PSY3120 - Gestalt Therapy

The "now"

*According to this approach, our "power is in the present". *Nothing exists except the "now". *The past is gone, and the future has not yet arrived. *This theory dictates that thinking about the past makes us depressed, and thinking about the future makes us anxious. *For many people, the power of the present is lost. They may focus on their past mistakes or engage in endless resolutions and plans for the future. *So, this therapy encourages getting out of the abstractions in your head and focusing on the feelings in your body. *Aim: to help clients to become increasingly aware of their present experience.

Client experience

*Clients are confronted about how they avoid accepting responsibility. *Clients are active participants who make their own interpretations and meanings. They increase awareness and decide what they will or will not do with their personal meaning. *Clients go through three stages of growth: discovery, accommodation and assimilation. *Eventually, clients develop confidence in their ability to improve and improvise (confidence that comes from knowledge and skills).

Contemporary relational gestalt therapy

*This particular form of therapy stresses dialogue and the I/Thou relationship between client and therapist.

Figure-formation process

*This process tracks how the individual organises experience from moment to moment as some aspect of the environmenteal field emerges from the background, and becomes the focal point of the individual's attention and interest. *Eg: seeing a woman coming down a hill; first she is a whole, then she becomes details.

3 stages of client growth

1. Discovery 2. Accommodation 3. Assimilation

Diversity strengths of gestalt therapy

1. Gestalt experiments can be tailored to fit the unique way in which an individual perceives and interprets his or her culture. 2. Gestalt therapy is particularly effective in helping people integrate the polarities within themselves. 3. There are many opportunities to apply Gestalt experiments in creative ways with diverse client populations. 4. In cultures where indirect speech is the norm, nonverbal behaviours may emphasize the unspoken content of verbal communication.

Therapeutic relationship

1. The dialogic attitude that characterizes contemporary Gestalt therapy creates the ground for a meeting place between client and therapist.

Phenomenological inquiry

Paying attention to what is occurring now.

Exercises

Ready-made techniques that are sometimes used to make something happen in a therapy session, or to achieve a goal (for individuals and groups). *Pre-planned activities that can be used to elicit emotion, produce action, or achieve a specific goal.

Self vs. environment

*According to this approach, the boundary between self and environment must be permeable enough to allow for enchantes, but firm enough to tenable autonomous action. *When the boundary becomes unclear, lost or impermeable, mental and emotional disturbance results. *If you don't make a distinction between you and your environment, you won't know where your responsibility lies. *Therapy aims at awareness and contact with the environment, which consists of both the external and internal worlds.

Listening to clients' metaphor

*By tuning into metaphors, the therapist gets rich clues to clients' internal struggles. *Eg: "It's hard for me to spill my guts in here", "at times I feel that I don't have a leg to stand on", "I feel like I have a hole in my soul," "I need to be prepared in case someone blasts me", "I felt ripped to shreds after you confronted me last week", "after this session, I feel as though I've been put through a meat grinder." *Beneath the metaphor may lie a suppressed internal dialogue that represents critical unfinished business or reactions to a present interaction. *EgL to the client who says she feels that she has been put through a meat grinder, the therapist could ask: "What is your experience of being ground meat?" or "Who is doing the grinding?" *It is essential to encourage this client to say more about what they are experiencing. *The art of therapy consists of assisting clients in translating the meaning of their metaphors so that they can be dealt with in therapy.

Speaking habits

*Clients' speech patterns are often an expression of their feelings, thoughts, and attitudes. *The Gestalt approach focuses on overt speaking habits as a way to increase clients' awareness of themselves. *By focusing on language, clients can increase their awareness of what they are experiencing in the present moment and of how they are avoiding coming into contact with this here-and-now experience.

Holism

*Gestalt = a form that cannot be separated into parts without losing its essence. *All of nature is seen as a unified and coherent whole, and the whole is different from the sum of its parts. *Because Gestalt therapists are interested in the whole person, they place no superior value on a particular aspect of the individual. *Gestalt practice attends to a client's thoughts, feelings, behaviors, body, memories, and dreams.

The body

*Gestalt therapists see body language as a key expression of emotion. *The body (posture) can block energy as well as release it. *A therapist may ask a client to exaggerate postures or behaviours in order ot help the client gain insight into how they are feeling; they ask them to focus on/ identify/ emphasise their body movements to make them realise what they are expressing (or maybe inhibiting). *If you can free your body, you can free your mind (because they're intertwined and represent each other). *Main principle: learning to acknowledge the emotion in our body as it occurs (in the now), eg: crying. *Leaning into uncomfortable emotions can be a good thing and can help growth.

