Gestalt Group

"It"

- it talk is a way of depersonalizing language, - by using it instead of I, we maintain distance from experience

Here-and-Now

- Emphasis on learning to appreciate and fully experience the present. - The past is gone, and the future has not yet arrived, whereas the present moment is lively and exciting. - Past is important, but only as it is related to our present functioning Gestalt therapy: Encompasses the past to help influence the future - Group process: uses present-centered-ness to increase awareness and bring about change - The group process offers a greater chance to awaken unfinished business in members

A. The Dialogue Approach

- Fantasy dialogues are meant to promote awareness of internal splits and eventual personality integration These dialogues can take many forms (Dialogues between opposing sides or polarities with oneself or dialogues with a parents or other significant person) - Can help members increase their awareness of the dichotomies within themselves - Come to terms with dimensions of their personality that seem to oppose each other

Therapeutic Goals of the Gestalt

- Increased awareness, clients have the capacity to find the resources necessary to solve their problems and discover conditions that will make change possible - Awareness requires: self-knowledge, responsibility for choices, contact with the environment, immersion in current experience, self-acceptance, ability to make contact, and ability to integrate the conflicting "selfs" of the individual

D. Dream work

- Intent is to bring the dream back to life, - To re-create it and live it as if it were happening now Members may be asked to transform key elements of the dream into a dialogue and each become part of the dream

Role of Gestalt Leader

- Leaders' approach is non-interprative. - Encourage the members to discover their own meaning - Supporting the client to become more aware of his or her experience without pushing or blaming Leaders focus on conscious awareness, contact and experimentation - Actively engaged with group members and may use self- disclosure as a way to enhance relationships and create a sense of mutuality within the group - Their function is to create an atmosphere and structure in which the group's own creativity and inventiveness can emerge

B. Making the rounds

- Member is encouraged to go around to each of the group members and say something that he or she does, usually not communicate verbally

E. Exaggeration technique

- Members are asked to repeat and intensify a particular behavior for the purpose of bringing out-of-awareness emotional processes to awareness

C. Rehearsal

- Members say out loud what they are thinking silently This technique is useful when members are doing a lot of blocking and censoring - What they say seems carefully measured out to a certain effect

Role of Therapeutic Relationship

- To engage participants and assist them in developing their own awareness of how they are in the present moment - Therapist is called on to see clients as they are, hear them as they are, talk to them as they are, and sense them as they are - to identify with them and create a union.

"Can't"

- group members say I can't instead of I won't. - Members should use won't to own and accept their power by taking responsibility for their decisions.

Unfinished Busines

- includes unexpressed feelings- resentment, hate, rage, pain, hurt, anxiety, grief and events and memories that linger in the background and clamor for completion - Leader would attempt to work with unfinished business in a group by encouraging feelings that have never been expressed before Therapist would design an experiment in which she can deepen her awareness of her fears/feelings. For example, talking to group members or telling each member one of her fears.

"Oughts and Shoulds"

- members who deal with this should instead say I ought to, - a sense of empowerment instead of this powerlessness that comes with "shouldisms" and oughts

"You"

- people detach themselves from whatever they may be feeling. Change YOU statements to I statements

F. Language Usage

1. "it" 2. "You" 3. "Can't" 4. "Oughts and Shoulds"

Paradoxical Theory of Change

Change tends to occur when we become aware of what we are, as opposed to what we are not

Implications for Group Practice

Creative adjustments occur, and aspects of the individual are lost to awareness (due to environments where members are never completely responsive to their needs)

Gestalt Leader's Questions

Does not take the position of being interpretive - Does not try to explain to members why they do things - Not interpret the true meaning of members' experiences Leaders encourage members to discover their own meaning - Questions used during a group session are meant to lead a group member to discover any meaning of their own experiences on their own

Techniques

Exercises or procedures that are often used to bring about action or interaction, sometimes with a prescribed outcome in mind

Basic Assumption in Gestalt

Individuals can self-regulate, especially if they are fully aware of what is happening in and around them.

Awareness in Gestalt Group

Members become aware of experience of here-and-now Leader asks "what" and "how" questions but rarely "why" questions - Help members stay with the movement-to-movement flow of experiencing - Members discover how they are functioning in the world Leaders employ the figure-formation process - also focus on the surface behavior by concentrating on the group member's movements, postures, language patterns, voice, gestures, and interactions with others

Theory of Change

More we attempt to be who we are not, the more we remain the same

Re-experiencing Past Traumas

Participants bring past problem situations into the present by reenacting the situation as if it were occurring in the here-and-now - Forces the participant to deal with whatever problem they are suffering with in the here-and-now - When another group member is acting out a role, it brings an interpersonal dimension to the Gestalt work - It encourages other members to get involved by expressing their reactions to others in the group.

Experiments

Phenomenologically based, - Evolving out of what is occurring within a member or members within the present moment - Outcome is unknown

Questions for Present- Centeredness

What are you experiencing now? What's going on inside you as you're speaking? How are you experiencing your anxiety in your body? How are you attempting to withdraw at this moment, and how are you avoiding contact with unpleasant feeling? What's your feeling at this moment as you sit there and try to talk? What do you hear in your voice as you talk to your father now?