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Jim Simkin in Big Sur, 1981

Jim Simkin was an early seminal figure in the history of Gestalt Therapy. Born James Saloman Simkin in Calgary, Canada in 1920, he died in Big Sur, California of leukemia in 1984.

Simkin received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Michigan, and practiced in New Jersey. He also was Chief Psychologist at a VA hospital. Like most psychotherapists of his generation he was trained analytically. After he worked in therapy with Fritz Perls in the early 1950s Simkin became enamored of the gestalt approach. Later, he moved with his family to Southern California and started a therapy practice in Beverly Hills. He invited Fritz Perls to join him, but the sharing of an office was short-lived. After Fritz discovered Esalen he joined with Simkin in leading training groups in gestalt therapy for professionals at the Institute. When a 5 acre parcel on the coast just North of Esalen became available, Simkin built a striking home on the property and started his own residential training institute there in 1969. By this time, Fritz had left Esalen.

Simkin's style was more methodical and less flashy than Fritz' as could be inferred from his training program. Training consisted of a minimum of three residential months over a three to five year period. During the first year, trainees worked exclusively on their own self-awareness and observed their mentor in action in groups and individual sessions. During subsequent years they were able to work individually or in group with "patient models" who had to be referred by an outside therapist. All this work was supervised in vivo, and all work was videotaped for study. Simkin brought in world-famous trainers for two-day stints during the training month, so as to expose his trainees to different styles of doing Gestalt Therapy, and hopefully prevent them from aping his own style. This was seen as essential to the approach by Simkin. Simkin worked much in the manner of Fritz, however, in that little attention was paid to group process. The work was done in the Perlsian hot-seat fashion, with the client interacting with the therapist and the therapist using the group as a foil. However, the residential model gave clients an opportunity to practice new behaviors in a family-like setting.

Simkin was a master at observing and tracking behavior, and at contriving interventions that struck to the core of his patients' issues. His use of paradox, his powerful personal presence, and his ability to zero in relentlessly on core issues were his trademarks. He also had a remarkable ability to find and appreciate the authentic core of his patients' personalities, and he used confrontation very effectively. Simkin walked the walk with his relentness commitment to being his own person and enabling others to find out and respect their own personhood. He is one of the early Gestalt therapists who took much from Martin Buber's emphasis on the I-thou relationship.

Much sought after as a trainer, Simkin's program attracted trainees from all over the world. Simkin also traveled to do trainings in Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, Holland, and throughout the United States. In 1981 he became ill with leukemia but continued working until his death in 1984.