Gestalt interventions

*Gestalt therapy methodology is tailored to the needs of clients, and experiments are typically presented in an invitational manner. 1.Exercises. 2. Experiments. *But these techniques neither define Gestalt therapy nor are they a necessary part of Gestalt practice.

"You" talk

*Global and impersonal language tends to keep the person hidden. *The therapist often points out generalized uses of "you" and invites the client to experiment with substituting "I" when this is what is meant.

Blocks to energy

*In Gestalt therapy, special attention is given to where energy is located, how it is used, and how it can be blocked. *Blocked energy is another form of defensive behavior. *It can be manifested by tension in some part of the body, by not breathing deeply, by avoiding eye contact, by choking off sensations, by numbing feelings, and by speaking with a restricted voice. *Clients may not be aware of their energy or where it is located, and they may experience it in a negative way. *One task of the therapist is to help clients identify the ways in which they are blocking energy, and transform this blocked energy into more adaptive behaviours. *Clients can be encouraged to delve fully into tension states and bodily symptoms.

Future projection technique

*In this technique, an anticipated event is brought into the present moment and acted out. *This technique, often associated with psychodrama, is designed to help clients express and clarify concerns they have about the future. *Once clients clarify their hopes for a particular outcome, they are in a better position to take specific steps that will enable them to achieve the future they desire.

Preparing clients for experiments

*It is essential that counsellors establish a relationship with their clients, so that the clients will feel trusting enough to participate in the learning that can result from experiments. *Clients will get more from Gestalt experiments if they are oriented and prepared for them. *Counsellors must avoid directing clients in a commanding fashion to carry out an experiment. *Gestalt experiments work best when the therapist is respectful of the client's cultural background and has a solid working alliance with the person. *It is best for therapists to observe what is and presently happening rather than trying to make something happen.

Staying with the feeling

*Most people want to escape from fearful stimuli and avoid unpleasant feelings. *Facing and experiencing feelings not only takes courage but also is a mark of a willingness to endure the pain necessary for unblocking and making way for newer levels of growth. *A strong therapeutic relationship built on trust and nonjudgmental acceptance fosters the safety needed for clients to stay with these unpleasant feelings.

Goals of gestalt therapy

*Not really a goal-oriented, therapy, but there is a basic goal: assisting the client to attain greater awareness, and with it, greater choice. 1. To help clients gain awareness of themselves, their senses, and their moment-to-moment experiences. 2. To help clients gradually assume ownership over their experiences. 3. To help clients develop skills and acquire values that will allow them to satisfy their needs. 4. To expand clients' capacity to make choices. 5. To foster integrations of the self (eg: integrating our hurt child with our adult self). 6. To help clients accept responsibility for what they do/ consequences of their actions. 7. To help clients be able to ask for and get help from others and be able to give to others.

Reversal exercise

*Oftentimes we get stuck rehearsing silently to ourselves so that we will gain acceptance. *This consumes much energy and frequently inhibits our spontaneity and willingness to experiment with new behaviour. *In this technique, when clients share their rehearsals out loud with a therapist, they become more aware of the many preparatory means they use in bolstering their social roles.

Exaggeration exercise

*One aim of Gestalt therapy is for clients to become more aware of the subtle signals and cues they are sending through body language. *Movements, postures, and gestures may communicate significant meanings, yet the cues may be incomplete. *In this exercise, the person is asked to exaggerate the movement or gesture repeatedly, which usually intensifies the feeling attached to the behaviour and makes the inner meaning clearer (eg: legs shaking).

Internal dialogue exercise

*One goal of Gestalt therapy is to bring about integrated functioning and acceptance of aspects of one's personality that have been disowned and denied. *Gestalt therapists pay close attention to splits in personality function. *A main division is between the "top dog" and the "underdog," and therapy often focuses on the war between the two. *The top dog is righteous, authoritarian, moralistic, demanding, bossy, and manipulative. *The underdog manipulates by playing the role of victim: by being defensive, apologetic, helpless, and weak and by feigning powerlessness. *The top dog and the underdog are engaged in a constant struggle for control. *This conflict between the two opposing poles in the personality is rooted in the mechanism of introjection. *So this exercise helps clients become aware of their introjects, especially the toxic introjects that poison the person and prevent personality integration.

