Gestalt TherapyTheory and Practice

ICPPD Diploma Year 2Ethna Quigley

andAudrey Henshaw

Overview

• Historical Roots• Definition of Gestalt• Theoretical Concepts• The Gestalt Approach to Therapy• “I” “Thou” Relationship

“Perhaps one of the greatest talents of Frederick “Fritz” Perls the primary founder of Gestalt therapy and the collaborators Laura Perls and Paul Goodman, was their ability to synthesise ideas from many sources to develop a integrative, theoretical and methodological therapy, encompassing mind, body, spirit and interpersonal connection.”

Jennifer Mackewn

Historical roots

• Developed by Fritz Perls, Laura Pearls, and Paul Goodman

• Emerged in the 1950s and 1960s an era of challenging psychological, sexual, moral, and societal norms

• Synthesis of different psychological concepts and approaches

Historical Roots

• Psychoanalysis• Theatre• Gestalt Psychology and Philosophy• Field Theory • Phenomenology• Holism• Existential Philosophy• Psychodrama • Eastern Religion

Historical Roots

The seeds of Gestalt therapy were planted well in advanced of Fredrick Perls and have fully germinated in to a comprehensive theory of psychotherapy and a philosophical foundation for living. (Bowman 2005 Gestalt Therapy History Theory and Practice p 5)

Definition of Gestalt

Gestalt is a German word meaning a ‘Whole’ or a

completion that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Gestalt cannot be understood as a sum of smaller, independent events.

An integrated person is aware of all the elements that unite to make them whole- their body, feelings, intellect and senses.

Practice Definition of Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt therapy is a process psychotherapy with the goal of improving one’s contact in community and with the environment in general, spontaneous and authentic dialogue between client and therapist. Awareness of differences and similarities [is] encouraged while interruptions to contact are explored in the present therapeutic relationship. (Bowman, 1998, p106)

Theoretical Concepts

• Field Theory• Phenomenology• Dialogic Relationship• Holism• Theory of Self• Cycle of Awareness• Contact

Field Theory

“The Field is all the co-existing, mutually interdependent factors of a person in his environment.”

Clarkson and MacKewan 1993

Group Experiential Exercise demonstrating Field Theory

Five Principles of Gestalt Field Theory ( Malcolm Parlett )

1. The Principle of Organisation: Meaning is derived from seeing the whole, the total situation, everything is interconnected

2. Principle of Contemporaneity: Whatever the situation, all that is happening is happening

simultaneously now . Only from the present influence of the field can we make sense of our present experience.

• Our power is in the present, for many people the power of the present is lost

• The past is gone and the future has not yet arrived • To be fully aware is to live in the here and now

Five Principles of Field Theory

3. The Principle of Singularity: Everyone is unique. Each person’s experience is unique

4. The Principle of Changing Process: Nothing is static. Nothing is permanent. Life is always in process. Change is occurring all the time.

5. The Principle of Possible Relevance: Everything in the field has possible meaning. Everything is part of the total organisation.

Phenomenology

• The Phenomenological method of enquiry used in Gestalt Therapy builds on the belief that one individual cannot know the truth of another’s reality.

• Phenomenological enquiry honours the primary experiences of the client and the therapist

Phenomenology

• Gestalt therapy treats the phenomenology of the person; their sensations, perceptions, thoughts, visualisations etc. as seen and experienced from their point of view.

• The initial goal is for the client to gain awareness of what they are experiencing and doing now.

• The therapist needs to be aware that their own way(s) of perceiving clients or their situations are likely to be different from the clients ways of perceiving themselves

The phenomenological method of enquiry

• The Gestalt Phenomenological method involves (Spinelli, 1989)

• Bracketing – setting aside prior assumptions and biases in order to focus on here and now experience.

• Describing- rather than explaining or interpreting, rather than talk about the client is encouraged to become.

• Equalising- openness to equal significance of all aspects of the field as described, rather than assuming a hierarchy of prior importance.

The Clinical Application of Phenomenology

• Listening without judgements• Raising Awareness• Staying close to the clients experience as possible• Exploring how the client makes meaning of their

existence and issues (how the client is co-creating their problem)

• A shared investigation• Staying with the obvious (staying with what “is” rather

than what the client talks “about”)• Frequently returning to the phenomenological method (Joyce & Sills, 2002)

The Dialogic Relationship

• Martin Buber’s philosophy of I –Thou relating is the heart of Gestalt therapy

“ The human heart yearns for contact – above all it yearns for genuine dialogue... Each of us secretly and desperately yearns to be ‘met’ – to be recognised in our uniqueness, our fullness and our vulnerability. (Hycner and Jacobs,1995:9)

Dialogic Relationship

• Acceptance – not trying to fix• Presence – fully present, allowing ourselves to be moved• Inclusion – an extension of empathy, therapists awareness• Open Communication – validates and equalises relationship

MacKewen (1993)states:

“The power to heal lies not in the therapist or even in the client alone but in what happens between them”

Holism

• Gestalt Therapy views the person as a unified whole, focusing on the integration of mind, body and soul.

