Experiential/ Gestalt Therapy Flashcards
Who is the founder of gestalt therapy?
Frederick (Fritz) Perls
What is Gestalt therapy a reaction against?
Reductionism and determinism
What’s Gestalt therapy’s view of human nature?
■ self actualizing tendency: “the process of being what one is and not a process of striving to become”
■ the whole is more than a sum of its parts: striving to coordinate the various parts into a healthy, unified, whole
What are major beliefs of the experiential/Gestalt therapy?
■ it stresses individual responsibility & individuality
- all individuals are actors, not reactors; anti-deterministic; important to differentiate self from others & to connect self and other
■believes in the power of the present
- the past is gone and the future has not yet arrived
■promotes direct experience
- for example, rather than talking about childhood trauma, the client is encouraged to become the hurt child
How do problems develop according to the experiential/Gestalt therapy?
■ lack of awareness
- being unaware of current thoughts, behaviors, and feelings
■ From our inordinate focus on the past and future rather than the
present (“unfinished business”)
– Feelings of alienation develop between the self and the objective
world
■ Not living in the “here and now”
What is unfinished business and what are the possible results?
■ unexpressed feelings that interfere with current psychological functioning
– these feelings are associated with distinct memories and fantasies
– feelings not fully experienced linger in the background and interfere with effective contact
■ Possible results:
– Preoccupation, distress, self-defeating behaviors, cognitive distortions
What is resistance to contact and what are some examples?
resistance to contact are defenses are defenses we develop that keep us from experiencing our present fully
EXAMPLES:
■ Introjection: accepting others’ views without reviewing them
■ Confluence: weak boundaries between self and environment
■ Retroflection: we do to ourselves what we want to do to someone
else, or doing things for ourselves that we want others to do for us
■ Deflection: avoiding of contact or awareness by turning aside, such
as when sb is polite instead of direct
How does change occur according to the experiential/Gestalt therapy?
■ Awareness
– Increasing awareness of all parts of the self
■ Contact
– Making contact with one’s inner and external world without losing
sense of self and individuality
■ Greater choice
– Helping clients assume ownership of their experience, increasing
internal coping strategies
■ Outcome = reowning
– Identification with all vital functions of the individual, including
ideas, emotions, and actions
What are some Gestalt techniques? (Be able to describe and identify)
■ Internal Dialogue – “Empty chair”
■ Enactment – e.g., Exaggeration: a person is asked to exaggerate some
feelings, thoughts, or behavioral movements in order to feel it more
intensely
■ Focusing: encourages clients to continually focus on their present awareness or experiences and stay with the feeling
– E.g., Sadness–Where do you feel that in your body?
■ Rehearsal: role play
■ Reversal: role play, but take others’ role
What are the roles of the therapist?
■ Creates an atmosphere that promotes growth and self-actualization
■ Uses immediacy skills regularly
■ Identifies patterns, particularly related to avoidance
■ Uses techniques in the service of increasing clients’ awareness
■ Strives for a person-to-person relationship
What are the roles of the Client?
■ Actively engaged in therapy as experts of their own experiences
■ Make interpretations and make meaning out of their experiences
What are pros of the experiential/Gestalt therapy?
■ deemphasizes abstract intellectualism of one’s problems
■ recognizes working with the past as it relates to the here and now
■ emphasizes doing
■ heightens awareness in a novel way
■ helps individuals integrate polarities within themselves
What are cons of the experiential/Gestalt therapy?
■ potential for abuse
■ this approach may not be useful for clients who have difficulty abstracting and imagining or focusing on emotions
■ cross cultural relevance: heavy emphasis on developing separateness from one’s social circle
■ fewer studies on this approach