Research on gestalt therapy

*Outcome studies have demonstrated Gestalt therapy to be equal to or greater than other therapies for various disorders. *More recent studies have shown that Gestalt therapy has a beneficial impact with personality disturbances, psychosomatic problems, and substance addictions. *The effects of Gestalt therapy tend to be stable in follow-up studies one to three years after termination of treatment. *Gestalt therapy has demonstrated effectiveness in treating a variety of psychological disorders.

Questions

*Questions have a tendency to keep the questioner hidden, safe, and unknown. *Gestalt therapists often ask clients to experiment with changing their questions into statements. *In making personal statements, clients begin to assume responsibility for what they say, and become aware of how they are keeping themselves mysterious through a barrage of questions (how this prevents them from making declarations that express themselves).

Language that denies power

*Some clients have a tendency to deny their personal power by adding qualifiers or disclaimers to their statements. *Experimenting with omitting qualifiers such as "maybe," "perhaps," "sort of," "I guess," "possibly," and "I suppose" can help clients change ambivalent messages into clear and direct statements. *Likewise, when clients say "I can't," they are really implying "I won't." *Encouraging clients to substitute "won't" for "can't" often assists them in owning and accepting their power by taking responsibility for their decisions. *But the therapist must be careful in intervening so that clients do not feel that everything they say is subject to scrutiny. *The therapist hopes to foster awareness of what is really being expressed through words, not to scrutinize behavior.

Confrontation

*Students are sometimes put off by their perception that a Gestalt counsellor's style is direct and confrontational. *In the workshops that Fritz Perls gave, people often found him harshly confrontational. *The contemporary practice of Gestalt therapy has progressed beyond this style to include more support and increased kindness and compassion in therapy. *In contemporary Gestalt therapy, confrontation is set up in a way that invites clients to examine their behaviours, attitudes, and thoughts. *Therapists can encourage clients to look at certain incongruities, especially gaps between their verbal and nonverbal expression.

Dream work

*The Gestalt approach does not interpret and analyse dreams. *The dream is acted out in the present, and the dreamer becomes a part of his or her dream. *Each part of the dream is assumed to be a projection of the self, and the client creates scripts for encounters between the various characters or parts. *By engaging in a dialogue between these opposing sides, the client gradually becomes more aware of the range of his or her own feelings. *Perls's concept of projection is central in his theory of dream formation; every person and every object in the dream represents a projected aspect of the dreamer. *According to Perls, the dream is the most spontaneous expression of the existence of the human being. *If people do not remember dreams, they may be refusing to face what is wrong with their life.

Gestalt view of human nature

*The Gestalt view of human nature is rooted in existential philosophy, phenomenology, and field theory. *Genuine knowledge is the product of what is immediately evident in the experience of the perceiver. *Individuals have the capacity to self-regulate when they are aware of what is happening in and around them. Thus,therapy provides the setting and opportunity for that awareness to be supported and restored. *Clients have to grow up, stand on their own two feet, and "deal with their life problems themselves". *Humans must invest themselves fully in their current condition rather than striving to become who they "should" be. (Gestalt therapists believe people change and grow when they experience who they really are in the world). *Individuals have a striving toward actualization and growth; so if they accept all aspects of themselves without judging these dimensions, they can begin to think, feel, and act differently.

Application to group counselling

*The application of this therapy to groups is based on field theory; Gestalt therapy is well suited for a group context. *The here-and-now focus enlivens the group and assists members in exploring concerns. *Gestalt group therapists attend to matters such as verbal and nonverbal language, postures, voice, interpersonal interactions, and group processes *A group format provides a context for a great deal of creativity in using interventions and designing experiments. *Experiments evolve from what is going on within individual members and what is happening in the group at the moment. *Leaders are not trying to push an agenda; rather, members are free to try something new and determine for themselves the outcomes of an experiment. *In Korea there is an emphasis on collectivistic values, so group gestalt work fits well into the Korean culture.

Organismic self-regulation

*The process by which equilibrium is "disturbed" by the emergence of a need, sensation or interest. *Organisms will do their best to regulate themselves, given their own capabilities and the resources of their environment. *Individuals can take actions and make contacts to restore equilibrium or to contribute to growth and change. *What emerges in therapy is what is of interest to the client or what the client needs in order to gain equilibrium or to change. *Gestalt therapists direct the client's awareness to the figures that emerge from the background during a therapy session and use the figure-formation process as a guide for the focus of therapeutic work.

