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"I have used the Communiwell with an illiterate woman who was not very articulate with language. It was useful in that it gave me an opportunity to evaluate the way she felt about herself in the quagmire in which she lived. Working with the structure allowed the client to focus away from her internal turmoil and gave an external form to her distress. It brought to consciousness, unconscious aspects of relationships: this was helpful in developing awareness of her subjective and objective place in her family. I have also used it with refugees who had little English, as I don't work with translators."
Claudia Nielsen, a counsellor/psychotherapist working in primary care and private practice in London has used the Communiwell with people who struggle to express themselves through the use of language. (25/2/08)
"Both the Communicube instruction manual and the DVD have proved very useful. I have read and re-read the manual and watched the DVD lots of times. Now I feel competent enough to start using the Communicube. The first attempts proved very succesful."
- From Eleni Ioannidou, psychodramatist in Thessaloniki, Greece
The Communicube workshop "was the most enjoyable and useful training event
I've taken part in in a long time."
- Paul Penlington, Young Carers Project Co-ordinator
Dr. Adam Blatner, the eminent American psychodramatist, has called it "a tool for cultivating contemplation, sensitizing the mind to symbolization, as well as insight."
Dr. Sue Jennings, a world authority on dramatherapy, wrote: "I think it is an excellent device - and could be part of every dramatherapist's kitbag - very important for personal work - myth work (stories) - and group work."
"I think the Communiwell/cube is like psychodrama - you never really know where it is going to go or what is going to happen even when you are working with issues that you have directed many times previously. I also think they are similar in their ability to be very simple and totally complex, multi-levelled at the same time."
- Sheila Foxgold, psychodrama psychotherapist - August 2005
"I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your workshop on Saturday. I find
it interesting that something so seemingly simple and ordinary as buttons
together with the communicube could prove such a fascinating, varied and
effective tool for exploration. I came away feeling that the possibilities
and scope for this way of working were great. I'm really looking forward to
using some of these methods within my own dramatherapy work."
- Nadia Habul, Dramatherapist - April 2005
"I've used the Communicube as a team reflection device as part of the
process of reflecting on the the families we have worked with. Amazing. It
brought out lots of thoughts and feelings about our own families and
unconscious thoughts that the work had touched."
- Drew Bird, Dramatherapist, UK - April 2005
"I wanted to say thanks and to express how much I enjoyed
the training workshop yesterday. I found the whole day very powerful
and exciting, and I felt very at home with the method, which I now
hope to incorporate into my Art Therapy practice. I felt quite tired
by the end as there was a lot to take in very quickly; however,
I really enjoyed the day."
- Joanne Williams (Art Therapist) March 23, 2005
Anne Makin, gestalt psychotherapist, who is also in the Communicube film writes:
"The structure has been useful to me as therapist as it has also been an
anchoring point for me; there is something trance-inducing to working with
the ever-shifting experience and reality of another and the steadiness of
the Communicube in its holding of some of the acknowledged realities, has
created a useful grounding counterpoint.
The German word "gestalt", when put into English, translates into "the whole
is greater than the sum of the parts". The Communicube contains the parts
and also allows the whole, which is greater than the sum of these, to
gradually emerge for both client and therapist. The "whole" is a dynamic
experienced in the moment and will, by definition therefore, be experienced
differently over time; it is this phenomenon that allows the client to
experience, chew over, assimilate, integrate and move on at the pace that is
in line with the changing capacities of the him or her. Providing the
therapist accompanies the client at his/her pace, I believe that the
Communicube can be a very user-friendly means of developing inter-personal
and intra-personal communication."
- Copyright © 2005 - Anne Makin, Gestalt Psychotherapist
"Many children in foster care and adoption have experienced several families or even failed adoption placements. Often these children have concerns about self-blame, self loathing and rejection. Sometimes for example one sibling will remain with one carer whilst another will be told the carer can’t cope. The complexity of these layers of experience can be explored using the communicube.
One boy, who I'll call Tom, used the communicube to create a complex lock pattern. He placed small figures and objects in a sequence and looked down on the cube to identify how he felt connected or disconnected to these pieces. He then removed them and invited the therapist to guess the meaning or repeat the sequences.
Each time Tom was pleased that the therapist didn't correctly recall the sequence. This game was played several times over a period of months and eventually the therapist said I guess only you know the right meaning or lock sequence. Pleased with this response Tom shared how he felt therapy should be something that he had some control of and that this power dynamic of non disclosure suited him. Several months later after maintaining this dynamic Tom brought a box of photographs of his birth parents and was able to share some of the painful stories of abandonment. The communicube became a tool for how these memories and images linked together and space was made for new experiences that were more in Tom’s control."s
- Martin Gill, dramatherapist and psychodrama psychotherapist, writing of his work with looked after children and the communicube: 2013.
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