gestalt ( book based)

Gestalt therapy

Existential, phenomenological, and process-based approach

gestalt therapy

Individuals understood in the context of their ongoing relationship with the environment

awareness
choice
responsibility

cornerstones of gestalt therapy (3)

gestalt therapy

goal of what therapy : expand clients’ awareness of present-moment experiences → change occurs naturally

Phenomenological

focuses on client’s perceptions of reality

Existential

people are always becoming, remaking, rediscovering themselves

gestalt therapy

what therapy are focuses on this aspects?

• Here and now, what and how of experiencing

• Therapist authenticity, active dialogic inquiry and exploration

• Dialogical relationship and I/Thou relating

fritz and laura perls

• Main originator and developer

gestalt therapy

Influenced by psychoanalytic concepts but differed from Freud

holistic, present situation focus

Gestalt therapy influenced by psychoanalytic concepts but differed from Freud

• Freud: mechanistic, repressed intrapsychic conflicts, early childhood focus

• Perls: focused on what?

gestalt therapy

• Therapists fully engage in client experience without judgment or interpretatio

gestalt therapy

• Devise experiments to increase awareness of moment-to-moment action

gestalt therapy

• Emphasis: how individuals behave now > why they behave that way

awareness processes and goals in gestalt therapy

• Self-acceptance, knowledge of environment, responsibility for choices

• Ability to make contact with dynamic systems and people

• Based on changing here-and-now experiences

• Clients actively engage in seeing, feeling, sensing, interpreting → not passive

Contemporary relational Gestalt therapy

• Emphasizes dialogue and I/Thou relationship

• Collaborative search for understanding

Contemporary relational Gestalt therapy

• Influence of Laura Perls and “Cleveland school” (1960s–70s): more support, sensitivity, compassion than Fritz Perls’ confrontational style (Yontef, 1999)

• Emphasizes support, acceptance, empathy, respect, dialogue, caring confrontation

experiential approach

• Promotes direct experiencing over abstract discussion

• Clients confront what and how they are thinking, feeling, doing

experiential approach

• Growth occurs through genuine contact with therapist

• Practitioners value being fully present during therapy

human nature

in which view in gestalt therapy is :

• Rooted in existential philosophy, phenomenology, and field theory

• Genuine knowledge comes from immediate experience of the perceiver

• External world (e.g., other people)

• Internal world (e.g., disowned parts of the self)

• Therapy focus in gestalt therapy : awareness and contact with the environment

  • Monitors quality of contact with: (2)

Reowning and unification process

• step-by-step integration of disowned parts to support personal growth

Fritz Perls’ approach

• Practiced therapy paternalistically: clients must “stand on their own two feet” and handle life problems themselves (Perls, 1969)

• Therapy agendas:

  • Move client from environmental support → self-support

  • Reintegrate disowned personality parts

  • Style: confrontational, intentionally frustrating clients to enhance awareness

Paradoxical theory of change

• authentic change comes from being who we are, not trying to be who we “should be”

• holism

• field theory

• the figure-formation process

• organismic self-regulation

• Several basic principles underlying the theory of Gestalt therapy

Gestalt

is a German word meaning a whole or completion

• a form that cannot be separated into parts without losing its essence

holism

• All of nature is seen as a unified and coherent whole

  • the whole is different from the sum of its parts

Field Theory

Field Theory

• the organism must be seen in its environment or context

• part of a constantly changing field

Field Theory

• Attention is paid to what occurs at the boundary between person and environment

  • emphasis on figure (most salient aspects of experience)

  • or ground (aspects often out of awareness)

Field Theory

• Cues to the background are found on the surface

  • physical gestures

  • tone of voice

  • demeanor

  • other nonverbal content

Field Theory

• Referred to as “attending to the obvious”

  • paying attention to how the parts fit together

  • how the individual makes contact with the environment

  • integration

• Figure-Formation Process

• Derived from the study of visual perception by Gestalt psychologists

• Figure-Formation Process

• Tracks how the individual organizes experience from moment to moment

  • aspects of the environmental field emerge from the background

  • become the focal point of attention and interest

• Figure-Formation Process

• Gestalt therapists facilitate movement toward and away from the figure of interest