Impasse

*The stuck point, occurring when external support is not available, or when the customary way of being doesn't work. *Therapists must acompany clients in experiencing this, without frustrating them/ rescuing them. *In doing so, clients are able to get into contact with their frustrations and accept what is, rather than wishing things were diferent.

Gestalt therapist

*The therapist's job is to invite clients into an active partnership where they can learn about themselves through an experimental attitude toward life (trying out new behaviors and noticing what happens). *Therapists use active methods, personal engagement, and self-direction. *Therapists view the client as experts in their own experiences, encouraging them to be in the present. *Therapists put themselves as fully as possible into the experience of the client without judgment, analysing, or interpreting. *Therapists devise experiments designed to increase clients' awareness of what they are doing and how they are doing it moment to moment. *But although the therapist functions as a guide and a catalyst, presents experiments, and shares observations, the basic work of therapy is done by the client. *The therapist's task is to create a climate in which clients are likely to try out new ways of being and behaving. *Therapists do not force change on clients through confrontation, but rather work within a context of I/Thou dialogue in a here-and-now framework. *Therapists pay attention to clients' body language/ gars in inattention and awareness/ incongruities between words and body movements. *Therapists don't make interpretations to explain clients' behaviours.

Paradoxical theory of change

*Theory that the more humans work at becoming who or what we are not, the more we remain the same. *Authentic change occurs more from being who we are than from trying to be who we are not.

Contact

*This act is necessary for change and growth. *It is made by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and moving. *It is interacting with nature and with other people, without losing one's sense of individuality. *To do this, one must have awareness, energy, and the ability to self-express. *Contact between client and therapist is key to therapy. *It is the continually renewed creative adjustment of individuals to their environment. *There are only moments of this type of contact. *Afterwards, there is typically a withdrawal to integrate what has been learned (just as necessary as contact for healthy functioning).

Awareness

*This concept usually involves insight and sometimes introspection, and certains to what the client is experiencing in the present. *It includes knowing the environment, knowing oneself, accepting oneself, and being able to make contact. *A defining characteristic is paying attention to the flow of your experience and being in contact with what you are doing when you are doing it. *As a result of this process, change automatically occurs, and clients become able to make informed choices and thus to live a more meaningful existence (it is curative). *Without this, clients do not possess the tools for personality change. *But with this, clients have the capacity to face, accept, and integrate denied parts as well as to fully experience their subjectivity; then they can become an integrated whole. *This brings out important unfinished business.

Unfinished business

*This form of therapy states that psychopathology comes from unfinished business. *Happens when energy is blocked. *This includes feelings about that the past that are unexpressed; resentment, rage, hatred, pain, anxiety, grief, guilt, and abandonment. *These feelings are associated with distinct memories and fantasies. *If they're not fully experienced, they can linger in the background and interfere with effective contact. *Eg: when something heartbreaking or traumatic has occurred, and it wasn't fully felt at the time. *If we're constantly engaged in unfinished business, we're living in the past; unable to be in the now (create unnecessary emotional debris that clutters present-centered awareness). *It will persiste until faced and dealt with. *Result of unfinished business: preoccupation, compulsive behavior, wariness oppressive energy, self-defeating behavior. *Bottom line: don't sleep things under the carpet.

Resistance

*This is developed as a coping process but often ends up preventing us from experiencing the present in a full and real way. *They're typically adopted out of our awareness and, when they function in a chronic way, can contribute to dysfunctional behavior. *Also referred to as "contact boundary phenomena." *There are five different kinds: 1. Introjection 2. Projection 3. Retroflection 4. Deflection 5. Confluence

Discovery

*This is the first stage of client growth, when they are likely to reach a new realization about themselves, acquire a novel view of an old situation, or take a new look at some significant person in their lives. *Such discoveries often come as a surprise to them.

Accommodation

*This is the second stage of client growth, when clients recognise that they have a choice. *Clients begin by trying out new behaviors in the supportive environment of the therapy office, and then they expand their awareness of the world. *Making new choices is often done awkwardly, but with therapeutic support clients can gain skill in coping with difficult situations.

