Gestalt Cycle of Experience - Mobilisation

Each month I'm taking a little tour round the Gestalt Cycle of Experience, describing each stage in turn. The cycle is a theoretical map used in Gestalt Therapy to describe the process by which needs, emotions and interests come into awareness and are satisfied. We use this in Gestalt Therapy as a way of trying to think about what might be going on in the therapy process, for clients, for ourselves as therapists.

You can read my introduction to the cycle here. This month we are going to look at the third stage of this process, 'mobilisation'.

In the cycle, mobilisation describes the gathering and building of energy in response to the need, interest or emotion coming into awareness in the earlier stages. When energy is moving through the cycle with some freedom, the mobilisation stage is like an intermediary point that translates the information that is coming into awareness into action that might go some way towards meeting the need, or finding some resolution or satisfaction (action being the stage I'll explore next time).

In very simple terms, and to use the example of thirst I've used before, having noticed my mouth is dry and I feel a bit dull (sensation), and then recognising from past experience that this mean i'm thirsty (awareness), mobilisation is the gathering of energy that gets my up out of my chair and walking to the tap to fill up my glass (action).

In this example, the mobilisation towards action is pretty automatic and instant, however the process of mobilisation can become complicated when our needs are not so clear or if we hold beliefs around whether or not they can be met. This can play out in states of under or over mobilisation.

With under mobilisation someone might find it difficult to find the energy to act on their needs, wants or interests, feeling somewhat listless and possibly collapsed. There might be a flatness of feeling brought about by energy not moving through the cycle and into expression. As if the energy gets shut down somehow and isn't supported or 'allowed' to move through. When this becomes habitual and a rigid way of being feelings of hopelessness or despair can set in, and a state of depression.

This kind of experience can set in and become fixed when we've had repeated experience of our efforts to express ourselves being shamed, attacked, ignored or dismissed. Why would anyone bother carrying on with that if that's how they expected to be responded to?

This is particularly important in the case of how it went in early childhood as we learned to express ourselves with our caregivers and what feelings and needs were supported or otherwise. If we don't learn in this formative time of life that our needs and wants are welcome, and can be met - at least of some of the time - then our capacity to mobilise on our own behalf as we move through life can become compromised.

Whilst the beliefs formed in childhood can be deeply formative, there is always the opportunity for something new to happen in the present. I think part of the challenge in finding a new way forward with this kind of difficulty is to see it as a reasonable response to a situation from the past, not a fixed and immutable aspect of one's character.

In therapy we can bring curiosity and care to what might be shut down and not yet finding expression. Over time, the feelings and needs that might have been hidden or given up on might emerge, presenting opportunities for deeper connection and new choices in the present.

So, now to over mobilisation. When I think of someone caught up in over mobilisation I think of constant rumination, anxiety, agitation, fretfulness, difficulty making decisions. A sense of someone continually spinning their wheels but not really going anywhere. As if the energy has built up but does not have a direction to go in. This could lead to feeling endlessly busy and exhausted, but not having really done much you could put your finger on.

In this case, I think its a bit like the energy has built up but there's not so much clarity on what the need is (awareness). When this happens it can be easy to cast around and look for reasons why these feelings are coming up. Relationships, work, house work, the children, politics, money, future plans can all become targets for the free floating agitation in habitual over mobilisation.

Difficulties, dissatisfactions and imperfections in these areas can become areas to fixate on, to fix in the hope of relieving the anxiety and finding some peace or satisfaction that proves illusive. Perhaps we have an idea of what we should be doing, or what we think others expect of us and that gets our energy going in a bid to satisfy them, or our imaginings of what we think they want from us.

Here, the mobilisation of energy can lead to all kinds of potential busy action, but without really being grounded in a sense of genuine need or desire. Now, I am not for one minute implying that we should only be washing the dishes if we feel our true selves in perfect alignment with that task. But if we find ourselves constantly agitated by the housework and getting it all done, it might be interesting to wonder what am I really needing here?

The earlier steps in the cycle can be useful to return to in these moments of feeling over mobilised. Sensation - what am i feeling? What can I sense? How is my breathing? Awareness - As I sense into myself, and reflect on what's going on and how I seem to be caught up in something at the moment around the house/work/friends/partner/kids/money - is there something about any of that is really calling my attention? What am I needing? Am I overwhelmed? Do I need some help? Do I need to talk it through with someone rather than keep cycling around the issue in my own head?

Or, perhaps more fundamentally, is there something about whatever is going on at the moment bringing up a painful memory or feeling from the past that I'd rather not be aware of? This question may be particularly pertinent in the case of ongoing anxiety. As humans we can survive many difficulties through closing off our awareness. This makes the pain and distress of trauma, abuse and neglect more manageable, and it can leave a state of free floating anxiety or agitation, or a sense of mobilising in preparation for something without being in touch with the why. The words on grief earlier in this newsletter come to mind here.

Again, as with feeling undermobilised, there are things we can do to support these difficulties. In therapy, we can find ways to support and contain the energy of the mobilisation and raise awareness around what might be needed at a deeper level. There may be feelings needing more satisfying expression and witness. It might be important to explore and experiment with how to slow down enough to be able to sense more deeply. There may be old hurt or pain trying to call for attention in the only way it knows how.

I'm realising as I write this that it might sound to you like people are either one thing or another, undermobilised, overmobilised, or just right! I think, more realistically, its likely that we could all find ourselves in one or other of these places around different aspects of life. I know I certainly can. These process are also always going on in relationship to and influenced by what's happening around us.

As with my descriptions of the other stages in this cycle, I don't want to give an impression of some ideal state to be reached. But to shine a light on the many ways we can get interrupted, tangled up and confused in understanding ourselves, our needs and how we attempt to meet them, with the hope of supporting a little more awareness, smoothness and self compassion where its possible.

I'll finish with where I started - mobilisation is the stage in the cycle of experience where our energy gathers around our need, interest or feeling to support us in the direction of moving towards it or meeting it.

How does this go for you? What do you imagine happening if you were to reach out or express something you know you need or want? Do you have a memory that reinforces whatever you imagine happening? How does the over/under mobilisation continuum play out in your life? Are there feelings that will freely flow, or those that feel stuck and blocked? Things you feel free to put your energy into, things that feel more complicated?

Next month we will look into 'action', the place where steps are being taken to do something in response to the need with that building of energy.