Chap 8 Gestalt Therapy

Question 1

The initial goal is for clients to gain ____ of what they are experiencing and how they are doing it.

Answer 1

awareness. Through this awareness change automatically occurs

Question 2

In a nutshell, gestalt therapy focuses on the ________________ of relating

Answer 2

the here and now, the what and how, and the I/Thou of relating

Question 3

Contemporary Gestalt therapy stresses dialogue and relationship between client and therapist, sometimes called ______

Answer 3

Relational Gestalt therapy. This model includes more support and increased kindness and compassion in therapy as compared to the confrontational and dramatic style of Fritz Perls

Question 4

______: a dynamic system of interrelationships

Answer 4

field

Question 5

How did Fritz Perls practice Gestalt therapy?

Answer 5

Paternalistically. Clients have to grow up, stand on their own 2 feet and “deal with their probs. themselves”

Question 6

What 2 personal agendas did Perl’s style of therapy involve?

Answer 6

1. moving the client from enviro support to self-support

2. reintegrating the disowned parts of one’s personality.

Question 7

Does gestalt therapy aim for analysis or introspection?

Answer 7

No- at awareness and contact with the enviro. the enviro cosists of both the external and internal world.

Question 8

What is a basic assumption of Gestalt therapy?

Answer 8

individuals have the capacity to self-regulate when they are aware of what is happening in and around them. Therapy provides the setting and opportunity for that awareness to be supported and restored.

Question 9

According to the ____________, we change when we become aware of what we are as opposed to trying to become what we are not.

Answer 9

Paradoxical theory of change. It is important for clients to ‘be’ as fully as possible in their current condition, rather than striving to become what they ‘should be’.

Question 10

Gestalt is a german word for what?

Answer 10

a word meaning a whole or completion, or a form that cannot be separated into parts without losing its essence.

Question 11

Gestalt practice attends to a client’s thoughts, feelings, behaviours, body, memories and dreams. Emphasis may be on a _____ (those aspects of the ind’s experience that are most salient at any moment) or the _____ (those aspects of the client’s presentation that are often out of his/her awareness)

Answer 11

field- foreground,
ground. Cues to this background can be found on the surface through physical gestures, tone of voice, demeanor, and other nonverbal content.

Question 12

Gestalt therapy is based on _____, which is grounded on the principle must be seen in its environment, or init’s context, as part of the constantly changing field.

Answer 12

Field theory

Question 13

Why does Gestalt not place any superior value on a particular aspect of an ind?

Answer 13

Because they are interested in the whole person.

Question 14

The __________ tracks how some aspect of the enviro field emerges from the background and becomes the focal point of the ind’s attention and interest

Answer 14

Figure-formation process

Question 15

The figure-formation process is intertwined with the principle of __________, a process by which equilibrium is ‘disturbed’ by the emergence of a need, a sensation, or an interest.

Answer 15

Organismic self-regulation. Organisms will do their best to regulate themselves, given their own capabilities and resources of their environment.

Question 16

__________ involves paying attention to what is occurring now.

Answer 16

phenomenological inquiry. Gestalt therapists as ‘what’ and ‘how’ questions, but rarely why.

Question 17

What do gestalt therapists do when the past makes an appearance in the present moment?

Answer 17

it is dealt with by bringing it into the present as uch as possible. The therapist may ask the client to reenact what the client is speaking it about as though they were living it now.

Question 18

When figures emerge from the background but are not completed and resolved, individuals are left with ______, which can manifest in unexpressed feelings such as resentment, rage, hatred, pain, anxiety, grief, guilt, and abandonment.

Answer 18

Unfinished business. Because the feelings are not fully experienced in awareness, they linger in the background and are carried into present life in ways that interfere with effective contact with oneself and others.

Question 19

When does unfinished business persist until?

Answer 19

until the ind. faces and deals with the unexpressed feelings,

Question 20

The _____, or stuck point, is the time when external support is not available or the customary way of being does not work.

Answer 20

Impasse. The therapist’s task is to accompany clients in experiencing the impasse without rescuing or frustrating them. The therapist assists clients by providing situations that encourage them to fully experience their condition of being stuck.

Question 21

______ is made by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and moving. When effective, it means interacting with nature and with other ppl without losing one’s sense of individuality.

