Gestalt Therapy: Principles & Philosophy

• Gestalt Therapy encourages to "lose your mind and come to your senses"

Fritz Perls (1893-1970)

• Fritz Perls was a controversial figure
• Perls had a major influence on gestalt psychology
• He had a background in theater
• After serving in WWI, Perls obtained a medical degree

Basic Philosophy

• Humans are growth oriented in Gestalt Therapy
• Holism is a facet of this therapy
• This is a humanistic and existential approach
• There is an innate tendency to fulfillment and actualization
• Creativity, spontaneity, and non-conformity are all aspects of this therapy

Principles of Gestalt Theory

• Holism encompasses someone's thoughts, feelings, behaviors, body, language, and dreams
• Field theory encompasses the client's environment, consisting of the therapist, the client, and the interactions
• The client is an active participant in a constantly changing field

Principles

• The Figure Formation Process describes how someone organizes experiences from moment to moment
• Foreground: figure
• Background: ground
• Organismic self-regulation occurs when the emergence of need sensations and interest disturb an individual's equilibrium

Contemporary Gestalt Therapists

• Focus is more on the role of interdependence within the field
• Re-emphasis on field theory
• Focus is turned to the experiential field of the client, and the ways they organize experiences

Human Motivation

• There is a desire to satisfy psychological and biological needs, and connect with other human beings
• The tendency to self-regulate is innate
• Harmony is important
• It is important to discriminate what is good and bad

Human Nature and Contact

• Contact is described as forming a figure of interest against a ground within the organism-environment field
• Contact is initiated by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and moving
• All contact is viewed as creative and dynamic
• Each experience happens as a creative adjustment of the organism in the environment

Cycle of Awareness

• Sensation -> Awareness -> Mobilizing -> Full Contact -> Withdrawal -> Assimilation

Contact and Resistances to Contact

• Contact is interacting with nature and others without losing individuality
• Boundary disturbances or resistance to contact are the defenses developed to prevent experiencing the present fully
• The five major channels of resistance are:
  • Introjection
  • Projection
  • Retroflection
  • Deflection
  • Confluence

Theory of Person

• Hunger instinct leads to need satisfaction
• There is relatively little developmental or personality theory
• Childhood events are important
• Shifts encourage people from environmental to self-support
• "Self is the artist of life"

Health

• Health is determined by harmony with the environment
• Self-regulation guides individuals
• Recognition of the interconnection with the environment
• Creative adjustment establishes a balance between self and environment
• Authentic experiences

Dysfunction

• "dis-ease" means:
  • Unfinished business
  • Earlier creative adjustment that is nonfunctional
  • Western cultures encourages people to artificially separate the mind and body
  • Impasse occurs when an individual is stuck
  • Emotions are signals to unmet needs

Gestalt Therapy

• This therapy is Existential & Phenomenological
• It is grounded in the client's "here and now"
• The initial goal is for clients to gain awareness of what they are experiencing and doing
• It promotes direct experiencing rather than talking about situations
• Rather than talking about childhood trauma, the client is encouraged to become the hurt child

The Now

• "Power is in the present"
• Nothing exists except the "now"
• The past is gone, and the future has not yet arrived
• Many people lose the power of the present
• They may focus on their past mistakes or engage in endless resolutions and plans for the future

Unfinished Business

• This refers to feelings about the past that are unexpressed
• Associated with distinct memories and fantasies
• Feelings not fully experienced linger in the background and interfere with effective contact
• Leads to Preoccupation, compulsive behavior, wariness, oppressive energy, and self-defeating behavior

Nature of Therapy

• There is no formal assessment
• The therapist is the assessment tool
• Traditional diagnosis is rejected
• Example Question: "What do you experience right now?"
• The therapy focuses on Immediacy – “I and Thou, Here and Now"
• Encourages a “safe emergency"

Roles and Goals

• The therapist frustrates the client's avoidance
• Uses confrontation (exposing the "phony")
• The client is engaging in the process of self-discovery
• Goal: Awareness

Process of Therapy

• Three elements: relationship, awareness, experiments
• Emphasis on physical/body sensations
• "paradoxical theory of change"
• Includes work with resistance, transference, and countertransference

Therapeutic Techniques

• The method is Technically eclectic, working to foster awareness
• Includes an experiment in Gestalt Therapy
• Uses the internal dialogue exercise
• Includes:
  • Top Dog and Underdog
  • Empty Chair
  • Rehearsal exercise
  • Reversal technique
  • Exaggeration exercise
  • Staying with the feeling
  • Making the rounds
  • Dream work ("royal road to integration")

Contributions

• Helps people incorporate and accept all aspects of themselves
• Helps clients focus on taking action to resolve areas of unfinished business
• Helps clients experience what the process of change is all about by focusing on doing rather than talking
• Flexible, so counsellors can use any strategy that helps clients become more integrative

Limitations of Gestalt Therapy

• The therapist can abuse power by using powerful techniques without proper training
• May not be useful for clients who have difficulty abstracting and imagining
• The emphasis on therapist authenticity and self-disclosure may be overpowering for clients

Concluding Thought

• "Figure – Ground to meet needs"