CHAPTER 8 GESTALT THERAPY

Question 1

The process of attending to and observing
one’s own sensing, thinking, feelings, and
actions; paying attention to the fl owing nature of
one’s present-centered experience.

Answer 1

Awareness

Question 2

Paying attention to where
energy is located, how it is used, and how it can
be blocked.

Answer 2

Blocks to energy

Question 3

A disturbance in which the sense
of the boundary between self and environment
is lost.

Answer 3

Confluence

Question 4

An invitation for the client to
become aware of discrepancies between verbal
and nonverbal expressions, between feelings and
actions, or between thoughts and feelings.

Answer 4

Confrontation

Question 5

The process of interacting with nature
and with other people without losing one’s sense
of individuality. Contact is made by seeing, hearing,
smelling, touching, and moving.

Answer 5

Contact

Question 6

Staying with the moment-to-moment fl ow of experiencing, which leads individuals to discover how they are functioning in the world.

Answer 6

Continuum of awareness

Question 7

A way of avoiding contact and

awareness by being vague and indirect

Answer 7

Deflection

Question 8

A split by which a person experiences
or sees opposing forces; a polarity (weak/
strong, dependent/independent).

Answer 8

Dichotomy

Question 9

The Gestalt approach does not
interpret and analyze dreams. Instead, the intent
is to bring dreams back to life and relive them as
though they were happening now.

Answer 9

Dream work

Question 10

(EFT) entails the practice of therapy
being informed by understanding the role of
emotion in psychotherapeutic change.

Answer 10

Emotion-focused

therapy

Question 11

A role-playing intervention
in which clients play confl icting parts.
This typically consists of clients engaging in an
imaginary dialogue between different sides of
themselves.

Answer 11

Empty-chair technique

Question 12

Ready-made techniques that are
sometimes used to make something happen in a
therapy session or to achieve a goal.

Answer 12

Exercises

Question 13

Procedures aimed at encouraging
spontaneity and inventiveness by bringing
the possibilities for action directly into the
therapy session. Experiments are designed to enhance
here-and-now awareness. They are activities
clients try out as a way of testing new ways
of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Answer 13

Experiments

Question 14

A dynamic system of interrelationships.

Answer 14

Field

Question 15

Paying attention to and exploring
what is occurring at the boundary between the
person and the environment.

Answer 15

Field theory

Question 16

Those aspects of the individual’s experience

that are most salient at any moment.

Answer 16

Figure

Question 17

Describes how the
individual organizes the environment from moment
to moment and how the emerging focus of
attention is on what is fi gural.

Answer 17

Figure-formation process

Question 18

Those aspects of the individual’s experience
that tend to be out of awareness or in the
background.

Answer 18

Ground

Question 19

Attending to a client’s thoughts, feelings,

behaviors, body, and dreams.

Answer 19

Holism

Question 20

The stuck point in a situation in
which individuals believe they are unable to support
themselves and thus seek external support.

Answer 20

Impasse

Question 21

The uncritical acceptance of others’
beliefs and standards without assimilating
them into one’s own personality.

Answer 21

Introjection

Question 22

An individual’s
tendency to take actions and make contacts that
will restore equilibrium or contribute to change.

Answer 22

Organismic self-regulation

Question 23

A theoretical
position that authentic change occurs more from
being who we are than from trying to be who we
are not.

Answer 23

Paradoxical theory of change

Question 24

Through a therapist
asking “what” and “how” questions, clients
are assisted in noticing what is occurring in the
present moment.

Answer 24

Phenomenological inquiry

Question 25

The process by which we disown
certain aspects of ourselves by ascribing them to
the environment; the opposite of introjection.

Answer 25

Projection

Question 26

A supportive, kind, and compassionate style that emphasizes dialogue in the therapeutic relationship, rather than the confrontational style of Fritz Perls.

Answer 26

Relational Gestalt therapy

Question 27

The act of turning back onto
ourselves something we would like to do (or have
done) to someone else.

Answer 27

Retroflection

Question 28

Exercises or interventions that are
often used to bring about action or interaction,
sometimes with a prescribed outcome in mind.

Answer 28

Techniques

Question 29

Unexpressed feelings
(such as resentment, guilt, anger, grief) dating
back to childhood that now interfere with
effective psychological functioning; needless
emotional debris that clutters present-centered
awareness.

Answer 29

Unfinished business

Question 30

1. Resistance refers to defenses we develop
   that prevent us from experiencing
   the present in a full and real
   way.

Answer 30

t

Question 31

T F 2. Blocked energy can be considered a

form of resistance.

Answer 31

t

Question 32

T F 3. The basic goal of Gestalt therapy is

adjustment to society.

Answer 32

f

Question 33

T F 4. Recent trends in Gestalt practice
include more emphasis on confrontation,
more anonymity of the
therapist, and increased reliance on
techniques.