  • dominant needs influence this process

• Organismic Self-Regulation

• Intertwined with the figure-formation process

• Equilibrium is “disturbed” by the emergence of:

  • a need

  • a sensation

  • an interest

• Organismic Self-Regulation

• Organisms regulate themselves using:

  • their own capabilities

  • resources of the environment

• Individuals take actions and make contacts

  • to restore equilibrium

  • or to contribute to growth and change

contact

•  made by:

  • seeing

  • hearing

  • smelling

  • touching

  • moving

effective contact

• means:

  • interacting with nature and other people without losing one’s sense of individuality

good contact

• Prerequisites for what :

  • clear awareness

  • full energy

  • ability to express oneself

contact between the client and therapist

what is the key to Gestalt therapy practice?

contact

• the lifeblood of growth (Polster, 1987)

• a continually renewed creative adjustment to the environment

• involving zest, imagination, and creativity

• to connect

• to separate

• Boundaries in contact have two functions:

contact and withdrawal

• Both _______ and _________ are necessary for healthy functioning

• interruptions

• disturbances

• resistances to contact

• Gestalt therapists focus on: (3)

resistances

• developed as coping processes

• often prevent full experience of the present

• are typically adopted out of awareness

• can contribute to dysfunctional behavior when chronic

resistance

• behavior that keeps us from exploring personal conflicts or painful feelings

• an attempt to protect from anxiety and defend against pain

• serving a function

creative resistance

• resistive behavior can be desirable

• contains positive and problematic qualities

contact boundary disturbances

Contemporary Gestalt therapists refer to resistance as:

• introjection

• projection

• retroflection

• deflection

• confluence

five contact boundary disturbance

introjection

• uncritical acceptance of others’ beliefs and standards

• beliefs are not assimilated or restructured

• passive incorporation of environmental input

• energy is bound up in believing authorities know what is best

projection

• disowning aspects of oneself by assigning them to others

• blaming others for one’s problems

• avoiding responsibility for feelings and self

• leads to feeling powerless to initiate change

• belief that others have hidden meanings

retroflection

• turning back on oneself what one wants to do to others

• interruption of the action phase of experience

• involves anxiety

• inhibits action due to embarrassment, guilt, or resentment

• aggression directed inward

• associated with depression and psychosomatic complaints

deflection

• distraction or veering off from contact

• difficulty maintaining sustained contact

• use of:

  • humor

  • abstract generalizations

  • questions instead of statements

• indirect communication

• results in emotional depletion

confluence

• blurring differentiation between self and environment

• lack of clear boundary between inner experience and outer reality

• absence of conflict and belief others feel the same

• high need for acceptance and liking

• enmeshment feels comfortable

• makes genuine contact difficult

Interruptions or boundary disturbances:

• characteristic styles used to control the environment

Gestalt approach

• A main contribution of the __________ is:

  • learning to appreciate and fully experience the present moment

moment

• A key principle of Gestalt therapy:

  • whatever is happening at the _____ is center stage

phenomenological inquiry

• Involves:

  • paying attention to what is occurring now

• Most people:

  • can stay in the present only briefly

  • tend to interrupt the flow of the present

aware

• One aim of Gestalt therapy:

  • helping clients become increasingly ______ of present experience

what and how

• Gestalt therapists:

  • ask “____” and “_____” questions

  • rarely ask “why” questions

present tense

• To promote present awareness:

  • dialogue is encouraged in the ______

unfinished business

• Occurs when figures emerge from the background

  • but are not completed or resolved

unfinished business

• Results of ________ manifested as:

  • unexpressed feelings

    • resentment

    • worry

    • rage

    • hatred

    • pain

    • anxiety

    • grief

    • guilt

    • abandonment

unacknowledged feelings

• create emotional debris

• clutter present-centered awareness

unfinished business

• relates to unresolved interpersonal relationships

• persists until unexpressed feelings are faced and dealt with

bodily experience

• Gestalt therapists emphasize:

