GESTALT THERAPY COUNSELING THEORIES -- EPSY 6363 DR. SPARROW COUNSELING THEORIES -- EPSY 6363 DR. SPARROW
Background We have seen how existential-humanistic therapies share common ground, but may emphasize different factors in therapy. Existential therapy -- focuses on choice and responsibility as the “first cause” Rogers -- focuses on self actualization and the impact of therapist factors in activating a person’s own capacity to move toward self actualization.
Background In contrast, Gestalt emphasizes awareness as the central force in fostering individual healing and growth. Awareness precedes choice and responsibility and is the necessary and sufficient catalyst to a person’s self-initiated and self regulated process of self actualization.
GOALS and principles Focus on process rather than content To gain awareness of what you are experiencing -- genuine knowledge To foster change as an outgrowth of intensified awareness Paradoxical: Change occurs by experiencing more intensely what we are, rather than striving for what we’d like to be. Clients have a capacity to “self regulate” if they are fully aware Moving client to self support rather than environmental support
GOALS and principles Holism and integration -- no superior value placed on particular aspects Field Theory -- a person is himself or herself in context, everything is relational Figure formation -- foreground and background Organismic self-regulation -- similar to homeostasis in family therapy, but seen more positively, because of a person’s ability to choose growth and change, not just the status quo.
The Importance of the Now The present is all we have, and focusing on past and future is a form of avoidance. “What” and “how” questions bring the person into the present -- not “Why?” or “What do you think?” Most of us talk about our feelings. Gestalt emphasizes getting into feelings all the way. Past can be finished through reenactment; intensification assists release
Unfinished Business The past “seeks” completion, and will persist under dealt with - actualizing urge requires resolution and integration of the past. The “stuck point” is when our ability to resist unfinished business does not work any longer, or when the environmental support is no longer there.
Contact and Resistances to Contact Various forms of resistance Projection Introjection Retroflection, example is anger making depression Deflection, such as humor, change of subject Confluence Blocks to energy
Energy and Blocks Clients will resist feelings by storing tensions or blocks in the body Strategy is usually to “go into the block,” and to experience it fully Describing the feelings around a certain bodily region Giving tension “a voice” and dialoguing
Therapeutic goals Attaining greater awareness and choice Assume ownership of experience (existentialist) Meeting needs without violating rights of others Sensory awareness Accepting respons-ability From external support to internal: locus of control Be able to ask for help, and to give help to others.
Therapist’s Role Engagement Helping client become aware of what they are doing Paying attention to body language Challenging patterns of communicating
Challenges to Communication Converting depersonalizing “it” language into using “I” Converting “You” to “I” Converting questions into statement Going more fully into metaphors Power-denying language disclaimers or qualifiers, e.g. “kind of,” “you know” can’t -- won’t
Client Experience of therapy No interpretations given -- increased awareness through engagement with feelings and therapist gives rise to meaning. Three stages (Polster) discovery -- ahas! accommodation -- strategizing new behaviors in relationships assimilation -- learning the influence the environment
The Therapeutic Relationship Therapist must know herself and the client, and must remain open Therapist allows herself to be affected by client, and shares her reactions Since Perls’ death, less confrontiveness and more empathic engagement use of oneself decreased use of exercises focus on relationship
Techniques The Experiment -- tailor made exploration that emerges within the therapeutic process. Client must be prepared for them, and trust is essential. Resistance is respected. collaborative spontaneous
Techniques Examples of experiments reenacting a profound past experience setting up a dialogue with a significant other through journaling or two-chair technique. dramatizing the memory of a painful experience (From Dr. Sparrow’s practice) planning some event that can take a client beyond a point of arrested growth. (e.g. going to the graveyard to say goodbye to someone; wearing black to properly grieve the end of a relationship. All designed to intensify the feelings and further one’s development.
Techniques, continued Confrontation -- Perls was especially harsh No longer in vogue; compassionate style is more popular now Charlatan shadow can emerge when confrontation is used too much Rule of the day: sustained emphatic inquiry paired with crisp and relevant focusing of awareness.
Gestalt Interventions Internal dialogue -- integrating parts; top dog and underdog Two chair technique Making the rounds -- direct and personal Reversal exercise -- dramatizing the feared opposite Rehearsal exercise -- “What would you say if he were here right now?” Exaggeration exercise -- bodily, language Staying with feeling Dream work -- everything is a part of oneself, dialogue leads to integration