gestalt therapy

COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY (KSH 3023)

THEORIES AND TECHNIQUES OF COUNSELLING

CHAPTER 8 : GESTALT THERAPYPresented by:

NUR HIDAYAH BINTI ABDUL RAZAK (D20121057613)

NURHIDAIYAH BINTI JUHAN (D20121057684)

NOOR ATIRAH BINTI HASHIM (D20121057687)

Lecturer:

ASSOC. PROF. CR. DR. ABDUL MALEK ABDUL RAHMAN

THE DEVELOPERS

FREDERICK S. (FRITZ) PERLS (main)

LAURA POSNER PERLS

INTRODUCTION Gestalt therapy is an existential,

phenomenological and process-based approach

Individuals must be understood in the context of their ongoing relationship with environment

Awareness, choice and responsibility are cornerstones of practice

CONT… The initial goal-to gain awareness of

what clients are experiencing in the present moment

Automatically change would occur through awareness

Gestalt therapy is lively & promotes direct experiencing rather than the abstractness of talking about situations

VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE (VOHN) Fritz (1969) prcticed Gestalt therapy

paternalistically: client have to grown up, stand on their own feet “deals with their life problems by

themselves” Genuine knowledge is the product of what

is immediately evident in the experience of the receiver

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

Principles of Gestalt Therapy(VoHN)

Basic Concept

Therapeutic

Techniques

Application of

Techniques

Limitation

• -Intertwined with the figure-formation process

•A process by which equilibrium is

“disturbed” by the emergence of a need, a sensation or an interest.

•Individuals can take action and make contacts that

will restore the equilibrium or contribute to growth &

change.

•Asserts that the organism must be seen in its environment•Its context as part of the constantly changing field•What is occurring at the boundary between the person and the environment

•How the individuals organize experience from moment to

moment- foreground (figure) & background (ground)

• tracks how some aspects of the environmental field

emergences (back ground-> focal point)

• • The dominant needs of an individual at a given moment

influence this process.

•

•Gestalt (German word) – a whole or completion

•Figure (aspects of individual’s experience-the most salient at any moment)•The ground (aspect of the client’s presentation)

1. Holism

2. Figure-

Formation

process3. Organism

ic Self-regulatio

n

4. Field

Theory

Principles of Gestalt Therapy

Basic Concept

Therapeutic

Techniques

Application of

Techniques

Limitation

BASIC CONCEPT

3. Contact &

Resistance to Contact

1. The Now

2. Unfinished Business

THE NOW Polster & Polster (1973) developed the

thesis that “power is in the present”

Focusing on the past and the future can be a way to avoid coming to terms with the present

Phenomenological inquiry involves paying attention to what is occurring now

THE NOW (CONTINUE)

Most people can stay in the present for only a short time & are inclined to find ways of interrupting the flow.Clients talk about their feeling, which were

detached from their present experiencingTherapist helps the clients to aware their

experience The past will make regular

appearances in the present moment They may focus on their past mistakes or

engage in endless resolutions

THE NOW (CONTINUE)

The therapist directs clients to “bring the fantasy here” or “tell me the dream as though you were having it now”

Eg : Rather than thinking about a past childhood trauma with her father, a client becomes the hurt child and talks directly to her father in fantasy or by imagining him being present in the room in an empty child. (text book, p.198)

BASIC CONCEPT

3. Contact &


1. The Now


UNFINISHED BUSINESS When figures emerge from the background

but are not completed and resolved Unacknowledged create unnecessary emotional Feelings not fully experienced in awareness,

linger in the background and interfere with effective contact

The therapist assists client by providing situation that courage them to fully experience the impasse Clients are able to get into contact with their

frustration Preoccupation, compulsive behavior, wariness*

oppressive energy and self-defeating behavior

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

(CONTINUE) Gestalt therapy based on the notion that individuals

Have a striving toward actualization and growth

If they accept all aspect of themselves without judging these dimension they can begin to think, feel, and act differently

BASIC CONCEPT

3. Contact &


1. The Now


Contact Is made by seeing, hearing, smelling,

touching, and movingEFFECTIVE CONTACT Interacting with nature and with other

people without losing one’s individuality

BOUNDARY DISTURBANCES/ RESISTANCE TO CONTACTThe defenses we develop to prevent us

from experiencing the present fully

CONTACT & RESISTANCES TO CONTACT

The two function of boundaries that are necessary to healthy functioningTo connectTo separate

Focus on interruption, disturbances & resistances to contactThe coping processes but often end up

preventing us from experiencing the present in full and real way

Polster & Polster (1973) describe five different kinds of contact boundary disturbances

FIVE MAJOR CHANNELS

Introjection Projection Retroflection

Deflection Confluence

1. INTROJECTION (CONTACT AND RESISTANCES

TO CONTACT)

The tendency to uncritically accept others’ belief and standards without assimilating them to make them congruent with who we are.

Introjected values and behavior are imposed on self. As in all contact boundary disturbances, swallowing whole can be healthy or pathological, depending on the circumstances and degree of awareness.

FIVE major channels



2. PROJECTION (CONTACT AND RESISTANCES TO

CONTACT)

The reverse of introjection a confusion of self and other that

results from attributing to the outside something that is truly self.

