S. Smith Theory Review Ch 8 Gestalt Therapy PDF

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S. SMITH THEORY REVIEW CH 8: GESTALT THERAPY Person-Centered Therapy 1. Founder of the theory ● Frederick (Fritz) Perls (1893 - 1970) founded Gestalt therapy. ● He was a difficult child. Went to medical school, became an MD and specialized in psychiatry. Served as a German Army medic in WWI. ● He worked at Goldstein Institute for Brain Damaged Soldiers in Frankfurt, Germany where he was exposed to humanistic therapy and the importance of the relationship between an individual and his environment. ● Moved to the US in 1952 and established New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy and later the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Incorporated unusual and sometimes questionable activities in therapy sessions. ● Married to Laura Perls. She had a degree in Gestalt psychology, focusing on phenomenology and she used this to help Fritz develop the phenomenological aspect of his Gestalt therapy. 2. Nature of the Person ● Human beings work for wholeness and completeness in life. When they interact with their environment they begin to develop self-awareness and leads to self-actualization, or being what you truly are and not what you want to become. Every person has the parts and ability to integrate into a healthy, unified whole. Gestaltists treat the whole person - including their feelings, behavior, body, dreams, etc. and try to integrate all these parts to a healthy whole. ● Gestalt is anti deterministic, and believes that every person is able to change and become responsible. People are actors in their environments and not just reactors. ● The present is all that matters and people learn about themselves through their experiences and their interpretation of those experiences. ● Many people rely too much on intellect over experience and unfinished business from the past that still limits them in the present. This can prevent them from fully experiencing their environment in the present and limits their self awareness. ● Gestaltists believe that the patient and everything in their environment is interrelated, interlocked and changing all the time - which they called Field Theory. ● It is important to pay attention to a person’s boundaries and how they interact with their environments. ● When interacting with their environment, a person organizes everything they come into contact with from moment to moment. Gestaltists call this the figure-formation process. In this figure-formation process, a person exists within an environment or field of undifferentiated information, this is the “background.” From this background a “figure” emerges that needs our attention and to be dealt with (a person, situation, emotion, etc.). ● A person must be able to successfully deal with the figures emerging from the background of their environment to resolve the situation and keep personal balance. ● The principle of organismic self-regulation emphasizes that it is important that a person keep balance, equilibrium or homeostasis. Keeping a healthy balance in life makes it possible for a person to have a healthy mental health life.

S. SMITH THEORY REVIEW CH 8: GESTALT THERAPY 3. Nature of maladjustment ● Maladjustment occurs when a person has a lack of self awareness. They are not aware of what if going on inside them and in their environment. ● Sometimes a person is preoccupied with “unfinished business” of negative feelings attached to the past that are not being expressed and causing maladjustment in the present life. ● Eventually these lead to an “impasse” or stuck point where external support and the usual way of coping is no longer working or successful. Hitting an impasse allows a person to feel the frustration of their situation and then find motivation to make changes. ● Resistance to having contact with your environment is also maladjustment and is usually done in five ways: ○ Introjection - unthinkingly accepting others beliefs and and standards and taking them as your own without critically examining them to see if they fit with our beliefs.Instead of clearly identifying what we want and need, we believe that others know what is best for us and take their standards as our own. ○ Projection - the opposite of introjection. Disowning parts of yourself by assigning it to the surrounding environment. We don’t approve of these qualities in ourselves, so we see them in others and criticize them. By refusing to acknowledge this in ourselves we avoid taking responsibility for our own feelings and can’t make changes to improve our loves. This is often accompanied by a victim mentality. ○ Retroflection - turning onto ourselves behavior that we would like to do to someone else, or have someone else do to us. People who self harm are expressing aggression toward themselves because they don't feel they can express it outwardly. These choices are not made consciously and Gestalt therapy helps the client identify these behaviors and resolve them ○ Deflection - creating distractions that make it impossible to maintain a sense of sustained context. People diffuse or deflect contact with others through too much humor, abstract generalization and asking many questions. Deflecting allows one to “beat around the bush” and avoid significant interactions. ○ Confluence - blurring the differentiation between self and the environment. Striving to blend in and get along with everyone, which does not allow for expression of true self or understanding of boundaries between self and environment. In relationships confluence exhibits as absence of conflicts, slowness to anger,and believing that everyone has or should have the same emotions. These people need to be liked and are comfortable with enmeshment, but lose any sense of unique self. 4. Goals of counseling therapy ● Primary therapeutic goal is for the client to attain awareness of their true self and their contact with their environment. This integration of the self includes mentally growing up and accepting their self within. ● Emphasis on the here-and-now and the immediacy of experience, on verbal and