Answer 21

Contact. Prerequisites for good contact are clear awareness, full energy, and the ability to express oneself.

Question 22

_____ is the tendency to uncritically accept others’ beliefs and standards without assimilating them to make them congruent with who we are.

Answer 22

Introjection. These remain alien to us b.c we have not analyzed and restructured them. We passively incorporate what the environment provides rather than clearly identifying what we want or need. If we stay in this stage, our energy is bound up in taking things as we find them and believing that authorities know what is best for us, rather than working for things ourselves.

Question 23

_____ is where we disown certain aspects of ourselves by assigning them to the enviro. Those attributes of our personality that are inconsistent with our self-image are disowned and put onto, assigned to, and seen in other ppl. Thus, blaming others for many of our problems.

Answer 23

Projection- reverse of introjection. By seeing in others the very qualities that we refuse to acknowledge in ourselves, we avoid taking responsibility for our own feelings and the person who we are- this keeps us powerless to initiate change. Ppl who use projection as a pattern tend to feel that they are victims of circumstances, and they believe that ppl have hidden meanings behind what they say.

Question 24

______ consists of turning back onto ourselves what we would like to do to someone else or doing to ourselves what we would like someone else do to or for is. Often involves a fair amount of anxiety.

Answer 24

Retroflection. Ppl who rely on retroflection tend to inhibit themselves from taking action out of fear of embarrassment, guilt and resentment. Ppl who self-mutilate/injure themselves are often directing aggr. inward out of fear of directing it outward.

Question 25

____ is the process of distraction or veering off, so that it is difficult to maintain a sustained sense of contact. Often used through the overuse of humour, abstract generalizations, and questions rather than statements.

Answer 25

Deflection. When we do this we speak through and for others, beating around the bus rather than being direct.

Question 26

____ involves blurring the differentiation between the self and the enviro. As we strive to blend in and get along with everyone, there is no clear demarcation between internal experience and outer reality.

Answer 26

Confluence. In rs, it involves the absence of conflicts, slowness to anger, and a belief that all parties experience the same feelings and thoughts we do. This style of contact is characteristic of clients who have a high need to be accepted and liked, thus finding enmeshment comfortable.

Question 27

How is energy focused on in Gestalt therapy?

Answer 27

Special attention is given to where energy is located, how it is used, and how it can be blocked. Blocked energy is a form of defensive behaviour. It can be manifested by tension in some part of the body, by posture etc. Much of the therapeutic endeavor involves finding the focus of interrupted energy and bringing these sensations to the client’s awareness

Question 28

What are the 3 stages that make up the three-stage integration sequence that characterizes client growth in therapy?

Answer 28

1. discovery- clients are likely to reach a new realization about themselves or to acquire a novel view of an old sit.
2. accommodation- client’s recognizing they have a choice. trying new behaviours in the office.
3. assimilation- clients learning how to inf. their enviro. may be taking a stand on a critical issue.

Question 29

____ are ready-made technique that are sometimes used to make something happen in a therapy session or achieve a goal. They can be catalysts for ind. work or for promoting interaction among members of a therapy group.

Answer 29

Exercises

Question 30

_____ grow out of the interaction b.w the client and therapist, and they emerge within their dialogic process.

Answer 30

Experiments. A method that shifts the focus of counselling from talking about a topic to an activity that will heighten the client’s awareness and understanding through experience.

Question 31

the ___________ is one way of getting the client to externalize the introject. involves being top dog and underdog- dialogue b.w the 2.

Answer 31

empty chair technique. the goal of this exercise is to promote a higher level of integration b/w the polarities and conflicts that exist in everyone.

Question 32

_____ is an exercise that involves asking a person in the group to go up to others in the group and either speak to or do something with each person.

Answer 32

making the rounds

Question 33

How does the reversal exercise work

Answer 33

certain sym and behaviours often represent reversals of underlying or latent impulses. thus, the therapist could ask a person who claims to suffer from severe inhibitions and excessive timidity to play the role of an exhibitionist.

Question 34

Does the gestalt approach interpret and analyze dreams?

Answer 34

No- the intent is to bring dreams back to life and relive them as though they were happening now. The dream is acted out in the present, and the dreamer becomes a part of their dream.