Chapter 8: Gestalt Therapy

Therapy Interventions: Purpose and techniques/experiments 6 methodological components

6 METHODOLOGICAL COMPONENTS 1. continuum of experience 2. the here and now 3. the paradoxical theory of change 4. the experiment 5. the authentic encounter 6. process-oriented diagnosi

Confrontation:

Asking client to do something that they are uncomfortable with ie ask to analyze behaviors, attitudes, and thoughts

Therapy Interventions: Purpose and techniques/experiments Clients expectations

CLIENTS EXPECTATIONS: move toward increased awareness of themselves gradually assume ownership of experience and responsibility of thinking develop skills and acquire values that allow satisfaction of needs without violating rights of others. become more aware of all senses. learn to accept responsibility and accept consequences for actions be able to ask for and get help from others and to give help in return

Contact:

CONTACT - seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and moving about and interacting with nature and with other people without losing one's sense of individuality. prereqs - clear awareness, full energy, and ability to express oneself. after contact a withdrawal happens to assimilate learning

Therapy Interventions: Purpose and techniques/experiments Field Theory

FIELD THEORY- A dynamic system of interrelationships the organism must be seen in its environment, or context, as part of the constantly changing field. everything is in flux.

Therapy Interventions: Purpose and techniques/experiments Figure-Formation Process -

FIGURE-FORMATION PROCESS: tracks how some aspects of the environment field emerges to become the focal point of an individual's' attention and interest.

Therapy Interventions: Purpose and techniques/experiments Holism

HOLISM - Gestalt - German word for whole or completion Attends to client's thoughts. feelings, behaviors, body, memories, and dreams figure - Aspects of the individual's experience that are most salient at any moment. ground - aspects of the client's presentation that are often out of his or her awareness.

Application to Group Counseling:

Leaders are actively engaged with the members, and frequently engage in self-disclosure to enhance relationships and create a sense of mutuality within the group Group members can act things out with each other, increasing engagement

Techniques: PART 2

Making the rounds - ask a person to go up to others in a group and interact with each person The reversal exercise - have a person play the role of the persona that they are timid of The rehearsal exercise - have client act out a mental rehearsal The exaggeration exercise - client is asked to exaggerate movement Staying with the feeling - client is asked to linger in uncomfortable feelings Dream work - relive dreams by acting them out.

Therapy Interventions: Purpose and techniques/experiments Organic Self-Regulation

ORGANIC SELF-REGULATION: process by which equilibrium is disturbed by the emergence of a need, a sensation, or an interest. organisms do their best to regulate themselves.

Energy and Blocks of Energy

Posture, closed or open, mumbling, etc.

Resistance to Contact:

RESISTANCE: "contact boundary phenomena" - means of coping with life situations Introjection - tendency to uncritically accept others' beliefs and standards without assimilating them to make them congruent with who we are. passively incorporate without clearly identifying what we want or need. Projection - disown certain aspects of ourselves by assigning them to the environment Retroflection - 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. Deflection - process of distraction or veering off so that it is difficult to maintain a sustained sense of contact. Confluence - blurring the differentiation between the self and the environment.

Techniques: PART 1

TECHNIQUES: "It" talk - where applicable have client substitute "it" for "I" in the things they say "You" talk - where applicable have client substitute "you" for "I" in the things they say questions - have clients change differing questions to statements language that denies power - help client to change "maybe", "perhaps", etc. to I can, I can't, etc. Listening to clients' metaphors - can get insights into clients' struggles through their metaphors Listening to language that uncovers the story - pick out the language to build the story Empty-chair technique - set up two chairs. Have client sit in one chair and be the role of the top dog, then the other chair and be the underdog

Therapy Interventions: Purpose and techniques/experiments The Now

THE NOW: Phenomenological Inquiry - involves paying attention to what is occurring now. past experiences affect the present so they are dealt with in the present

Experiments:

Techniques that grow out the interaction between client and therapist. *crafted to fit individual *spontaneous, on-of-a-kind, and relevant *client needs to trust therapist *ask if client would like to participate in an experiment do not issue in a commanding fashion "are you willing to give it a try and see what happens?

Therapist's function and role

The therapist's job is to invite clients into an active partnership where they can learn about themselves by adopting an experimental attitude toward life in which they try out new behaviors and notice what happens. pay attention to body language/non-verbals call attention to them 3 stages of integration: 1. discovery 2. accomodation 3. assimilation

Therapy Interventions: Purpose and techniques/experiments Unfinished business

UNFINISHED BUSINESS: when figures emerge from the background but are not completed or resolved. exhibited in resentment, rage, hatred, pain, anxiety, grief, guilt and abandonment. Impasse - stuck point - the time when external support in not available or the customary way of being does not work.

Gestalt Therapy

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. **stresses dialogue and relationship between client and therapist. **supportive, empathetic, respectful, dialogical, and challenging **help client see what they are doing and how they are doing it. **assumption - that individuals have the capacity to self-regulate when they are aware of what is happening in and around them. **paradoxical theory of change - that authentic change occurs more from being who we are than from trying to be who we are not.

Exercises:

ready-made techniques