  • attention to________

  • assumption that unexpressed feelings result in physical sensations or problems

impasse (stuck point)

• Occurs when:

  • external support is not available

  • customary ways of being do not work

  • feel helpless, confused and unable to move forward

therapist role during in impasse

• accompany clients through the impasse

• avoid rescuing or frustrating them

actualization and growth

• Gestalt therapy assumes:

  • individuals strive toward _______ and _______

blocked

• When energy is ______ :

  • it often results in unfinished business

energy

• Gestalt therapy gives special attention to: (same answer)

  • where ____is located

  • how _____ is used

  • how ____ is blocked

blocked energy

• another form of defensive behavior

blocked energy

• ________ may be expressed through:

  • tension in parts of the body

  • posture

  • keeping the body tight and closed

  • not breathing deeply

  • looking away from people to avoid contact

  • choking off sensations

  • numbing feelings

  • speaking with a restricted voice

awareness

• _______ includes:

  • knowing the environment

  • knowing oneself

  • accepting oneself

  • being able to make contact

• awareness

• Without _______:

  • clients do not possess tools for personality change

awareness

• With _______ :

  • clients can face, accept, and integrate denied parts

  • fully experience their subjectivity

Existential View

• ___________ in Gestalt Therapy

  • Individuals are continually:

    • remaking and discovering themselves

  • Identity is not static

    • new facets emerge when facing new challenges

Body language

______ provides

• rich information

• clues to unacknowledged feelings

Language

• ________ can:

  • describe experience

  • conceal experience

“It” talk

• depersonalizing language

• replacing “it” with “I” increases responsibility

“You” talk

• global and impersonal

• substituting “I” promotes ownership

Storytelling

• ________ is not always resistance

  • can be central to therapy

Contemporary Gestalt therapy

• emphasizes a dialogic attitude

• creates a meeting place between client and therapist

Traditional Gestalt therapy

• assumed clients must be confronted about avoiding responsibility

• discovery

• accommodation

• assimilation

Three-Stage Integration Sequence

discovery

Three-Stage Integration Sequence :

• new realizations about self

• novel view of old situations

• new perspective on significant relationships

• often experienced as surprising

accommodation

Three-Stage Integration Sequence :

• recognition that choice exists

• experimenting with new behaviors

  • first in the therapy setting

  • then in the broader world

• new behaviors may feel awkward

• therapeutic support builds coping skills

• participation in out-of-office experiments

assimilation

Three-Stage Integration Sequence :

• learning to influence the environment

• increased ability to handle everyday surprises

• moving beyond passive acceptance

• behaviors may include taking a stand

• growing confidence in improving and improvising

• making choices to get desired outcomes

• therapist acknowledges achieved changes

• clients learn how to maximize meeting their needs

exercises (techniques)

• ready-made techniques

• used to make something happen or achieve a goal

• can promote individual or group interaction

experiments

• grow out of client–therapist interaction

• emerge within the dialogic process

• increase awareness

• allow trying new ways of thinking and behaving

• cornerstone of experiential learning

experiments

• interventions and active techniques

• collaborative explorations of experience

gestalt experiment

• fundamental to Gestalt therapy

• designed to increase awareness and learning

• focused on discovery

Traditional Perlsian style

• described as “boom-boom-boom therapy” (Yontef, 1993)

• involved theatrics, abrasive confrontation, and intense catharsis

relational gestalt therapy

• emphasizes:

  • support

  • kindness

  • compassion

internal dialogue exercise

exercises that

• integrated functioning

• acceptance of disowned aspects of personality

top dog and underdog

• internal dialogue focus on personality splits especially between the

Top dog

• righteous, authoritarian, moralistic

• demands with “shoulds” and “oughts”

• manipulates through threats

Underdog

• plays the victim

• defensive, apologetic, helpless

• avoids responsibility

jacob moreno

who origanated empty chair technique?

Empty-Chair Technique

• Purpose:

  • role reversal

  • bringing fantasies and conflicts into awareness

• Characteristics:

  • all roles played by the client

  • introjects surface

  • conflicts are experienced fully