Gestalt Therapy
Role of the Therapist in Gestalt Therapy
- The use of I instead of it. - Focusing on how and what rather than why. - Paying attention to clients' language patterns. - Listening to clients' metaphors.
Therapeutic Process of Gestalt Therapy
- be with the present. - •Accept no "should" or "ought" other than your own. - Take full responsibility for your own actions, feelings, and thoughts. - Surrender to being who you are right now.
Contact Boundary Disturbances
- introjection, - projection, - retroflection, - deflection, - confluence.
Gestalt Therapy process
-Allow clients to observe his/her own behaviors, thoughts, and feelings more objectively
The Gestalt View of Human Nature
-Self-actualization. -Antideterministic view. -Unfinished business.
Four types of dialogue within the therapeutic relationship
1) Inclusion. 2) Presence. 3) Commitment to dialogue. 4) Dialogue is active and can be nonverbal as well as verbal.
Levels of Contact (Neurosis)
1. The Phony layer. 2. The Phobic layer. 3. Impasse layer. 4. At the implosive level. 5. Contact with the explosive level.
Phenomenological Perspective
A method of awareness, in which perceiving , feeling, and acting are distinguished from interpreting and reshuffling pre-existing attitudes.
Deflection
Avoiding real verbal contact with another by using distractors. This involves using humor, questions, or intellectualization to keep others from coming too close.
What is introjection, according to the Gestalt theory?
Behaviors that result from internalizing beliefs from others without critically examining them
Role of the Client in Gestalt Therapy
Clients are active participants who make their own interpretations and therapeutic conclusions
Retroflection
Directing energy inward that should be directed outward.
How does Gestalt therapy view contact?
Encountering the environment
Existential Perspective
Existential phenomenologists focus on people's existence, relations with each other, joys and suffering, etc., as directly experienced .
Which of the following is not a typical Gestalt strategy?
Free association
Empty Chair
Gestalt Therapy Technique where the client sits in one of two chairs and addresses the empty one in regards to the individual's issues
Staying with the feeling
Gestalt technique that asks clients to stay in contact with emotions that are connected to their problems. This can be done verbally pr nonverbally.
Which aspect of Gestalt therapy would make it effective in working with multicultural clients?
Gestalt theory has a high regard for the uniqueness of individuals.
What might be a limitation to using a Gestalt approach in working with varied populations?
Gestalt theory's primary focus on the expression of emotions.
How does the principle of holism apply to human nature in Gestalt theory?
Holism refers to the integrated self. Parts of a person (e.g., behaviors) cannot be viewed in isolation.
Hot Seat
In Gestalt Therapy, this is when the therapist picks apart all the inconsistencies and lies of the client, from things they've said to things they've done with their body.
Projection
Placing one's negative beliefs about one's self onto others.
Which of the following is not a layer of neurosis according to Gestalt theory?
Psychotic layer
Contact boundaries
The boundaries that distinguish between one person (or one aspect of a person) and an object, another person, or another aspect of oneself.
Field Theory Perspective
The field is a whole in which the parts are in immediate relationship and responsive to each other and no part is uninfluenced by what goes on elsewhere in the field
What is the relationship between figure and ground in Gestalt therapy?
The figure is anything that stands out as a focal point, and the ground is the other elements that form the background of one's sensory field.
Which of the following is true about the role of the past in Gestalt therapy?
The past is not important. Rather, one's present emotions about the past are important.
Which of the following is the definition of Gestalt?
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
What is the role of experiments in Gestalt therapy?
To provide the client an opportunity to feel, think, and act differently
Having clients talk to parts of themselves
a variation of the empty chair technique. In this version, the counselor has the client talk from the perspective of two parts of him- or herself that are in opposition.
Goal of Gestalt Therapy
awareness of present moment and expression of the self in-the-moment
Gestalt Psychology
early perspective in psychology focusing on perception and sensation, particularly the perception of patterns and whole figures
The principle of holism
everything is inevitably interrelated and mutually dependent on each other.
When using a Gestalt approach to couples counseling, the client is considered to be the:
relationship
phobic layer
the client fears rejection of his or her true self. In response, the client presents a façade.
explosive layer
the client is able to fully experience his or her own emotions.
phony layer
the client plays certain roles to avoid contact with the counselor.
Figure-Ground
the organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground).
Confluence
when the seperation between one another is gone