Gestalt therapy It is lively and promotes direct experiencing

than the abstractness of talking about

By Frederick S. Perls, MD, PhD situations.

Emotion-focused therapy – understanding the

GESTALT THERAPY - is an existential, role of emotion is psychotherapeutic change.
phenomenological, and process-based approach VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
created on the premise that individual must be
understood in the context of their ongoing Clients have to grow up, stand on their own
relationship with the environment. Awareness, feet, and deal with their problems themselves.
choice and responsibility are cornerstones of Two agenda:
practice.
1. Moving the clients from environmental
The approach is existential and support to self-support.
phenomenological. 2. Reintegrating the disowned parts of
1. Existential approach, give special one’s personality.
attention to existence as individual Therapy aims at awareness and contact with the
experience it and affirms the human environment, which consists of both the
capacity for growth and healing through external and internal worlds.
interpersonal contact and insight.
2. Phenomenological approach, focuses on Assumptions of gestalt therapy is that
the client’s perceptions of reality and individuals have the capacity to self-regulate
existential because it is grounded in the when they are aware of what is happening in
notion that people are always in the and around them.
process of becoming, remarking, and
PARADOXICAL THEORY OF CHANGE – authentic
rediscovering themselves.
change occurs more from being who we are
Sometimes called as relational gestalt therapy, than trying to be who we are not.
stresses dialogue and relationship between
PRINCIPLE OF GESTALT THEARAPY THEORY
client and therapist. More support and
increased sensitivity and compassion in therapy Holism.
as compared to the confrontational and
Gestalt – whole or completion, or a form that
dramatic style that is supportive, accepting,
cannot be separated into parts without losing its
empathic, respectful, dialogical, as well as
essence. Gestalt practice attends to a client’s
challenging. The emphasis is on the quality of
thoughts, feelings, behaviors, body, memories,
the therapist-client relationship and empathic
and dreams.
attunement while tapping the client’s wisdom
and resources. EMPHASIS
Gestalt approach focuses much more on process 1. FIGURE – aspects of the individual’s
than on content. Therapist devise experiments experience that are most salient at the
designed to increase client’s awareness of what moment.
they are doing and how they are doing it. 2. GROUND – client’s presentation that are
often out of his or her awareness.
 3. Nonverbal content – attending to the Impasse – stuck point, is the time when external
obvious. support is not available or the customary way of
being does not work. Gestalt therapy is based
Field theory.
on the notion that individuals have a striving
Asserts that the organism must be seen in its toward actualization and growth and that if they
environment, or in its context, as part of the accept all aspects of themselves without judging
constantly changing field. Gestalt therapist pay these dimensions they can begin to think, feel,
attention to and explore what is occurring at the and act differently.
boundary between the person and the
Contact and resistance to contact
environment.
Contact – seeing, hearing, smelling, touching,
Figure-formation process.
and moving. Effective contact means interacting
Describes how the individual organizes with nature and with other people without
experience from moment to moment. Tracks losing one’s sense of individuality.
how some aspects of the environmental field
Introjection – tendency to uncritically accept
emerge from the background and becomes the
others’ beliefs and standards without
focal point of the individual’s attention and
assimilating them to make them congruent with
interest.
who we are.
Organismic self-regulation.
Projection – disown certain aspects of ourselves
Process by which equilibrium is disturbed by the by assigning them to the environment. Blaming
emergence of a need, a sensation, or an others for lots of our problems, refuse to
interest. Gestalt therapy direct the client’s acknowledge in ourselves, we avoid taking
awareness to the figures that emerge from the responsibility for our own feelings and the
background during a therapy session and use person who we are.
the figure-formation process as a guide for the
Retroflection – turning back onto ourselves
focus of therapeutic work.
what we like to do to someone else or doing to
THE NOW ourselves that we would like someone else to
do or for us.
Gestalt approach is its emphasis on learning to
appreciate and fully experience the present Deflection – is the process of distraction or
moment. Focusing on the past and future can veering off, so that it is difficult to maintain a
be a way to avoid coming to term with the sustained sense of contact. Attempt to diffuse
present. “Power is in the present” contact through the overuse of humor, abstract
generalizations and questions rather than
Phenomenological inquiry – involves paying statement.
attention to what is occurring now. Gestalt
therapist ask what, how questions, but rarely Confluence – blurring differentiation between
ask why questions. the self and the environment. Relationship
involves the absence of conflicts, slowness to
Unfinished business – which can be manifested anger, and a belief that all parties experience
in unexpressed feelings such as resentment, the same feelings and thoughts we do.
rage, hatred, pain, anxiety, grief, guilt, and
abandonment. When emerge from the Interruptions in contact or boundary
background but are not complete and resolved. disturbance – refers to the characteristic’s styles
people employ in their attempts to control their - Places emphasis on the relationship
environment through one of these channels of between language patterns and
resistance. personality.

