about Gestalt Language Processing (GLP) because—I’m just going to be very vulnerable here—I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know about Gestalt Language Processing. I am having my mind blown with new information every day. So, I wanted to share three key lessons that I’ve learned as an occupational therapist that I think every OT needs to know if you are working or supporting Gestalt Language Processors. These lessons are important for everyone, but I’m just putting my OT hat on here and hopefully these takeaways are helpful for my fellow colleagues.
Lesson 1: Know that Gestalt Language Processing is More than Gestalt Language Processing
Lesson number one is that Gestalt Language Processing is more than just Gestalt Language Processing. What do I mean by that? I mean that it is a way of thinking, of learning, of experiencing the world. For so many GLPs, they experience the world in big pieces or chunks. For example, routines.
Routines are something that we as occupational therapists work on a lot, like our daily routines. And for many GLPs, they can see a routine as a whole chunk rather than individual little tasks that make up that routine. So for example, the routine of leaving the house in the morning looks different for each one of us. Maybe it’s that we put on our shoes, and then we tie our shoes, and then we put on our jacket, then we get our bag, and then we go to the car. Those are individual little tasks that make up this big chunk of the morning routine.
For some GLPs, they see that routine as a whole. So, when one little thing goes wrong within that whole piece, it can be very distressing. We should be aware of that, and there are so many things we can do to offer some co-regulation, some support, some validation of their experience in the world.
For example, if they’re having a hard time putting on their shoe—maybe there’s a knot in the shoelace, they can’t get the shoe on their foot—maybe we can help to get the knot out, have the shoe ready, and then offer to restart the routine from the beginning, restart the chunk from the beginning. We could say, “Oh, maybe we can try again. Let’s go upstairs, and we can walk down the stairs, and we can put on our shoes, and then tie them, and then we can put on our jackets, get our bags and go to the car.” We can repeat that routine, starting at the begnining, hopefully in a way that goes a little bit better, and it honors that gestalt or the way they view the routine currently.
Lesson 2: Bring More of a Vibe With Interoception Work
Lesson number two is, well, I’m just going to speak for myself here, but I need more of a vibe. I think when I am exploring interoception with my GLP clients, when I am offering them experiments to learn more about their bodies and we’re working on expressing what they’re noticing in their bodies, I need to tap more into little video clips to see if they can find a video clip that matches their internal experience. Or maybe it’s a GIF, or maybe it’s a song clip, or maybe it’s us singing together, or maybe it’s some musical instruments, or its more intonation or using more body movements in my expressions… But I need to bring more of a multimodal vibe.
I have played around with certain forms of expression of how the body is feeling with drawing. We’ve also tried music before, and we’ve tried some GIFs a couple times. But I realized I need to bring that more. I need more of a vibe.
So, you can catch me trying to be more vibey! I don’t even know if that’s a saying, but you can catch me trying to be more vibey with my GLP clients.
I learned this one from the AMAZING new course by Caroline Gaddy and Rachel Dorsey! Check it out here to learn more.
Lesson 3: Emphasize (Even More) Modeling of Your Own Inner Feels without Expectation of Response
Lesson number three is that I just need to emphasize even more modeling about my own internal experience without expectation of any response from my GLP clients.
I already do a lot of modeling. We have this strategy called IA on the Fly (from the Interoception Curriculum) which is where we talk out loud about the way our bodies are feeling as caregivers. I’m just realizing how important that is and how much more of that we need to do. And I might need to do it with more intonation, more expression in my body, something that might be more of a match to my GLP clients.
So, my goal is to be modeling a lot more about my internal experience, to be getting parents and caregivers on board, my colleagues at schools on board, and really, really emphasizing the modeling of our experience and doing it in a way that really illustrates how we all have different experiences. My goal is to be inviting that curiosity in my client without expectations.
For example, “Oh my gosh, my heart is racing right now on the playground. I wonder if yours is too, or maybe you have a different feeling in your body right now.” Really just getting curious about their body modeling without expectation, inviting curiosity without expectation, getting that language out there, showing that we have internal experiences that we are paying attention to. And when I’m modeling, I’m also going to be playing around with that vibe that I mentioned in lesson number two, and seeing if I can bring more intonation, seeing if I can bring more bodily expression, and seeing if I can really capture the interest and experience of my GLP clients.
Until next time.
Want to learn more about GLP? Check out these resources below!
On-Demand Course: Supporting Communication of Interoception in Gestalt Language Processors