Assimilation

*This is the third stage of client growth, when clients learn how to influence their environment. *At this phase, clients feel capable of dealing with the surprises they encounter in everyday living. *They are now beginning to do more than passively accept the environment. *Eventually, clients develop confidence in their ability to improve and improvise. *Clients are able to make choices that will result in getting what they want. *At this phase, clients have learned what they can do to maximize their chances of getting what is needed from their environment.

Making the rounds

*This technique is a Gestalt exercise that involves asking a person in a group to go up to others in the group and either speak to or do something with each person. *The purpose is to confront, to risk, to disclose the self, to experiment with new behaviour, and to grow and change.

Empty-chair technique

*This technique is a vehicle for role reversal, which is useful in bringing into consciousness the fantasies of what the "other" might be thinking or feeling. *Essentially, this is a role-playing technique in which all the parts are played by the client. *Using two chairs, the therapist asks the client to sit in one chair and be fully the top dog and then shift to the other chair and become the underdog. *This exercise helps clients get in touch with a feeling or a side of themselves that they may be denying; rather than merely talking about a conflicted feeling, they intensify the feeling and experience it fully. *The aim is not to rid oneself of certain traits, but to learn to accept and live with the polarities.

Field theory

*This theory asserts that the organism must be seen in its environment, or in its context, as part of the constantly changing field. *Gestalt therapists pay attention to and explore what is occurring at the boundary between the person and the environment. *Emphasis may be on a figure or the ground. *Cues to this background can be found on the surface through physical gestures, tone of voice, demeanor, and other nonverbal content. *So Gestalt therapists as "attend to the obvious," while paying attention to how the parts fit together, how the individual makes contact with the environment, and integration.

Founders of gestalt therapy

*This therapy was founded by Fritz Perls and his wife Laura Perls. *Fritz's experiences with soldiers who were gassed on the front lines led him to his interest in mental functioning. *Fitz was influenced by psychoanalytic concepts, but stressed a holistic approach to personality (rather than Freud's mechanistic view). Freud focused on repressed intrapsychic conflicts from early childhood, whereas Perls valued examining the present situation.

"It" talk

*When clients say "it" instead of "I," they are using depersonalizing language. *The counselor may ask them to substitute personal pronouns for impersonal ones so that they will assume an increased sense of responsibility. Eg: "It is difficult to make friends," instead of "I have trouble making friends."

Diversity weaknesses of gestalt therapy

1. Gestalt methods can lead to a high level of intense feelings. In certain cultures, some individuals believe expressing feelings openly is a sign of weakness and a display of one's vulnerability 2. Some individuals have strong cultural injunctions prohibiting them from directly expressing their emotions

Principles of gestalt therapy

1. Holism. 2. Field theory. 3. Figure-formation process. 4. Organismic self-regulation.

Limitations of Gestalt therapy

1. The approach has the potential for the therapist to abuse power by using powerful techniques without proper training. 2. This approach may not be useful for clients who have difficulty abstracting and imagining. 3. The emphasis on therapist authenticity and self-disclosure may be overpowering for some clients (some people need a more nurturing, calm therapist; so for vulnerable people this therapy can do more harm than good). So it can be disempowering if done by a non-skilled operator. 4. This approach (traditional version) can be really confronting (calling people out), and de-emphaises the cognitive factors of personality.

Contributions of Gestalt therapy

1. This therapy is a creative and lively approach that uses experiments to move clients from talk to action/ experience, and deals with the past by bringing relevant aspects into the present. 2. Clients are provided with a wide range of tools for discovering new faces of themselves/ making decisions about changing their lives. 3. It is a holistic approach that values each aspect of the individual's experience equally. 4. Paying attention to the obvious verbal and nonverbal leads provided by clients is a useful way to approach a counselling session. 5. Gestalt methods bring conflicts and human struggles to life. 6. The Gestalt approach to working with dreams is a unique pathway for people to increase their awareness of key themes in their lives. 7. Gestalt therapy is a holistic approach that values each aspect of the individual's experience equally. 8. Gestalt therapy integrates theory, practice, and research.

Confluence

A form of resistance: blurring the differentiation between the self and the environment. *As we strive to blend in and get along with everyone, there is no clear demarcation between internal experience and outer reality. *If this exists in relationships, there is an absence of conflicts, slowness to anger, and a belief that all parties experience the same feelings and thoughts we do. *This style of contact is characteristic of clients who have a high need to be accepted and liked, thus finding enmeshment comfortable. *But this condition makes genuine contact extremely difficult.

