"Gestalt Therapy" Combo

Impasse

The stuck point in a situation in which individuals believe they are unable to support themselves and thus seek external support.

Introjection

The uncritical acceptance of others' beliefs and standards without assimilating them into one's own personality.

Figure

Those aspects of the individual's experience that are most salient at any moment

Ground

Those aspects of the individual's experience that tend to be out of awareness or in the background.

Thenomenological inquiry

Through a therapist asking "what" and "how" questions, clients are assisted in noticing what is occurring in the present moment

A Gestalt therapist pays attention to ways the client uses language.

True

A current trend in Gestalt therapy is toward greater emphasis on the client/therapist relationship rather than on techniques.

True

Although Perls used a highly controntational approach in dealing with client avoidance and resistance, the confrontational model is not representative of contemporary Gestalt therapy.

True

An effective Gestalt therapist must develop deep personal awareness.

True

Both contact and withdrawal are necessary and important to healthy functioning.

True

Gestalt group therapists use experiments to encourage clients to move from talking about action to taking action.

True

Gestalt therapies view a client's avoidance behavior as related to unfinished business.

True

Gestalt therapy makes use of a wide variety of techniques that are designed to increase the client's awareness of his or her present experiencing.

True

In Gestalt terms, awareness refers to our connectedness to out external an internal worlds.

True

In Gestalt therapy, a client's resistance is welcomed and used to deepen their therapeutic work.

True

In the Gestaltist view, unfinished business is best explored in the present.

True

Most of the Gestalt techniques are designed to intensify one's experiencing

True

Part of success in using Gestalt techniques is contingent upon preparing clients for these techniques.

True

Unfinished business

Unexpressed feelings (such as resentment, guilt, anger, grief) dating back to childhood that now interfere with effective psychological functioning; needless emotional debris that clutters present-centered awareness.

The empty chair technique

assists clients in reowning part of their personality, balances internal polarities, allows clients to externalize an introject and helps to resolve unfinished business.

The basic goal of Gestalt therapy is

attaining awareness, and with it greater choice.

Which of the following is not true about Fritz Perls?

During his childhood, he was a model student.

Preparing clients for Gestalt exercises destroys both their spontaneity and effectiveness.

False

Retroflection involves doing to others what we would like them to do to us.

False

Since Gestalt therapy focuses on the here-and-now, the past is not explored or given emphasis in this approach.

False

The Gestalt approach to dream work consists of the therapist interpreting the meaning of the symbols in the dream.

False

The Gestalt therapist typically uses diagnosis and interpretation as a basic part of the therapeutic process.

False

The goal of Gestalt therapy is to solve basic problems, to resolve one's polarities, and to help the individual to adjust to his or her environment.

False

A contribution of this therapeutic approach is that

it enables intense experiencing to occur quickly, it can be a relatively brief therapy, and it stresses doing and experiencing, as oposed to talking about problems.

According to Gestalt therapy, all of the following are true about contact except

withdrawal after a good contact experience indicates neurosis.

Deflection

A way of avoiding contact and awareness by being vague and indirectlly using distraction.

Figure-formation process

Describes how the individual organizes the environment from moment to moment and how the emerging focus of attention is on what is figural.

Field theroy suggests that

everything in human experiene is relational and in constant flux.

Key points to remember for gestalt therapy

-pays attention to the obvious -doesn't believe in repression -group process or workshop where therapeutic session (for brief periods of time) are part of a total living experience. -dramatization is key to the approach (psychodrama, role plays, empty chair technique. -everything dealt with in the here and now-directed awareness.

Heightened awareness

A person seeks heightened awareness through dramatization of split-off parts of the self.

Organismic self-regulation

An individual's tendency to take actions and make contacts that will restore equilibrium or contribute to change.

Attention

Attentions is paid to patterns involving all layers of organismic function-thought, feeling, and activity.

According to Perls, awareness by itself is not sufficient to lead to change; clients must also put their experiences into some type of cognitive framework if changes is to happen.

False

Gestalt experiments are ready-made techniques that are often used to evoke the expression of certain emotions.

False

Gestalt theory is best considered as a form of psychoanalytic therapy.

False

Therapy is based upon the successful resolution of the transference relationship.

False

Who among the following is not considered a relational Gestalt therapist?

Fritz Perls

here and now

In gestalt therapy in humanistic therapies, clients are encouraged to live in the present moment. Clients encouraged to reject the past, to brush aside things that have happened to them, and also to ignore what may come in the future. The emphasis should be on living in the present moment.

The organism

The organism has a drive to pull itself together, and this is done through expanding consciousness by putting the person in touch with current, immediate oragnizmic needs.

Gestalt techniques can be considered as experimenmts.

True

empty chair technique

a gestalt technique in which clients engage in emotional expression by imagining that the person to whom they would like to speak is sitting in an empty chair facing them

Gestalt therapy is...

a process-oriented approach, which focuses on awareness, wholeness, contact, and self regulation. The integration of mind, body, thoughts, and action are central to the approach.

Because of his need to be liked, Jake makes careful efforts to get along with everyone and minimize interpersonal conflicts. Which boundry disturbance is Jose exhibiting?

confluence

directed awareness

gestalt- is a technique whereby the therapist helps the client become aware of their immediate experience

The paradoxical theory of behavior change suggests

we change through becoming aware of who we currently are.

