Chapter 8: Gestalt Therapy

Question 1

TRUE OR FALSE: Gestalt therapy focuses on past experiences of a client.

Answer 1

FALSE.

It focuses on the here and now, and the clients’ own awareness of what they are doing and how they are experiencing things from moment to moment.

Question 2

Who is the main originator and developer of Gestalt therapy?

Answer 2

Fritz Perls.

Question 3

What is the term for a dynamic system of interrelationships?

Answer 3

Field.

Question 4

TRUE OR FALSE: Perls asserted that HOW individuals behave is more important than WHY.

Answer 4

True.

Question 5

What type of therapy stresses dialogue and the I/Thou relationship between client and therapist?

Answer 5

Contemporary relational Gestalt therapy.

Question 6

What tenet suggests that authentic change occurs more from being who we are than from trying to be who are not?

Answer 6

The paradoxical theory of change, by Anne Beisser (1970)

Question 7

What does “Gestalt” mean?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Which theory asserts that the organism must be seen in its environmen, or in its context, as part of the constantly changing field?

Answer 8

Field theory.

Question 9

What is the term for the aspects of the individual’s experience that are most salient at any moment?

Answer 9

Figure

Question 10

What is the term for the aspects of the client’s presentation that are often out of his or her awareness?

Answer 10

Ground.

Question 11

What process helps contemporary Gestalt therapists facilitate the client’s movement toward and away from a figure of interest?

Answer 11

Figure-formation process.

Question 12

What principle highlights what is of the interest to the client or what the client needs to gain equilibrium or to change?

Answer 12

Organismic self-regulation.

Question 13

What is considered effective contact?

Answer 13

Interacting with nature and with other people without losing one’s sense of individuality.

Question 14

TRUE OR FALSE: In Gestalt therapy, contact is necessary for change and growth to occur.

Answer 14

TRUE.

Question 15

What are the prereqs for good contact?

Answer 15

Clear awareness, full energy, and the ability to express oneself.

Question 16

T or F: Resistances to contact may result is dysfunctional behavior.

Answer 16

TRUE. These are also called “contact boundary phenomena” by Gestalt therapists.

Question 17

What CBP has us passively incorporate what the environment provides rather than clearly identifying what we want or need?

Answer 17

Introjection.

Question 18

Which CBP has us refuse acknowledgment of qualities we have in ourselves which we see in the environment and thus has us avoid taking responsibility for our own feelings and who we are?

Answer 18

Projection. People who use this as a pattern tend to feel they are victims of circumstances and believe that people have hidden meaning behind what they say.

Question 19

What CBP consists of turning back onto ourselves what we would like do to someone else, or doing to ourselves what we would like someone else to do for us?

Answer 19

Retroflection.

Question 20

What CBP has ourselves diffusing contact through the overuse of humor, abstract generalizations, and questions rather than statements?

Answer 20

Deflection.

This results in emotional depletion due to engaging the environment in an inconsistent and inconsequential basis.

Question 21

What CBP involves blurring the differentiation between the self and the environment?

Answer 21

Confluence.

Individuals who have this have a high need to be liked and accepted, and it makes genuine contact extremely difficult.

Question 22

TRUE OR FALSE: The contact boundary phenomena is often given a cursory overview.

Answer 22

FALSE.

Gestalt therapists acknowledge that these resistances served an important function function in the past. The therapists approach each interruptive style with respect and take them seriously, knowing how important it is to know what these CBP’s are protecting them from, and what it keeps them from experiencing.

Question 23

What is the term for paying attention to what is occurring in the here or now?

Answer 23

Phenomenological inquiry.

Question 24

TRUE OR FALSE:

One aim of Gestalt therapy is to help clients to become increasingly aware of their present experience.

Answer 24

TRUE.

Question 25

How do Gestalt therapists work with past experiences that have a significant bearing on the clients’ present attitudes or behavior?

Answer 25

It is dealt with by bringing it into the present as much as possible. Instead of “Tell me about that time” it’s more like “Be you in that time”

Question 26

What phenomena results in unacknowledged feelings that create unnecessary emotional debris that clutters present-centered awareness?

Answer 26

Unfinished business.

Question 27

Until when does unfinished business persist?

Answer 27

It persists until the individual faces and deals with the unexpressed feelings.

Question 28

What is a term for a “stuck point”?

Answer 28

An impasse.

The idea here when a client is faced with this is to embrace this “stuckness” and to get contact with their frustrations. By doing this, they would accept whatever is, rather than wishing they were different.

Question 29

What is the basic goal which Gestalt therapists attend to?

Answer 29

Greater awareness, and with it, greater choice.

Question 30

TRUE OR FALSE: The Gestalt therapist directs their clients toward pre-directed goals.

Answer 30

FALSE.

They use active methods and personal engagement with clients to increase their awareness, freedom, and self-direction.

Question 31

What is the term for an engagement between two people who each bring their unique experiences to a meeting?

Answer 31

Dialogue.

Question 32

What are the three stages of an integration sequence described by Miriam Polster (1987) that characterizes client growth in therapy?

Answer 32

Discovery, accommodation, assimilation

Question 33

Which stage has clients likely to reach a new realization about themselves or past experiences?

Answer 33

Discovery.

Question 34

Which stage involves clients recognizing that they have a choice?

Answer 34

Accommodation.

Question 35

Which stage involves clients’ learning how to influence their environment and where they may feel capable of dealing with the surprises in everyday living?

Answer 35

Assimilation.

Question 36

TRUE OR FALSE: Gestalt therapists do not share their own thoughts.

Answer 36

FALSE.

Therapists should actively share their own present perceptions and experiences as they encounter clients in the here and now! However, they have to be mindful of when and what to share.

Question 37

TRUE OR FALSE: Creating a relationship (or alliance) is not a prelude to therapy but is at the heart of Gestalt therapy.

Answer 37

TRUE.

Question 38

TRUE OR FALSE: Lesser emphasis on the client-therapist relationship from the therapist is able to establish better rapport that allows clients to deepen their awareness and make contact with another person.

Answer 38

FALSE.

More emphasis does this!

Question 39

What is the A word that a therapist in Gestalt therapy needs to be so that a client makes progress?

Answer 39

AUTHENTIC.

Question 40

What are ready-made techniques that are sometimes used to make something happen in a therapy session or to achieve a goal?

Answer 40

Exercises.

Question 41

What things grow out of the interaction between client and therapist and emerge within the dialogue?

Answer 41

Experiments.

These can actually be considered the very cornerstone of experiential learning because it’s “an activity that will heighten the client’s awareness and understanding through experience.”

Question 42

TRUE OR FALSE:

Experiments are planned, with a predetermined goal in mind.

Answer 42

FALSE.

Experiments are spontaneous, one-of-a-kind, and relevant to a particular moment and a particular development of a figure-formation process. This is an intentional entry into a novel experience aimed at discovery.