• Perls, Hefferline & Goodman (1951) insisted that it was unintelligible to think of a person out of context, they called the relationship of the person in their environment ‘the organism/environment field

Theory of Self

• The Gestalt view of human nature is grounded in the holistic organismic self-regulating tendency of the individual to move in the direction of growth through the process of need satisfaction; figure formation and destruction within the environmental field.

• Figure and Ground emphasises the selective nature of perception, some things will stand out while others remain in the background.

Cycle of Awareness

• Perls believed that our moment to moment experience is organised in a cyclic pattern similar to the pattern of birth, growth, destruction and renewal, observable in nature and the seasonal flow of change.

• Personal needs, likewise arise, are recognised, and satisfied and recede.

Stages of Cycle of Awareness

• Sensation• Awareness• Mobilisation• Contact• Withdrawal/Satisfaction• Integration

Interruptions to the Contact Cycle

• There are seven interruptions to the Contact Cycle:

• Desensitisation• Deflection• Introjection• Projection• Retroflection• Egotism• Confluence

Interruptions/Modifications to Contact

The seven traditional ‘interruptions’ to contact represent one pole of a continuum, each one has its opposite pole. (Joyce P., Sills C.:113)

Desensitisation....................... SensitivityDeflection................................ReceptionIntrojection..............................RejectionProjection.................................OwnershipRetroflection.............................ImpulsivenessEgotism......................................SpontaneityConfluence.................................Withdrawal

Desensitisation

• Disturbance in the sensation stage of contacting by which an individual numbs their natural ability to sense their world.

Deflection

• Deflection is the process of avoiding contact with either an internal stimulus or one from the environment e.g. Avoiding eye contact, being abstract rather than specific, being polite rather than direct, and excessive use of language.

Introjection

• Introjection is the taking into our system aspects of the environment without assimilating them, therefore we do not know what we need or want

• We swallow them whole and, in the physiological sense, food, which is not assimilated, sits heavily in our stomach and causes discomfort.

Projection

• “A Projection is a trait, attitude, feeling or an aspect of behaviour which actually belongs to your own personality but is not experienced as such; instead it is attributed to objects or persons in the environment and then experienced as directed towards you by them instead of the other way round. The projector unaware for instance that he is rejecting others, believes that they are in fact rejecting him” Perls, Hefferline & Goodman(1951)

Retroflection

• “Retroflection means that some function which originally is directed from the individual towards the world, changes its direction and is bent back towards the originator”.

Perls 1947

Egotism

• Egotism refers to the tendency of a person to interrupt contact by deliberate introspection of themselves, evaluating ‘their being’ in a way that robs the moment of spontaneity.

Confluence

• “Confluence occurs when two people or two parts of the field flow together without a sense of differentiation”

Perls et al• The person has a strong need for approval

and acceptance

Growth Disorder• Perls re-named the process of neurosis , growth –

disorder, emphasising the fact that plants and animals do not prevent their own growth- only humans do.

• The person avoids awareness of what they really are, need or want and cling to fixed patterns of behaviour.

In contrast: ‘People actualise their full potential by knowing and

facing themselves in their wholeness’ (Clarkson & Mckewan, 1993)

5 Layer Model of Neurosis• Perls developed a model of neurosis, in which he

proposed a five level structure of neurotic disturbance (Clarkson & Mckewan 1993)

• 1. Cliche or Phoney Layer characterised by shallow inauthentic contact , “You Should...”

• 2. Role playing or Phobic layer – person defines themselves by their roles rather than their real self, acting according to the role expected. Avoidance of emotional pain.

• 3. Impasse layer – Game playing is abandoned, becoming aware of their true feelings and the contradicting inner struggles. Stuckness and resistance.

5 Layer Model of Neurosis

• 4. Implosive layer – The person experiences paralysis of these opposing forces within their inner depths, lack of energy.

• 5. Explosive layer – The force of the person finds expression, exploding in their own authenticity of being as they truly are.

Unfinished Business and Fixed Gestalts

• Unresolved childhood situations are often the source of ‘Fixed Gestalts’, these unfinished situations struggle for closure later in life.

• ‘Some episode of childhood history, some important early need, was left unsatisfied and the person did not complete the cycle in a way that was right for him or her biologically or psychologically.’ (Clarkson 1989)

Contact

• ‘Contact, as described by Perls. Hefferline & Goodman (1973), is the meeting between one person and another or the meeting between a person and his environment’.

