Gestalt Therapy

Question 1

Irving Polster

Answer 1

faculty chairman at Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. Wrote Gestalt Therapy Integrated: countours of Theory and Practice. openined Gestalt Training Center. Wrote Every Poerson’s Life is Worth a Novel.

Question 2

Miriam Polster

Answer 2

undergrad in music.coauthored Gesetal Therapy Integrated: Countours of Theory and Practice.highlighted women’s roles. heroism of every day life

Question 3

Gestalt therapy is

Answer 3

existential, phenomenological, process-based. individuals must be understood in contest of ongoing relationship w/ environment.

Question 4

Focus on…

Answer 4

Procss much more than content

Question 5

how people behave in the present moment is…

Answer 5

far more crucial to self-understanding than why

Question 6

field

Answer 6

dynamic system of interrelationships. important for client to be able to make contact with it

Question 7

Contemporary Relational Gestalt Therapy

Answer 7

stresses dialoge and I/Though relationship btwn client and therapist. collaborative. supportt, increased sensitivity, and compassion.

Question 8

Fritz Perls

Answer 8

confrontational dramatic style. parternalistically. cleint’s have to grow up, stand on own two feat. deal w/ problems themselves. 2 person agendas of Perls” move client from environment support to self-support and reintegrating disowned parts of one’s personality.

Question 9

basic assumption of gestalt

Answer 9

individuals have capacity to self regulated

Question 10

gestalt theory of change

Answer 10

the more we work at becoming who or what we are not, the more we remain the same (paradoxical theory of change)

Question 11

arnie beisser

Answer 11

fritz’s friend. coined paradoxical theory of change.

Question 12

field theory

Answer 12

organism must be seen in its environment, or context, as part of a constantly changing field

Question 13

figure

Answer 13

aspects of individual’s experience that are most salient at any moment

Question 14

ground

Answer 14

aspects of client’s presentation that are outside of awareness

Question 15

figure-formation process

Answer 15

tracks how individual organizes experience from moment to moment as some aspect of the environmental field emerges from the background and becomes the focal point of the individual’s attention and interest.

Question 16

organismic self-regulation

Answer 16

process by which equilibrium is “disturbed” by the emergency of a need, sensation, or interest. organisms will do their best to regulate themselves, given their own capabilities and resources of environment.

Question 17

contact

Answer 17

necessary for change and growth. made by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, moving. effective contact means interacting w/ nature and w/ other people w/out losing one’s sense of individuality.

Question 18

contact boundary phenomena

Answer 18

resistances developed as a means of coping

Question 19

introjection

Answer 19

uncritical acceptance of others’ beliefs

Question 20

projection

Answer 20

reverse of introjection. disowning certain aspects of self by assigning them to environment

Question 21

retroflection

Answer 21

turning back ontour ourselves what we would like to do to someone else or doing to ourselves what we would like some else to do for us

Question 22

deflection

Answer 22

process of distraction or veering off, so that it is difficult to maintain a sustained sense of contact

Question 23

confluence

Answer 23

involves blurring differentiation between the self and the environment. striving to blend in and get along w/ everone. no clear demarcation btwn internal experience and outer reality.

Question 24

premise in gestalt therapy

Answer 24

contact is both normal and healthy, and clients are encouraged to become increasingly aware of their dominant style of blocking contact and their use of resistance.

Question 25

phenomenological inquiry

Answer 25

paying attention to “the now.” tl help client make contact with present moment, Gestalt therapists ask “what” and “how” questions, but rarely ask “why” questions.

Question 26

impasse

Answer 26

stuck point; occurs when external support is not available or the customary way of being does not work. The therapist’s task is to accompany clients in experiencing the impasse w/out rescuing or frustrating them.

Question 27

basic goal

Answer 27

assisting client to attain greater awreness, and with it, greater choice.

Question 28

therapist’s job

Answer 28

invite clients into active partnership where they learn about themselves by adopting experimental attitudes towards life in which they try out new behaviors and notice what happens.

Question 29

dialoge

Answer 29

I/Thou dialogue in a here-and-now framework.

Question 30

body language

Answer 30

pay attention to non-verbal cues

Question 31

relatinoship btwn language patterns and personality

Answer 31

speech patterns are often an expression of feelings, thoughts, attitudes. eg, “it” talk, “you talk,” using question in place of statements to depersonalize. listent to metaphors, language that denies power, language that uncovers story

Question 32

3- stage integration sequence characterizing client growth in therapy

Answer 32

1. discovery
2. accommodation
3. assimilation

Question 33

exercises

Answer 33

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

Question 34

experiments

Answer 34

grow out of interaction btwn client and therapist. emerge w/in dialogic process. can be considered cornerstone of experiential learning. Frew defines the experiment “as a method that shifts the focus of counseling from talking about a topic to an activity that will heighten the client’s awareness and understanding through experience.”

