COUNSELLING - TINU TOMY - GESTALT THERAPY

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GESTALT THERAPY

• By
• Tinu Tomy
• MSc. Clinical Psychology

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• Fritz Perls foremost practitioner of gestalt
  counseling and psychotherapy.
• His method was influenced by the gestalt
  psychologist who preceded him such as Max
  Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, Kurt Koffka and
  Sandor Ferenczi.

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• The word gestalt is a german term used to define
  a unique patterning in which parts are integrated
  into perceptual whole .

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Fritz Perls

• Born in 1893 in Berlin.
• Received his medical degree in 1920
• His early training in psychoanalysis took place
  in Austria and Germany and he became associated
  with neurologist Kurt Goldstein
• In 1946 he immigrated to US where he established
  Gestalt therapy

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Others contributed for the development of Gestalt
therapy

• Laura Perls
• Paul Goodman
• OTHER FIELDS
• Phenomenology
• Existentialism
• Field theory
• Dialogue

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Major constructs

• Field theory Organism Environment
• Phenomenological field
• Differentiation contact
• Boundaries
• boundary disturbances
• Introjections
• deflection
• Dichotomies and polarities
• Foreground and background

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• Awareness
• Responsibility
• Should
• I-thou, What and how, here and now

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Goals of counseling and psychotherapy

• Development and expansion of physical and
  emotional awareness are emphasized. Intellectual
  insight and interpretation are limited
• The relationship between client and therapist is
  existential and central to the counseling or
  psychotherapy process.
• Conversations between client and counselor or
  therapist are useful only to the extent that they
  support enactment and experimentation
• Change occurs as the result of heightened
  awareness of the interactional process between
  client and counselor or therapist or by the
  activity and experimentation in the counseling or
  psychotherapy process.

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To help facilitate client awareness and growth

• Identifies themes or presenting problems that are
  central to the clients self organization.
• Conceptualizes the issues and concerns of the
  client that will guide the sequence , timing, and
  methods of the counseling or therapy process.
• Establish and maintain a safe and professional
  environment
• Provides an atmosphere that invites contact
  between client and counselor or therapist and
  encourages interaction.

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Process of change

• The gestalt approach attempts to understand the
  existence of any event through the way it comes
  about, which is to understand becoming by the how
  and not the why through the all pervasive
  Gestalt formation through the tension of
  unfinished situation(business)(Perls 1966)

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Blocks or interferences

• Those who can not maintain eye contact, who are
  unaware of their own movements
• Those who can not openly express their needs
• Those who use repression , exampleof which are
  insomnia, boredom

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Yontef Fuhr asserted that process of change
occurs through 3 methodological events

• Field process thinking
• Experiment in phenomenological awareness and
  existential dialogue contact
• An ongoing relationship between counselor and
  contact

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Process of change(Levitsky Perls)

• A continuum of awareness
• Statement rather than question
• Use of the first-person pronoun I rather than
  it or they
• The contact issue of addressing someone directly

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5 layers of neurosis

• Cliché layer
• Phony layer
• Impasse layer
• Implosive layer
• Exploding layer

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Paradoxical theory of change

• This theory poist that when individuals give up
  trying to become what they would like to become,
  when they stop struggling and just be what they
  are, change will occur.(Fernbatcher Plummer,
  2005)

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• The process of change in gestalt therapy has a
  crucial feature its open-endedness
• Open-endedness is the quality that encourages
  creativity inventiveness, response- ability and
  spontaneous change and growth by clients
• As gestalt therapy continues to evolve more
  emphasis has been placed more heavily on a
  dialogue approach than experimentation. There has
  been a recognition that contact between client
  and the counselor is key process of change.
  Therefore dialogue approach is used more today
  than it was used in the past.

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Traditional intervention strategies

• Location of feelings
• Confrontation and enactment
• Empty chair or two chair strategy also called
  hot seat.
• Making the round
• Dream work
• Unfinished business
• rehearsal

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• Minimization
• Exaggeration
• Reversal
• Exposing the obvious
• Explicitation or translation
• Retroflection also known as projection
• Let the little child talk
• Say it again also called repetition game.

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• I take the responsibility for.
• I have a secret
• Contact and withdrawal
• Can you stay with this feelings?

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Evaluation

• Emphasis on the clients inherent wholeness and
  capacity of self awareness
• Application of dialogue in psychotherapy and
  counseling
• Emphasis on counseling or therapy process rather
  than on technique
• It involves dream work
• Evolutionary shift from constructivism social
  constructivism and the acknowledgement that
  organism co create their own reality.

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• Has increased a shared therapeutic world view
  among practitioners as there has been movement
  from
• From destructive views of the world towards
  holistic models of existence.
• From linear casualty to wards field of
  theoretical paradigms
• From individual psychology towards dialogical or
  rational perspective.

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• Gestalt therapy is appropriate for treating
  certain affective disorders, including anxiety,
  somatoform, and adjustment disorders as well as
  occupational and interpersonal problems.

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Limitation

• Deemphasized the cognitive components of the
  counseling and psychotherapy process
• Often see as a potpourri of theories and
  philosophies
• Holistic approaches can be incomplete with
  todays emphasis on time-limited brief approaches
• Gestalt theory places too much emphasis on the
  here and now
• Gestalt confrontation and emphasis on exploring
  emotion may not work well with cultures that
  emphasis collectivistic responsibility or that do
  not advocate sharing emotional expression

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Limitations
THANK YOU

• Deemphasizes the cognitive components of the
  counseling and psychotherapy process.
• Often seen as a potpourri of theories and
  philosophies
• Holistic approaches are incompatible with todays
  emphasis on time- limited brief approaches
• Places too much emphasis on here and now
• Gestalt confrontation emphasis on exploring
  emotion may not work well with cultures that
  emphasize collectivistic responsibility or that
  do not advocate sharing emotional expression