Deflection

A form of resistance: the process of distraction or veering off, so that it is difficult to maintain a sustained sense of contact. *We attempt to diffuse contact through the overuse of humor, abstract generalizations, and questions rather than statements. *When we do this, we speak through and for others, beating around the bush rather than being direct, and engaging the environment in an inconsistent and inconsequential basis, which results in emotional depletion.

Introjection

A form of resistance: the tendency to uncritically accept others' beliefs and standards, without assimilating them to make them congruent with who we are. *When we do this, we passively incorporate what the environment provides us, rather than clearly identifying what we want or need. *If we remain in this stage, our energy is bound up in taking things as we find them and believing that authorities know what is best for us; rather than working for things ourselves.

Retroflection

A form of resistance: turning back onto ourselves what we would like to do to someone else, or doing to ourselves what we would like someone else to do to or for us. *This process is principally an interruption of the action phase in the cycle of experience, and typically involves a fair amount of anxiety. *People who rely on this tend to inhibit themselves from taking action out of fear of embarrassment, guilt, and resentment. *Eg: people who self-mutilate or who injure themselves are often directing aggression inward out of fear of directing it toward others. *Depression and psychosomatic complaints are often created by this resistance. *Typically, these maladaptive styles of functioning are adopted outside of our awareness (so part of therapy is helping us self-regulate to deal reastically with the world).

Projection

A form of resistance: we disown certain aspects of ourselves by assigning them to the environment. *The attributes of our personality that are inconsistent with our self-image are disowned and put onto other people; thus, blaming others for our problems. *By seeing in others the very qualities that we refuse to acknowledge in ourselves, we avoid taking responsibility for our own feelings and the person who we are, and this keeps us powerless to initiate change. *These people tend to feel that they are victims of circumstances, and they believe that people have hidden meanings behind what they say.

Dialogue

An engagement between people who each bring their unique experiences to that meeting (the main goal of therapy).

Phenomenological

Focuses on the client's perceptions of reality. *The emphasis on creating real experiences in the therapy room, rather than a reliance on abstraction. *Involves simulation, role play, feeling the feelings that the client has experienced during the week. *Eg: rather than talking about childhood trauma, the client is encouraged to become the hurt child. *So it's all about direct experience, rather than just talking about situations.

Gestalt definition

German word meaning "whole" or "complete"; the entire picture. *A form that cannot be separated into parts without losing its essence.

Ground

The aspects of the client's presentation that are often out of his or her awareness.

Figure

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

Experiment in gestalt therapy

These techniques grow out of the interaction between the client and therapist, and emerge within the dialogic process. *This is an intervention, an active technique that facilitates the collaborative exploration of a client's experience. *It is spontaneously created to fit what is happening the therapeutic process, to help clients gain fuller awareness and experience internal conflicts. *It is an intentional entry into a novel experience aimed at discovery. *It encourages encourage spontaneity and inventiveness by bringing the possibilities for action directly into the therapy session *It is fundamental to gestalt therapy. *What comes out of it is a surprise to both client and therapist. *Clients use this to increase their range of flexibility of behaviour, by dramatizing or playing out problem situations/ relationships in the relative safety of the therapy context. *But they are only means to the end of helping people become more aware and making changes they most desire.

Gestalt therapy

This is an existential, phenomenological and process-based approach. Three cornerstones: 1. Awareness (of what they're experiencing in the present moment). 2. Choice. 3. Responsibility. *Main focuses: the "what" and "how" of experience, the therapist's authenticity, active dialogic inquiry and exploration, and I/Thour relating. *How people are behaving is more important than why they are behaving that way. *Very energetic, hands on. *Great for group therapy. *Lots of defined techniques. *About the NOW. *It is existential because it is grounded in the notion that people are always in the process of becoming, remaking and rediscovering themselves/ affirms the human capacity for growth and healing through interpersonal contact and insight.

Listening for language that uncovers a story

• *"Fleshing out a flash." *Clients often use language that is elusive, yet gives significant clues to a story that illustrates their life struggles. *Effective therapists learn to pick out a small part of what someone says and then to focus on and develop this element. *It is essential for therapists to pay attention to what is fascinating about the person who is sitting before them and get that person to tell a story. *Storytelling is not always a form of resistance, and can be the heart of the therapeutic process. So, the therapist's task is to assist clients in telling their story in a lively way.