Answer 33

f

Question 34

T F 5. Dreams contain existential messages,
and each piece of dream
work leads to assimilation of disowned
aspects of the self.

Answer 34

t

Question 35

T F 6. Gestalt therapy is well suited for
group counseling, especially when
there is a here-and-now emphasis
within the group.

Answer 35

t

Question 36

T F 7. One of the functions of the therapist
is to pay attention to the client’s
body language.

Answer 36

t

Question 37

T F 8. Gestalt techniques are primarily
aimed at teaching clients to think
rationally.

Answer 37

f

Question 38

T F 9. A major function of the therapist is
to make interpretations of clients’
behavior so that they can begin to
think of their patterns.

Answer 38

f

Question 39

T F 10. The founder of Gestalt therapy contends
that the most frequent source
of unfi nished business is resentment.

Answer 39

t

Question 40

11. The main founder of Gestalt therapy
is
a. Carl Rogers.
b. Fritz Perls.
c. Albert Ellis.
d. William Glasser.
e. none of the above.
.

Answer 40

b

Question 41

12. Which is not true of Gestalt therapy?
    a. The focus is on the “what” and
    “how” of behavior.
    b. The focus is on the here and now.
    c. The focus is on integrating fragmented
    parts of the personality.
    d. The focus is on unfi nished business
    from the past.
    e. The focus is on the “why” of
    behavior.

Answer 41

e

Question 42

13. Which of the following is not a key
concept of Gestalt therapy?
a. acceptance of personal responsibility
b. intellectual understanding of
one’s problems
c. awareness of the present moment
d. unfi nished business
e. dealing with the impasse

Answer 42

b

Question 43

14. According to the Gestalt view,
awareness
a. is by itself therapeutic.
b. is a necessary, but not suffi cient,
condition for change.
c. without specifi c behavioral
change is useless.
d. consists of understanding the
causes of one’s problems.

Answer 43

a

Question 44

15. The basic goal of Gestalt therapy is
to help clients
a. move from environmental
support to self-support.
b. recognize which ego state they
are functioning in.
c. uncover unconscious motivations.
d. work through the transference
relationship with the
therapist.
e. challenge their philosophy
of life.

Answer 44

a

Question 45

16. The impasse is the point in therapy
at which clients
a. do not have external support
available to them.
b. experience a sense of “being
stuck.”
c. are challenged to get into contact
with their frustrations and
accept whatever is.
d. do all of the above.

Answer 45

d

Question 46

17. Gestalt therapy can best be characterized
as
a. an insight therapy.
b. an experiential therapy
c. an action-oriented therapy.
d. an empirically validated
treatment.
e. a cognitive approach.

Answer 46

b

Question 47

18. Gestalt therapy encourages clients
to
a. experience feelings intensely.
b. stay in the here and now.
c. work through the impasse.
d. pay attention to their own nonverbal
messages.
e. do all of the above.

Answer 47

e

Question 48

19. The focus of Gestalt therapy is on
    a. the relationship between client
    and counselor.
    b. free associating to the client’s
    dreams.
    c. recognizing one’s own projections
    and refusing to accept
    helplessness.
    d. understanding why we feel as
    we do.
    e. all of the above.

Answer 48

c

Question 49

20. A contribution of the Gestalt
approach is that it
a. sheds light on transference.
b. is primarily a cognitive
perspective.
c. stresses talking about
problems.
d. deals with the past in a lively
manner.

Answer 49

d

Question 50

21. The process of distraction, which
makes it difficult to maintain
sustained contact, is
a. introjection.
b. projection.
c. retrofl ection.
d. confl uence.
e. defl ection.

Answer 50

e

Question 51

22. The process of turning back to ourselves
what we would like to do to
someone else is
a. introjection.
b. projection.
c. retrofl ection.
d. confl uence.
e. defl ection.

Answer 51

c

Question 52

23. The tendency to uncritically accept
others’ beliefs without assimilating
or internalizing them is
a. introjection.
b. projection.
c. retrofl ection.
d. confl uence.
e. defl ection.

Answer 52

a

Question 53

24. The process of blurring awareness
of the boundary between self and
environment is
a. introjection.
b. projection.
c. retrofl ection.
d. confl uence.
e. defl ection.

Answer 53

d

Question 54

25. What is a limitation (or limitations)
of Gestalt therapy as it is applied
to working with culturally diverse
populations?
a. Clients who have been culturally
conditioned to be emotionally
reserved may not see value in
experiential techniques.
b. Clients may be “put off” by the
emphasis on expressing feelings.
c. Clients may be looking for specifi
c advice on solving practical
problems.
d. Clients may believe showing
one’s vulnerability is being weak.
e. All of the above are limitations.

Answer 54

e