Gestalt Therapy

Is gestalt therapy future oriented or present, "here and now" focusing?

"here and now" - Present

Paradoxical theory of change

And individual changes when they become aware of who they are, as opposed to trying to become who they are not.

Blocked Energy

Another form of defensive -It can be manifested by tension in some part of the body, by poster, by keeping one's body tight and closed, by not breathing deeply, by looking away from people when speaking to avoid contact, by choking off sensations, by numbing feelings, and by speaking with a restricted voice, etc.

The figure formation process (principle)

Derived from the field of visual perception by a group of psychologists, the process describes how the individual organizes experience from moment to moment. Foreground(figure) and background (ground) -tracks how some aspect of the environmental field emerges from the background and becomes the focal point of the individual's attention and interest. (the dominant needs of the individual at any given moment influence this process.

Organismic Self-Regulation (principle)

Figure formation is interwined, its a process in which equilibrium is "disturbed" by the emergence of a need, a sensation, or an interest. *consider given their capabilities and resources of their environment. Individuals can take actions and make contacts that will restore equilibrium or contribute to growth/change. **Goal is to help the client to obtain closure of unfinished situations, destroy fixed gestalts, and incorporate more satisfying ones.

What is relational Gestalt therapy?

Following the lead of Laura Perls, this therapy type stresses dialogue and relationship between client and therapist. The emphasis is on the quality of the therapist-client relationship and empathic attunement while tapping the client's wisdom and resources.

What is the initial goal in Gestalt Therapy?

For clients to gain awareness of what they are experiencing and how they are doing it.

What is a basic assumption of Gestalt therapy?

Individuals have the capacity to self-regulate when they are aware of what is happening in and around them.

In Gestalt therapy "Aware-ness" is defined as?

Involves insight and sometimes introspection. Therapist devise experiments designed to increase clients' awareness of WHAT they are doing HOW they are doing it.

Phenomenological inquiry

Involves paying attention to what is occurring now, to help the client make contact with the present moment, *therapist ask "What" & "how" questions and rarely ask "why" **making sure client stays in the present

Is gestalt therapy lively and promote direct experience or does it involve abstractness of talking about situation.

Lively and promote direct experiences

Field Theory (Principle)

Organism must be seen it its environment, or in its context, part of the constantly changing field. Everything is in flux, interrelated and in process. *pay attention to and explore what is occurring at the boundary between the person and the environment *It is the entire situation of the therapist, the client, and everything in-between. The field is made & constantly remade.

Impasse

Stuck point, time when external support is not available or the customary way of behind does not work. **Therapist's task is to accompany clients in experiencing it, without rescuing or frustrating them. *individuals have a striving towards actualization/growth, therapist encourages, aids in this process.

Gestalt Therapy

This theory is an existential, phenomenological, and process-based approach created on the premise that individuals must be understood in the context of their ongoing relationship with the environment.

In Gestalt therapy, what is expected of clients?

To do own seeing, feeling, sensing, and interpreting as opposed to waiting passively for the therapist to provide them with insight and answers.

unfinished business

When figures emerge front he background and are not completed or resolved. These can manifest in unexpressed feelings such as resentment, rage, hatred, pain, anxiety, grief, guilt, and abandonment. (Because the feelings are not fully experience in awareness, they linger in the background and are carried into present life in ways that interfere with effective contact with oneself and others. *Incomplete directions do seek completion and when powerful enough, the individual is beset with preoccupation, compulsive behavior, wariness, oppressive genergy and much self-defeating behavior, effects can also show up in blockage with the body.(physical sensations or problems) **unacknowledged feelings create unnecessary emotional debris that clutters present-centered awareness.

Holism (Principle)

Word meaning whole or complete, or a form that cannot be separated into parts. Being interested in the whole person. The practice attends to client's thoughts, feelings, behaviors, body, memories, and dreams. Figure (aspects of the individual's experience that are most salient Ground(aspects of the client's presentation that are often out of his/her awareness.cues-physcial gestures, tone of voice, demeanor, and other non-verbal content.

Retroflection

consists of 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 & typically involves a fair amount of anxiety. *people who rely on retroflection tend to inhibit themselves from taking action out of fear of embarrassment, guilt, and resentment *people who self-mutilate or who injure themsef are often directing aggression inward out of fear of directing it towards others. *Depression and psychosomatic complaints are often created by retroflecting. These maladaptive styles of functioning are adopted outside of our awareness: part of the process of GT is to help us discover a self-regulatory system so that we can deal realistically with the world.

Referes to the characteristic sales people emily in their attempts to control their environment through one of these channels of resistance. *These have served an important function in the past. *Its important to explore what the resistance does for clients: what it protects them from, and what it keeps them from experiencing.

interruptions in contact or boundary disturbance (referring to defense behaviors)

Confluence

involves blurring the differentiation between the self and the environment. -As we strive to blend in/get along with everyone, there is no clear demarcation between internal experience & outer reality. -relationships involves absence of conflicts, slowness to anger, and a belief that all parties experience the same feelings & thoughts we do. *style is characteristic of clients who have a high need to be accepted and liked, thus finding enmeshment comfortable. -This condition makes genuine contact extremely difficult *Therapist might assist chlients who use this channel of resistance by asking questions such as "What are you doing now? What are you experiencing at this moment? What do you want right now?

Main contribution of the Gestalt approach?

learning to appreciate and fully experience the present moment "power in the present"

contact

made by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and moving *Effectively done-- interacting with nature & other people without losing one's sense of individuality. *Prerequisites for good contact are clear awareness, full energy, and the ability to express oneself. *Gestalt therapist also focus on interruptions, disturbances and resistance to content, coping skill developed that end up preventing us from experiencing the present in a full way. (5 total)

Deflection

process of distraction or veering off, so that it is difficult to maine a sustained sense of contact. -we attempt to diffuse or defuse contact through the overuse of humor, abstract generalizations, and questions rather than statement. -act of speaking 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.

Projection

reverse of introjection, -we disown certain aspects of ourselves by assigning them to the environment. *put into, assign to, seen in other people, blaming others for lots of our own problems. -seeing in others the qualities we refuse to acknowledge in ourselves, we avoid taking responsibility for our own feelings, keeping us powerless to initiate change. *tend to feel they are the victims of circumstances, and they believe that people have hidden meanings behind what they say.

Introjection

tendency to uncritically accept others's beliefs & standard without assimilating them to make them congruent with who we are. *remain alien to use due to not analyzing and restructuring them. *when we do this, we passively incorporate what the environment provides rather than clearly denitrify what we want/need. *If we stay in this, 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.