S. SMITH THEORY REVIEW CH 8: GESTALT THERAPY ●

non verbal expression and the importance of making choices Ideally through Gestalt therapy the client will: ○ Move toward increased awareness of themselves ○ Assume ownership of their experiences ○ Develop skills to be able to fill their own needs ○ Become more aware of all their senses ○ Learn to accept responsibility for their actions and the consequences of them ○ Be able to ask for and get help from others when needed

5. Role and activity of the counselor, including: a. Major techniques used in therapy ● Counselor’s role is to invite clients into an active partnership where they can use experimental methods to learn about themselves and then try new behaviors. Counselors use active methods and personal engagement to help clients increase their awareness, freedom and self-direction. ● Gestalt therapists view the client as experts on their own experiences and facilitate self-discovery so the client can build tools to clear their own blocks. Therapist is a guide and catalyst, but the main work of therapy is done by the client. ● Gestalt therapist must pay especially close attention to the clients nonverbal cues like body language and speech patterns ● The general mode of Gestalt therapy is dialogue, between the therapist and client and the client is assumed to be the expert on their situation. This dialogue leads to increased awareness and possible tools to make different choices. ● This increased awareness and personal power comes through a three-stage integration sequence: ● Discovery - the client realizes new things about himself or gains a new perspective on an old experience or a person in their life. These discoveries are usually a surprise realization for them ● Accommodation - clients recognize they have a choice. They try out new behaviors in therapy with the support of the counselor and then apply them to their other interactions and daily lives. ● Assimilation - clients learn how to influence their environment. They feel capable of dealing with new issues that arise, taking a stand on issues of importance and actively changing their environment. ● Gestalt therapy relies on experiments and exercises to facilitate breakthroughs in the client. These experiments are unique and tailored to the needs of the vclient. ● Exercises are ready-made techniques that are used to make something happen in a therapy session or achieve a goal. ● Experiments grow out of the interaction between the client and therapist and the process of dialogue. It is an active intervention technique that allows

S. SMITH THEORY REVIEW CH 8: GESTALT THERAPY

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exploration of the client’s experience. They are used to bring out internal conflict and make them external, where they can be addressed. These exercises and experiments require the participation and investment from the client in order to be useful and they are intended to expand the clients awareness and help them try out new modes of behavior. Gestalt therapy relies often on confrontation of the client by the therapist in a way that invites the client to examine their behaviors, attitudes and thoughts. Common Gestalt therapy interventions: ■ Internal Dialogue Exercise - splits the client's personality into a “top dog” - which is usually righteous, authoritarian, demanding, parenting,metc. - and “i underdog” - playing the role of victim, acting weak and helpless in order to abdicate responsibility. These two opposites are examined on contract to each other in order to understand the toxic effect of this polarity. ■ Empty Chair Technique - used as a vehicle for role reversal and to bring into the consciousness the fantasies the client may have (in thinking or feeling). This allows the client to examine and experience his being more clearly and integrate opposing parts of himself. ■ Future Projection technique - taking a future anticipated event and acting it out in present day and time. This helps clients clarify their hopes for the outcome of the event and address any fears they may have about it. ■ Making the Rounds - In a group setting this goes around the circle and allows each client to state something that is true for them in the moment. ■ Reversal Exercise - the client takes on the characteristics he is avoiding or fearful of and act them out in the safety of the therapy office in order to help the client accept parts of himself he has been avoiding. ■ Rehearsal Exercise - clients share their rehearsed thoughts for future events with a therapist. This allows the client to understand his motivations for his interactions. ■ Exaggeration Exercise - the client exaggerates body movements in order to better and more clearly understand what he is communicating through his body language. ■ Staying with the Feeling - when a client is experiencing and uncomfortable emotion the therapist recommends that instead of avoiding the unpleasant feeling, he fully experiences it ■ Dream work - they do not interpret a=kro analyze dreams. They recreate and replay the elements of the dream in the cure to present day.

S. SMITH THEORY REVIEW CH 8: GESTALT THERAPY b. diagnosis and appraisal devices ● Gestalt therapists do not typically rely on objective diagnosis tests or exams. The client takes the primary role in discovering hids innetf truth and living accordingly. The therapist is only a guide and a companion to help extend and spur the growth. c. evaluation of client progress in therapy ● A client is considered to be progressing positively in Gestalt therapy when they begin to take ownership of the experience. ● The ideal treatment sees the client move from reliance on outside support towards increasing internal support and becoming self-reliant ● They should also be equipped and able to sees out help and assistance when they are facing a block in the future...