Confluence

A disturbance in which the sense of the boundary between self and environment is lost

Field

A dynamic system of interrelationships

Empty-chair technique

A role-playing intervention in which clients play conflicting parts. This typically consists of clients engaging in an imaginary dialogue between different sides of themselves.

Dichotomy

A split in which a person experiences or sees opposing forces; a polarity (weak/strong, dependence/independent

Relational Gestalt Therapy

A supportive, kind, and compassionate style that emphasizes dialogue in the therapeutic relationship, rather than the confrontational style of Fritz Perls.

Paradoxical theory of change

A theoretical position that authentic change occurs more from being who we are than from trying to be who we are not.

Confrontation

An invitation for the client to become aware of discrepancies between verbal and nonverbal expressions, between feelings and actions, or between thoughts and feelings.

Which of the following is not considered one of the six methodological components of Gestalt therapy?

Assessment.

Holism

Attending to a client's thoughts, feelings, behaviors, body, and dreams.

Emotion-focused therapy

Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) entails practice of therapy being informed by understanding the role of emotion in psychotherapeutic change.

Techniques

Exercises or interventions that are often used to bring about action or interaction, sometimes with a prescribed outcome in mind.

Which of the following is not true about Gestalt techniques

Experiments are always carried out during the therapy session, rather than outside it.

Gestalt therapists focus more on why clients are doing that what they are doing.

False

Gestalt therapy focuses on the cognitive aspects of therapy.

False

Gestalt therapy is designed for individual counseling, and it typically does not work well in groups.

False

Gestalt therapy relies mainly on psychoanalytic techniques.

False

Gestaltists typically ask why questions in the attempt to get clients to think about the source of their problems.

False

One of the contributions of Gestalt therapy is the vast empirical research that has been done to validate the specific techniques used.

False

Which of the following is not true about the Gestalt view of the role of controntation in therapy?

It is not possible to be both confrontive and gentle with clients.

Field theory

Paying attention to and exploring what is occurring at the boundary between the person and the environment.

Blocks of energy

Paying attention to where energy block is located, how it is used, and how it can be blocked

Experiments

Procedures aimed at encouraging spontaneity and inventiveness by bringing the possibilities for action directly into the therapy session. Experiments are designed to enhance here-and-now awareness. They are activities clients try out as a way of testing new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Exercises

Ready-made techniques that are sometimes used to make something happen in a therapy session or to achieve a goal.

Continuum of Awareness

Staying with the moment to moment flow of experiencing, which leads individuals to discover how they are functioning in the world.

Dream work

The Gestalt approach does not interpret and analyse dreams. Instead, the intent is to bring dreams back to life and relive them as though they were happening now.

Retroflection

The act of turning back onto ourselves something we would like to do (or have done) to someone else.

Projection

The process by which we disown certain aspects of ourselves by ascribing them to the environment; the opposite of introjection

Awareness

The process of attending to and observing one's own sensing, thinking, feelings, and actions; paying attention to the flowing nature of one's present-centered experience.

Contact

The process of interacting with nature and with other people without losing one's sense of individuality. Contact is made by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and moving.

In Gestalt, the relationship between client and counselor is seen as

a joint venture, an existential encounter, and an I/Thou interaction.

In Gestalt theory, the experiment is considered

a theoretical proposition crafted to fit the client's unique needs.

Gestalt group work is

action-oriented, standardized, focused on the here and now.

Contemporary Gestalt therapists view client resistance as

an element of therapy that needs to be respected.

Empirical support for Gestalt therapy is

becoming stronger.

According to the Gestalt view, blocked energy is

both a defensive behavior and a form of resistance to contact.

The Gestalt approach to dreams

both asks the client to become all parts of his or her own dream and has the client actively interpret the meaning of the drean himself or herself.

Gestalt-therapy techniques are designated to help the client

both expand awareness of the here and now and intensify feelings and experiences.

From a multicultural perspective, a limitation of Gestalt therapy is that

both it tends to produce high levels of intense feelings and it is highly focused on direct expression of feelings.

Without proper training, Gestalt therapists may

evoke carthasis without having the ability to work it through with their client, design faulty experiments, may use ready made techniques inapporperately, and may damage the therapeutic relationship with the client.

Which of the following is not one of the Gestalt group leader's roles

evoking group catharsis

Gestalt therapy is a form of

existential therapy

A healthy contact experience involves

interacting with others while maintaining a sense of self, creativity, and maintaining balance between the figure and the ground.

According to Gestalt theory, people use avoidance in order to

keep themselves from facing unfinished business, keep from feeling uncomfortable emotions and keep from having to change.

Which of the following Gestalt techniques involves asking one person in a group to speak to each of the other group members?

making the rounds.

The Gestalt therapist

pays attention to the client's nonverbal language.

A teenage girl is angry with her parents and cuts on her arm. In Gestalt terms, she is most likely engaging in

retroflection

Gestalt therapists say that clients resist contact by means of

retroflection, projection, and introjection.

Which of the following is not one of Miriam Polster's three stagees in her integration sequence

reunification

Which of the following aspects of a client's use of language would a Gestalt therapist no focus on?

semantics

A critical difference between early Gestalt therapy and relational Gestalt therapy is

the approach to confrontation.

When a person experiences an internal conflict (namely a condlict between top dog and underdog), which of the following techniques would be most appropriate?

the internal dialogue exercise.

A gestalt technique that is most useful when a person attempts to deny an aspect of his or her personality such as tenderness is

the reversal exercise.