Gestalt Therapy

Assets that Individuals use to Accomplish Healthy Functioning

●Awareness of self ●Awareness of environment ●Responsibility for self ●Commitment to maturation ●Dedication to appropriate contact with environment

Impasse

●During this layer, clients stand on the precipice of change and remaining the same. ●There is the presence of both excitement and fear. ●Though a counselor may wish the rush the experience, that is the last thing that should be done.

phobic

●Have disturbed contact with self/environment ●Somewhat engaged in counseling, but clings to polar roles, rather than integrated authentic self

Counselors role in change

●Person of the therapist is key element in change ●Mixture of supportiveness and confrontation ●The key question that the therapist asks is "How" as opposed to "Why"

Explosive

●The client experiences an "Aha!" moment ●They seek the path of change and invest energy to follow that path.

Implosive

●The client steps into a full awareness of their past and present ●Clients "own" and acknowledge their behaviors ●However, they have not yet fully committed to a new way of being.

Isolation: Defense Mechanism

●This contact boundary occurs when one completely creates a barrier between self and environment so that neither positive nor negative material may be accepted.

Gestalt Injunctions for Living the Good Life

●Valuation of actuality ●Valuation of awareness & acceptance of experience. ●Valuation of wholeness (responsibility)

Retroflection - defense mech

●When one takes the energy that they wish to use on the environment and direct it towards themselves .●This can sometimes occur in instances in which there is a power differential.

confluence

●When the boundaries between self and environment is so porous and open, that there is little distinction between self and others. ●Some degree of this is healthy in relationships, but it can become pathological if no sense of self is present.

Introjection: Defense Mechanism

●When thoughts or feelings are accepted from the environment without discrimination or acceptance. ●Sense of self becomes distorted, and emphasis is placed on the needs/beliefs of other.

Figure

A need which arise from the ground.

Which of these key concepts does Gestalt believe is responsible for healing and growth? Insight Awareness Polarities Cognitive Restructuring

Awareness

What is perhaps the most famous intervention in gestal therapy? Behavioral Experiments Unconditional Positive Regard Free Association Empty Chair

Empty Chair

Walter is on a car trip, and all of a sudden he notices that his throat is especially dry. He feels like he can't drive any further until she stops at a gas station to get a drink. What is his thirst conceptualized as in Gestalt Therapy? Figure Ground Contact Boundary Polarity

Figure

Where would past successful attempts to get needs met reside? Figure External Locus of Control Polarity Ground

Ground

Gestalt

an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

Holism

•psyche is an integrated whole in which a person's physical, emotional, and spiritual elements are intertwined and inseparable

Contact Boundary in healthy adult

■They experience their inner thoughts, feelings, and awarenesses ■They have an awareness of the outer environment and how it may help or thwart need fulfillment. ("me" and "not-me")

projection (defense mechanism)

○When your own qualities are perceived in others and in your environment. ○The sense of self is poorly contained and spills out onto everything and everyone.

Disturbance at Contact Boundary develop when...

Patterns of thoughts, behavior... ○Fail to fulfill needs ○Create more needs than they solve ○Are destructive to self or others

Perspective of Immediate experience

Phenomenological: Now=Experience=awareness=reality

Jackson has a father who is verbally abusive, and no matter how hard he tries, Jackson always ends up "falling for his tricks" and getting into an argument with his father. After a particularly heated argument, Jackson stomps off to his room. Then he looks in the mirror and slaps himself in the face very hard, several times. Which contact boundary is he likely experiencing? Introjection Projection Confluence Retroflection

Retroflection

Ground

The background of the psyche Can contain past ways in which needs were met.

What is a contact boundary? -The boundary between id, ego, and superego -A boundary that is impermeable and prevents contact -When one sits on the boundary between every day concerns and existential concerns -The differentiation between what is "me" and what is "not-me"

The differentiation between what is "me" and what is "not-me"

Gestalt is focused on personality polarities. What is the classic polarity that Perls advanced? White Sheep/Black Sheep Top Dog/ Under Dog Mouse/Cat Ego/Id

Top Dog/ Under Dog

Gestalts (combinations of figures and ground) that are not properly dealt with and closed can result in.... Conditions of worth Irrationality Cognitive Fusion Unfinished business

Unfinished business

Unfinished Business

When a need arises as a figure and into the foreground but goes unmet (or is met in only a partially satisfying way)

What is the stage of counseling wherein the client stands on the precipice of moving towards change? Phobic Phony Impasse Implosive

Impasse

What is the difference between awareness & insight? -Insight is focused on thoughts, but awareness if focused on feelings -Insight is cognitive, but awareness involves responsibility -Insight is a secular term, but awareness is a spiritual one. -There is no difference

Insight is cognitive, but awareness involves responsibility

Jen's thesis advisor told her that she is not equipped for academic work, and that her writing is horrible. She immediately visits an academic adviser to switch majors, and try to salvage as many credits as she can. Jen is likely experiencing which contact boundary disturbance? Projections Introjection Confluence Retroflection

Introjection