Energy and blocks to energy – defensive Aspects of language that Gestalt therapists
behavior. Manifested by tension in some part of might focus on:
the body, by posture, by keeping one’s body
1. IT TALK – using depersonalizing
tight and closed, by not breathing deeply, by
language. The therapist may ask to
looking away from people to avoid contact, by
change it to I.
choking off sensations, by numbing feelings, and
2. YOU TALK – impersonal language,
by speaking with a restricted voice, to mention
substitute to I.
only a few.
3. QUESTIONS – change question into
THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS statement.
4. LANGHUAGE THAT DENIES POWER –
Therapeutic goals
client’s tendency to deny their personal
Six methodological components power by adding qualifies or
disclaimers. Counselor assist them
1. Continuum of experience owning and accepting their power by
2. The here and now taking responsibility for their decisions.
3. Paradoxical theory of change 5. Listening to clients’ metaphor –
4. Experiment emphasizes the importance of a
5. Authentic encounter therapist learning how to listen to the
6. Process-oriented diagnosis metaphors of clients. May represent
Basic goals of gestalt therapist critical unfinished business or reactions
to a present interaction.
Assisting the client to attain greater awareness, 6. Listening for language that uncovers a
and with it, greater choice. story – clients often use language that is
1. Knowing the environment elusive yet gives significant clues to a
2. Knowing oneself story that illustrate their life struggles.
3. Accepting oneself Clients experience in therapy
4. Being able to make contact
- Must be confronted about how they
Therapist’s function and role avoid accepting responsibility.
Gestalt therapists use active methods and - Clients are active participants who make
personal engagement with clients to increase their own interpretations and meanings.
their awareness, freedom, and self-direction Miriam Polster three-stage integration
rather than directing them towards preset goals.
1. Discovery – new realization about
- Values self-discovery and assume that themselves or to acquire a novel view of
clients can discover for themselves the an old situation, or they may take a new
ways in which they block or interrupt look at some significant person in their
their awareness and experience. lives.
- Paying attention to clients’ body 2. Accommodation – clients’ recognizing
language. that they have a choice.
 3. Assimilation – clients’ learning how to GESTALT THERAPY INTERVENTIONS
influence their environment. Develop
The internal dialogue exercise
confidence that comes from knowledge
and skills. bring about integrated functioning and
acceptance of aspects of one’s personality that
Relationship between therapist and client
have been disowned and denied. Pay attention
Person to person relationship between to splits in personality function. A main division
therapist and client. Therapist are is between the top dog and the underdog and
responsible for the quality of their therapy often focuses on the war between the
presence, for knowing themselves and the two.
client, and for remaining open to the client.
Top dog – righteous, authoritarian, moralistic,
Therapist share their personal experience demanding, bossy, and manipulative.
and stories in relevant and appropriate
Underdog – manipulates by playing role of
ways. Most be honest and gives immediate
victim, by being defensive, apologetic, helpless,
reactions. Give feedback that allows clients
and weak and by feigning powerlessness.
develop an awareness of what they are
Passive sides, the one without responsibility and
actually doing.
the one that finds excuses.
APPLICATION: THERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUES AND
Empty chair techniques – way of getting the
PROCEDURES
clients to externalize the introject, a technique
The experiment in Gestalt Therapy Perls used a great deal. Using two chairs, the
therapist asks the client to sit in one chair and
Try this out and see what it is like for you.
be fully the top dog and then shift to the other
Exercises – ready-made techniques that are chair and become the underdog.
sometimes used to make something happen in a
Making the rounds
therapy session or to achieve a goal.
Asking a person in a group to go up to others in
Experiments – grow out of the interaction
the group and either speak to or do something
between clients and therapist, and they emerge
with each person.
within this dialogic process. Methods that shift
the focus on counseling from talking about a The purpose is to confront, to risk, to disclose
topic to an activity that will heighten the client’s the self, to experiment with new behavior, and
awareness and understanding through to grow and change.
experience.
The reversal exercise
The role of confrontation
Reverse client’s typical style. The techniques can
Boom-boom-boom therapy – Perlsian style, help clients begin to accept certain personal
characteristic by theatrics, abrasive attributes that they have tried to deny.
confrontation and intense catharsis.
The rehearsal exercise
Confrontation – can be done in such a way that
Rehearsing silently to ourselves so that we will
clients cooperate, especially when they are
gain acceptance. Internal rehearsal consumes
invited to examine their behaviors, attitudes,
much energy and frequently inhibits our
and thoughts.
spontaneity and willingness to experiment with Gestalt methods can lead to a high level of
new behavior. intense feelings.

The exaggeration exercise Gestalt motto – you don’t have to be sick to get
better.
becomes more aware of the subtle signals and
cues they are sending through body language.
Person is asked to exaggerate the movement or
gesture repeatedly, which usually intensifies the
feeling attached to the behavior and makes the
inner meaning clearer.

Staying with the feeling

Therapist urge clients to stay with their feeling

ad encourage them to go deeper into the feeling
or behavior they wish to avoid. Facing and
experiencing feelings not only takes courage but
also is a mark of a willingness to endure the
pain necessary for unblocking and making way
for newer levels of growth.

Gestalt approach to dream work

Bring dreams back to life and relive them as

though they were happening now. Each part of
the dream as assume to be a projection of the
self, and the client creates scripts for encounters
between various characters or part.

Perls dreams in the royal road to integration. It

is the most spontaneous expression of the
existence of the human being.

APPLICATION TO GROUP COUNSELING

Encourage direct experience and actions as

opposed to merely talking about conflicts,
problem, and feelings.

GESTALT THERAPY FROM A MULTICULTURAL

PERSPECTIVE

Strengths from a diversity perspective

Useful and effective approach with clients from

diverse backgrounds because it takes the
clients’ context into account.

Shortcomings from a diversity perspective