Gestalt Therapy

Questions? What key concepts do you know in terms of Gestalt therapy?

View of Human Nature: people are self-reliant spontaneous capable of self-regulation able to reintegrate the disown parts of themselves striving toward actualization and growth

The present (here and now) Directly Experience rather than talking about situations Becoming the hurt child rather than talking about childhood trauma experiences. Ask “what” and “how” instead of “why” The power is in the present. However, many people focus on past mistakes and engage in endless plans for the future

Unfinished Business (UB) Definition: Feelings about the past are unexpressed May be of anger, hatred, guilt, fear… May be memories and fantasies Interfere with effective contact Tend to result in physical symptoms By working through unfinished business, the preoccupation with the past is complete.

Contact & Resistance to contact CONTACT – interaction with nature and other people without losing one’s individuality Contact is necessary for change to occur RESISTANCE TO CONTACT – the defenses that prevent us from experiencing the present fully Clients are encouraged to become increasingly aware of their dominant style of blocking contact

Contact Boundary Disturbances Clients are encouraged to become increasingly aware of their dominant style of blocking contact Introjection: uncritically accept others’ view without reviewing them Children often take parents’ opinions as fact Projection: disown certain aspect of ourselves by assigning them to others Feeling anger may lead a person to project anger onto others Retroflection: doing to ourselves what we want to do to others, Biting one’s nails can be a substitute for aggression toward others

Energy and blocks to energy Attend to where energy is located, how it is used, and how it can be blocked Blocked energy is a form of resistance Recognize how their resistance is being expressed in their body feeling numb Exaggerate their tension and tightness in order to increase awareness

Therapeutic Goals: helping clients to enhance awareness to depend on themselves to bring the past or future into the present to achieve integration of the whole person Verbal behavior, nonverbal behavior, feelings, thoughts, perceptions.…

Therapist’s function and Role Increase clients’ awareness Attend to the present moment Attend to verbal, nonverbal, and inconsistent message Help clients to experience their being “stuck” Make “I” statement It is difficult to make friendsI have trouble making friends

The Therapeutic Relationship Therapeutic relationship is important for the therapy to be effective Be empathetic, genuine, and understanding Share therapists’ experiences to clients in “here-and-now” Apply the notion of “use of self” in therapy

Therapeutic Change Not making progress is due to fear of change (Perls, 1969) Exploring the reluctance The Change Process: three-stage (Polster, 1987) Discovery (get a new perspective) Accommodation (learn that they have a choice) Assimilation (change their environment)

Therapeutic techniques and procedures The experiential work Use experiential work in therapy to work through the stuck points and gain new insights Preparing client for experiential work Obtain permission from clients Be sensitive to cultural differences Respect resistance

Therapeutic techniques and procedures The internal dialogue exercise Top dog (critical parent) and underdog (victim) Empty-chair (two sides of themselves) Making the rounds Go around to each person and say “What makes it hard for me trust you is……” Reversal exercise Reverse the typical style (e.g., behave as negative as possible)

Therapeutic techniques and procedures Rehearsal exercise Share the rehearsals out loud with a therapist Exaggeration exercise Exaggerate gesture or movement, which usually intensifies the feelings attached to the behavior Staying with the feeling Go deeper into the feelings they wish to avoid

Therapeutic techniques and procedures The Gestalt approach to dream work Do not interpret or analyze dreams Bring dream back to the present life as though they are happening now Every person or object in the dream represents a projected aspect of the dreamer Dreams serve as an excellent way to discover personality Not rememberingrefuse to face what it is at that time

Research on Gestalt Therapy Compare with a waiting list control or no treatment, Gestalt therapy is effective In general, results are similar among Gestalt therapy, P-C therapy, or CBT. Leslie Greenberg and colleagues conducted a series of research on empty chair technique Across studies, the empty chair technique is helpful by reducing self-criticism and increasing self-understanding.

From a multicultural perspective Contributions Work with clients from their cultural perspectives Limitations Focus on “affect” may not be appropriate Asians value emotion self-control Direct expression of the negative feelings to their parents is not appropriate.

Summary and Evaluation--contribution Enhance awareness Attend to verbal and nonverbal cues Directly experience rather than talking about it Focus on growth and enhancement See each aspect of a dream as a projection of themselves

Summary and Evaluation-limitation Limitations Ineffective therapists may manipulate the clients with powerful experiential work Some people may need psycho-education