The empty chair technique is a gestalt therapy technique in which the client engages in a role-played conversation with an imagined person. The patient sits facing an empty chair, and imagines that a family member or some other specific person is sitting there. The patient will talk to the person, either to verbalize things they for some reason would rather not say in real life, or to rehearse future encounters with that person. A real person (or even the patient himself) can also play the role of the individual in the chair.