Question 35

experiment 2

Answer 35

an intervention and active technique that facilitates collaborative exploration of a client’s experience. goal of an experiment is learning.

Question 36

experiments take many forms

Answer 36

imagaging a threating future encounter; setting up a dialogue btwn a client and some significan person in his or her life; dramatizing the memory of a painful event; reliving a particularly prfound early experience in the present; assuming identity of one’s mother or father through role playing.

Question 37

confrontation

Answer 37

invites clients to examine behaviors, attitudes, thoughts. therapists can encourage clients to look at certain incongruities, especially gaps btwn verbal and nonverbal expression.

Question 38

exercises

Answer 38

preplanned activities that can be used to elicit emotion, produce action, or achieve a specific goal.

Question 39

internal dialogue exercise

Answer 39

top dog vs underdog. constant struggle “critical parent” vs victim

Question 40

empty-chair technique

Answer 40

chair is a vehicle for technique of role-reversal

Question 41

future projection technique

Answer 41

anticipated even brought to present and acted out.

Question 42

making the rounds

Answer 42

group exercise: and individual goes to others in the group and either speaks or does something w/ each person. purpose is to confront, risk, disclose self

Question 43

reversal exercise

Answer 43

certain symptoms and behaviors represent reversals of underlying or latent impulses. thus, therapsts could ask client who claims to suffer from sever inhibitions and excessive timidity to play the role of an exhibitionist.

Question 44

rehearsal exercise

Answer 44

rehearse out loud to therapist

Question 45

exaggeration exercise

Answer 45

exaggerate “small” movements or gestures repeatedly to intensify the feeling and make the meaning clearer

Question 46

staying with the feeling

Answer 46

therapist may urge clients to stay w/in feeling and encourage them to go deeper into the feeling or behavior they wish to avoid.

Question 47

dream work

Answer 47

intent is to bring dreams back to life and relive them as though they were happening now.

Question 48

therapist’s agenda

Answer 48

no agenda beyond assisting clients to increase their awareness.

Question 49

role of therapist

Answer 49

help clients identify most pressing issues, needs, and interests and design experiments that sharpen those figures or that explore resistances to contact and awareness.

Question 50

max wertheimer

Answer 50

learning theory. two blinking lights give impression of movement.

Question 51

kurt lewin

Answer 51

Kurt Lewin developed field theory for psychology by
noting the organism must be seen in its environment or context, as part
of the constantly changing field.

Question 52

disequilibrium

Answer 52

To a Gestalt theorist, a psychological
fact is anything which influences behavior. All these facts make up the
person’s life space. A change in any psychological fact changes the
whole space—which in turn rearranges the person’s entire life space. A
state of disequilibrium is set up when an organism is confronted with a
problem.

Question 53

law of pragnanz

Answer 53

(pregnant with meaning) states
“Psychological organization will always be as good as the controlling
circumstances permit,” (Koffka). Every psychological event will move
to be as simple, concise, symmetrical, or harmonious as possible—
striving towards balance. The brain is always attempting to make
sense of what is perceived—like seeing figures in clouds or
recognizable patterns in the random coloring of floor tiles or walls.

Question 54

support

Answer 54

includes all meaningful experiences such as breathing or using one’s own legs for support

Question 55

fritz perls

Answer 55

“A living organism is an organism, which consists of thousands of
processes that require interchange with other media outside the
boundary of the organism”—Perls. Life is nothing but a series of
uncompleted gestalts–as soon as one situation is completed another
one comes up.
A. Perls saw personality as multilayered, like an onion which needs to
be pealed to get to the core:
1. Cliché Layer (The phony): Little of genuine self is seen through
the use of polite sentences. The client has little or no selfawareness.
2. Role-playing Layer (Phobic): automatic and serves as a mask
of genuine self. We are afraid to find out who we really are and
don’t like it when we see the real person.
3. Impasse Layer: Nothingness–the experience of being without
roles or clichés is extremely frightening, but the client is stuck in
his/her growth process. He wants to manipulate the environment
to take care of him, and then may become dependent on the
system.
4. Implosive Layer: The client becomes aware of emotions that
are either expressed or imploded, makes meaningful contacts
and exposes defenses to get to the real self.
5. Explosive or Genuine Personality Layer: The client strips
away learned (usually phony) ways of being in the world, and
gets in touch with the real self. This releases a great deal of
energy which has been stored up by living as a genuine person.

Question 56

goal of gestalt psychotherapy

Answer 56

integration

Question 57

key figures