We refuse to acknowledge in our selves, we avoid taking responsibility for our own feeling

Tend to feel that we are the victims of circumstances

FIVE major channels



3. RETROFLECTION(CONTACT AND RESISTANCES

TO CONTACT)

Retroflection is a split within the self, a resisting of aspects of the self by the self

This substitutes self for environment, as in

doing to self what one wants to do to someone else

doing for self what one wants someone else to do for self

Typically involve a fair amount of anxiety

CONT.. Gestalt Therapy help us discover a self-

regulatory system so that we can deal realistically with the world

The example of retroflection is illusion of self-sufficiency it substitutes self for environment.

Although one can do one's own breathing and chewing, the air and food must come from the environment

FIVE major channels



4. DEFLECTION (CONTACT AND RESISTANCES TO

CONTACT)

Deflection is the process of distraction or veering off, in the latter case, the person usually feels "untouched"

avoidance of contact or of awareness by turning aside, as when one is polite instead of direct

Deflection can be accomplished by not

expressing directly or by not receiving. We attempt to diffuse or defuse contact

through overuse of humour, abstract generalization and question rather than statement

FIVE major channels



5. CONFLUENCE (CONTACT AND RESISTANCES TO CONTACT)

Involves blurring the differentiation between the self and the environment

In confluence (fusion), the separation and distinction between self and other becomes so unclear that the boundary is lost.

A belief that all parties experience the same feelings thoughts we do

In isolation, the boundary becomes so impermeable that connectedness is lost, i.e., the importance of others for the self is lost from awareness.


Basic Concept

Therapeutic

Techniques

Application of

Techniques

Limitation

THERAPIST’S FUNCTION AND ROLE Increase clients’ awareness - Pay attention to the present moment - Pay attention to clients’ body

language, nonverbal language, and inconsistence between verbal and nonverbal message (e.g., anger and smile)

- “I” message

WHAT IS “I” MESSAGE? Gestalt approach focuses on overt speaking

habits as away to increase clients’ awareness of themselves.

Language can both describe and conceal,by focusing on language, clients are able to increase their awareness of what they are experiencing in the present moment and of how they avoiding coming into contact with this experience.

Some examples of “I” message languange : - It’s hard for me to spill my guts - I don’t have a leg to stand on - I feel like a have a hole in my soul - I feel ripped to shreds

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THERAPIST AND CLIENT Therapists are responsible for the quality of their

presence, for knowing themselves and the client, and for remaining open to the client.

Therapists must allow themselves to be affected by the client so that they can actively shared their own perceptions and experience as they encounter clients in here and now.

Therapists also not allowing their clients to be who they are but also remain themselves and not do not get lost in role.

The main thing here is to develop an awareness inside the clients so that they would understand what was actually happening inside them.

Gestalt Therapy clients can free themselves to move past pain, fear, anxiety, depression or low self-esteem. They can then discover who they really are, and allow themselves to develop in the ways appropriate for them.

CONTRIBUTION OF GESTALT THERAPY

Present-centered awarenessPay attention on verbal and nonverbal curesBring conflicts or struggles to actually

experience their conflict and strugglesFocus on growth and enhancement See each aspect of a dream as a projection

of themselves Increase awareness of “what is”Empirical validation for the effectiveness


Basic Concept

Therapeutic

Techniques

Application of

Techniques

Limitation

THERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUES The experiment in Gestalt Therapy

Internal dialogue exercise

Making the rounds

Rehearsal exercise

Reversal technique

Exaggeration exercise

Staying with the feeling

Dream work

THE EXPERIMENT IN GESTALT THERAPY Is fundamental to contemporary Gestalt

therapy Gestalt therapists invite clients to

engage in experiments that lead to fresh emotional experiencing and new insights

Bring struggles to life by inviting clients to enact them in the present

Crucial that experiments be tailored to each individual & used in timely manner

Also must be carried out in a context that offers a balance between support and risk

The "Top Dog" and the "Under Dog

Internal dialogue exercise

Making the rounds

Go to each person in the group and talk towards them.

to rehearse with the therapist out loud.

asking the client to do the opposite of their behaviors

Rehearsal exercise

Reversal technique

Counselor exaggerates mannerism of client or asks client to exaggerate mannerism in order to make client aware of true feelings.

Exaggeration Exercise

So that you can work through the fears.

Urge clients to stay with the feeling and encourage them to go deeper into the feeling or behavior they wish to avoid

Staying with feeling

Suggested format: – Making a list of all the details of dream. – Remembering each person, event, & mood in it. – Then becoming each of these parts by

transforming oneself, acting as fully as possible & inventing dialogue.

Dream Work

According to Perls, the dream is the most spontaneous.

Expression of the existence of the human being.

Dream represents an unfinished situation.

Also contains an existential message regarding oneself & one’s current struggle.


Basic Concept

Therapeutic

Techniques

Application of

Techniques

Limitation

LIMITATION

Too much focus on emotion may pose limitations for clients who have been culturally conditioned to be reserved

This therapy may not effective for clients who have difficulty abstracting and imagining

The therapist may abuse power by using powerful techniques without proper training

Overpowering for some clients because it emphasize on therapist authenticity and self-disclosure

THANK YOU (^_^)

Technology

gestalt therapy