Gestalt Therapy

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Gestalt Therapy
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Overview

• Formulated by Frederick S. (Fritz) Perls.
  Psychoanalysis forms the framework for Gestalt
  therapy. Gestalt comes from the German meaning
  whole or configuration. (Gilliland James, pp.
  136-137).

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Gestalt Therapy

• Existential Phenomenological it is grounded
  in the clients here and now
• Initial goal is for clients to gain awareness of
  what they are experiencing and doing now
• Promotes direct experiencing rather than the
  abstractness of talking about situations
• Rather than talk about a childhood trauma the
  client is encouraged to become the hurt child

Theory and Practice of Counseling and
Psychotherapy - Chapter 8 (1)
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Major philosophies and nature of humans

• Integration into a whole is a basic function of
  human organisms.
• For the individual, the organization of the world
  is defined by the subjective reality of his or
  her perceptions.
• In this way, Gestalt is said to be
  phenomenological in its approach to the human
  person.

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Major philosophies and nature of humans

• It is also existential in that it deals with what
  is currently happening to the individual. It
  focuses on the sources of the experiences
  (thoughts, feelings and actions of the
  individual). Understanding of the self is based
  on the totality of experience (gestures, voice,
  posture, breathing, unspoken words).
• Humans are also in constant striving to maintain
  equilibrium, which is continually disturbed by
  the individuals needs and regained by
  gratification or elimination of those needs. The
  restoration of balance is termed organismic
  self-regulation. (Gilliland James, p. 137)

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Major concepts

• Here-and now orientation
• Awareness
• Responsibility
• Polarities
• Top dog/underdog
• Environmental contact
• Figure-ground
• Unfinished business

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The Now

• Our power is in the present
• Nothing exists except the now
• The past is gone and the future has not yet
  arrived
• For many people the power of the present is lost
• They may focus on their past mistakes or engage
  in endless resolutions and plans for the future

Theory and Practice of Counseling and
Psychotherapy - Chapter 8 (2)
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Unfinished Business

• Feelings about the past are unexpressed
• These feelings are associated with distinct
  memories and fantasies
• Feelings not fully experienced linger in the
  background and interfere with effective contact
• Result
• Preoccupation, compulsive behavior, wariness
  oppressive energy and self-defeating behavior

Theory and Practice of Counseling and
Psychotherapy - Chapter 8 (3)
9
Major personality constructs

• The whole is greater than the sum of its parts is
  the base assumption of Gestalt.
• Motivation for homeostasis, holism and the
  development of a capacity for aggression provide
  the primary structural components for viewing the
  personality. (Gilliland James, p. 138)

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Major personality constructs

• Homeostasis The striving toward balance is
  instinctual and serves to order individual
  perceptions.
• Holism Two relationships are important the
  interdependent, inseparable unity of the human
  body and spirit and the unity of human beings and
  the environment.
• Aggression Human interaction in growthful and
  creative ways in the environment requires a
  capacity for aggression. (Ex. Food must be
  attacked and destroyed in order to be assimilated
  and used for growth.) (Gilliland James, p. 138)

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Nature of maladaptivity

• Related to the three processes of homeostasis,
  holism and aggression. If one of these processes
  becomes blocked during its healthy development,
  neurosis occurs.

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Five major boundary disturbances that lead to
neurosis

• Introjection (psychologically swallowing whole
  concepts)
• Projection (to make someone or something
  responsible for what originates in oneself)
• Retroflection (doing to self what one would like
  to do to othersi.e., anger)
• Deflection (a subtle maneuver to avoid contact
  with the environmentavoid intense emotions,
  etc.)
• Confluence (the absence of a boundary between the
  self and the environment)

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Major goals of counseling

• The major goal of the counseling process is to
  enable the client to achieve a degree of inner
  integration through self-discovery. (Gilliland
  James, p. 162)

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Major techniques/strategies

• Therapy focuses on heightening the individuals
  awareness of responsibility for his or her
  behavior, feelings, and thoughts, including those
  he or she may not be aware of. (Gilliland
  James, p. 137)
• Gestalt therapy also takes much more interest in
  body language. (Gilliland James, p. 147)

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A three-phase integration sequence

• discovery (bringing the issue to the foreground),
• accommodation (adjusting to the excitement of
  discovery),
• assimilation (making a new behavior part of
  oneself). (Gilliland James, p. 149)

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Therapeutic Techniques

• The experiment is the means by which much of
  Gestalt therapy is conducted.
• Preparing clients for experiments
• Internal dialogue exercise
• Rehearsal exercise
• Reversal technique
• Exaggeration exercise

Theory and Practice of Counseling and
Psychotherapy - Chapter 8 (5)
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Major roles of counselor and client

• The counselors role is to facilitate the
  individuals awareness of self and all the
  feelings, behaviors, experiences, and unfinished
  situations that make up the self. This
  facilitation is accomplished through the
  counselors creative use of experiments, which
  enable the individual actually to experience
  various aspects of self during the present moment
  of therapy. (Gilliland James, p. 147)