11/01/2026

Facing Yourself at Work: Using the Gestalt Two-Chair Technique to Support Career Development and Professional Identity

By Hannah Carter

Career work is never just about choosing a major, updating a resume, or landing the next job. It is also about who clients and students are becoming as people and professionals (Flum, 2015). Many bring unfinished business around supervisors, discrimination in the workplace, job roles, transitions, or parts of themselves that feel in conflict. In a rapidly changing and diverse workplaces, clients, students, and supervisees must adapt while trying to stay true to their values and identities (Flum, 2015). When personal and professional selves clash, career decisions can feel confusing or emotionally overwhelming (Gati & Kulcsar, 2021). Identity-focused career work can help the individual:

• Name ambivalence about a role, organization, or career path.
• Explore conflict with supervisors, colleagues, or the profession.
• Navigate intersectional challenges related to culture, disability, gender, or other identities.
• Wrestle with internal critics, imposter feelings, or perfectionism.

For counselor educators and supervisors, the same process can illuminate students’ and trainees’ professional identity development and help them connect who they are with how they work.

The Gestalt two-chair technique (Greenberg, 1979; Greenberg & Rice, 1981) offers an experiential way for practitioners and educators to help clients face these tensions, hear themselves more clearly, and move forward in their careers.

What Is the Gestalt Two-Chair Technique?

The Gestalt two-chair technique (Greenberg, 1979; Greenberg & Rice, 1981) comes from Gestalt therapy, which emphasizes self-awareness, personal responsibility, and working in the here-and-now. In a career development context, it becomes an experiential exercise where the person literally sits in two different chairs and speaks from two different parts of themselves.

Here are the key features of this technique:

• Each chair represents a different perspective or part of self (for example, “confident professional” and “imposter,” “me as a parent-personal” and “me as a worker-professional,” or “my values” and “my paycheck”).
• The self has a spoken dialogue to the other part, switching chairs as the speaker moves back and forth between the parts.
• The focus is on a name-able topic or person that carries the unfinished business energy, such as a difficult supervisor, a role, a career decision, or an internal critic.
• The goal is increased awareness, integration, and a clearer choice about work and career.

For practitioners and educators, this structure turns vague career tensions into a concrete, observable conversation that can guide action planning.

How to Facilitate the Two-Chair Process

Practitioners can use this method in person or adapt it for virtual sessions, classrooms, or supervision meetings.

Step 1: Choose the “Named Thing”

Invite the individual to identify a person, role, situation, or part of self that feels charged, confusing, or stuck in their career or professional development. The practitioner might ask:

• “If you could put one part of your work life in a chair across from you, what would it be?”
• “What feels most alive or emotionally intense when you think about your career or training right now?”

Ask the individual to choose a simple name for each part or face, such as “my perfectionist self,” “the supervisor who never listened,” “secure me” or “anxious me.” Naming keeps the process grounded and focused.

Step 2: Set up the Space

In person:

• Place two chairs or cushions facing each other.
• Invite the person to sit in one chair as one part of “themselves” and imagine the other chair as the other named person/part.

Online or in a classroom:

• Use two spots in the room that they can move between.
• They can turn their body (or move their webcam slightly) to mark the shift in perspective.

Step 3: Begin the Dialogue

From the first chair (as the one part of themselves), invite them to:

• Take a few focused breaths to bring energy into the present moment.
• Speak directly to the named person/part as if it is truly in the other chair.
• Use the chosen name often to stay connected: “Perfectionist part: I’m tired of feeling like I’m never good enough at work.”

Encourage them to keep speaking as long as there is emotional or energetic charge in their words.

Step 4: Switch Chairs and Respond

When the energy in the first chair begins to fade, ask them to move to the second chair and become the named person/part. From that position:

• Again, take several breaths and bring the qualities of that part to mind (for example, the tone of a supervisor, the fear of an anxious self).
• Then respond to what was just said from the other chair.

They continue as long as there is energy in the dialogue. When it fades, they pause.

Step 5: Continue Until the Energy Settles

The person moves back and forth between chairs, expressing and responding, until:

• New insights emerge.
• Emotions feel less stuck and more understood.
• The dialogue naturally slows.

Invite them to end in the “self/other part” chair, take a few slower breaths, and simply notice how they feel now. Remind them they can always pause or stop by opening their eyes, focusing on something in the room, or slowing their breathing.

Turning Insight into Action

Build in time after the exercise for brief debriefing and self-compassion to deepen the learning with a few focused questions:

• When do my personal and professional identities align or conflict?
• What surprised me in the dialogue between these two parts?
• What feels clearer now, about what I need or want next?
• What small, concrete action can I take this week based on what I learned?

These questions help individuals move from insight to intentional choices, rather than leaving the experience as a one-time event. With a few chairs, an open mind, and a structured dialogue, practitioners and educators can turn invisible career tensions into visible conversations, helping the clients they serve see themselves more clearly and make braver, more aligned choices in their professional lives.

 

References

Flum, H. (2015). Career and identity construction in action: A relational view. In R. A. Young,  J. F. Domene,  L. Valach (Eds.), Counseling and Action: Toward Life-Enhancing Work, Relationships, and Identity (pp. 115-133). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0773-1_7 

Greenberg, L. S. (1979). Resolving splits: Use of the two chair technique. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 16(3), 316. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0085895 

Greenberg, L. S., & Rice, L. N. (1981). The specific effects of a Gestalt intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 18(1), 31. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0085958 

Gati, I., & Kulcsár, V. (2021). Making better career decisions: From challenges to opportunities. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 126, 103545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2021.103545 

 

---

Hannah Carter, PhD, CRC, LPC (GA) is an Assistant Professor at Agnes Scott College, in Decatur Georgia, for the Clinical mental health program. Her teaching and research interests focus on: career transitions, multicultural help-seeking career behavior, and disability justice in career services. Current studies focus on understanding the mental health implications surrounding the career transition of Veterans moving into early stage retirement. Hannah teaches Career Counseling and leads Professional Identity Development workshops for CMH master’s level students. She can be reached at hcarter@agnesscott.edu.