Role Shift Is Optional
If role reversal is not used, the episode remains valid as direct-address chair work.
Empty Chair Technique for Gestalt Chair Work
Empty Chair Technique is a live Gestalt practitioner tool for facilitated chair-based role-play and dialogue. It helps therapists and counselors represent an imagined other, absent figure, or self-part, capture direct speech or optional role-shift responses, and review observed emotion, bodily cues, new awareness, and next therapeutic focus.
Explore a sample chair-dialogue episode
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Tool guide
Learn more about this tool
Use this background section to understand when the tool fits, how practitioners use it, and what to consider before sharing it with clients.
Partial And Stopped Episodes
Paused, stopped, direct-address-only, and no-clear-integration states are supported and should remain visible in review.
What It Does Not Do
The product does not provide unsupported chair-work scripts, generate interpretations, score outcomes, or expand into a generic role-play tool.
Is role reversal required?
No. Role-shift capture is optional, and direct-address-only episodes remain valid.
Can the client stop or pause?
Yes. The episode can be marked paused or stopped without forcing completion.
Does the tool interpret what the chair represents?
No. The represented focus is entered by the practitioner in the client's terms; the system does not infer hidden meaning.