• Contact takes place at the boundary of the self and the environment.

• Through contact one does not have to try to change; change simply occurs (Polster and Polster,1974:101)

“Contact is the source of our richest joy and our most intensely painful moments” (Clarkson, 1989:35)

The Gestalt Approach to Therapy• The aim of Gestalt therapy is the restoration of

healthy contact, enabling the person to live life to their full potential.

• Good Gestalt practice can be described by the following four characteristics:

Focus on here and now emerging experiencesThe offer of a dialogic relationshipA perspective of field theory and holismA creative, experimental attitude to life and the

process of therapy.

Awareness

• ‘Awareness is a form of experiencing. It is the process of being in vigilant contact with the most important event in the individual/environment field, with full sensorimotor, emotional, cognitive and energetic support.’ (Yontef, 1979)

• Zones of Awareness – Inner Zone, Outer Zone, Middle Zone.

Paradoxical Theory of Change• Change occurs when one becomes what he is,

not when he tries to become what he is not. (Beisser, 1970:77)

• People change when they give up struggling to be what they would like to become, but instead allow themselves to be fully aware of what they are now at this moment in time.

• The Gestalt therapist declines the role of ‘change agent’ and undertakes a collaborative enquiry to develop greater awareness for the client. (Clarkson and McKewan 1993)

Creative Indifference

• The concept of creative indifference ‘is based on the idea that the counsellor does not have any vested interest in any particular outcome’ (Joyce and Sills, 2001)

• The therapist is not attached in the success of any single outcome, and holds value on all aspects of the client as a whole system (Clarkson and McKewan 1993)

I – Thou Relationship

• Gestalt emphasises the importance of phenomenology, field theory, here and now, as central to true ‘I - Thou’ relating which values the authentic meeting of souls.

• Both the therapist and the client are equals• The therapist acts openly and congruently,

meeting the client with respect and without judgement.

Therapeutic Techniques of Gestalt Therapy

• The Internal Dialogue exercise – “Top-Dog”, “Under Dog”, working with polarities.

• Empty Chair – externalises introjects, helps client get in touch with other aspect of self

• “I take responsibility for...” – added to a client’s statement allows them to accept their feelings

• Playing the projection – play the role of the untrustworthy person• Rehearsal exercise – client shares rehearsal out loud• Reversal technique – a shy person plays the role of an exhibitionist• Exaggeration exercise – client is asked to exaggerate a movement or gesture• Staying with the feeling – Therapist encourages the client to stay with the

discomfort of the feeling• Making the rounds – asking a group member to go to other members of the

group and make a statement

Gestalt Experiments• The Gestalt therapist works creatively with the client and

may design experiments which are appropriate to the clients process.

• The experiment ‘transforms talking about into doing, stale reminiscing and theorising into being fully here with all ones imagination, energy, and excitement. (Zinker, 1977)

• Experiments emerge from authentic contact and interaction between therapist and client.

• Must be here and now relevant and spontaneous experiences.

• Are the foundation of experiential learning and new awareness and insights.

Gestalt Approach to Dream Work

• Perls stated that dreams were the ‘royal road to integration’(1969:71) – the most spontaneous expression of the existence of the human being.

• Dreams contains an existential message or statement

• Represent unfinished business• Are projections of some aspects of the dreamer• Different parts of the dream are expressions of

the client’s inconsistent and conflicting sides

Gestalt Approach to Dream WorkGestalts Therapists: Do not interpret or analyze the dream Help the client to re-own aspects of the self that have been

projected on to people or objects in the dream by: - allowing the client relive the dream in the here and now - becoming each part of the dream - engaging in dialogue between the different parts or

characters in the dreamAs common themes emerge the client awareness is sharpened

and they may experience an aha moment (Joyce P & Sills C: 177)

Applications of Gestalt Therapy

• Long term therapy• Brief therapy• Play therapy• Group therapy• Couples therapy• Organisational therapy

Reference Clarkson, P 1989 Gestalt Counselling in Action. London: Sage Publications• Clarkson, P. & Mackewn, J. 1993 Fritz Perls. London: Sage.• Fagan, J. Shepard I.L Gestalt Therapy New York: Harper Colophon Books• MacKewan, J. 1997 Developing Gestalt Counselling. London: Sage

Publications• Perls, F., Hefferline,R. Goodman, P. (1951-1969), Gestalt Therapy

Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality. New York: Souvenir Press.

• Spinelli, E. 1989 Interpersonal World. London: Sage Publications• Zinker J. 1977 Creative Process in Gestalt Therapy. New York: Vintage

Books• Yontef, G. 1991 Recent trends in Gestalt therapy, The British Gestalt

Journal, 1: 5-20.