PSY343 - 4. Gestalt Therapy and Emotion-Focused Therapy Flashcards
History of Gestalt Therapy
Fritz + Laura Perls - 40s + 50s
Rejected psychoanalysis for phenomenology _ existentialism
Influenced by gestalt psychology: holism + field theory
History of Gestalt Therapy
authenticity: state - defined by intrapersonal experience
way i wanna live based on beliefs + values
position myself in my experience
genuineness: interpersonal act
way you relate to the other
History of Gestalt Therapy
synthesized phenomenology + humanistic approaches
integrative system
meant to work with patient’s awareness
gestalt: interested in subjective awareness
psychoanalysis: emphasis on unconscious interest in meta awareness
Holism
Humans are inherently self-regulating, growth oriented + cannot be understood - client centred
can’t seperate context
Field Theory
field consists of complete environment
Variables that contribute to shaping behaviour + experiences present in current field
how context influences what i’m experiencing in it
Field Theory
no objective perspective on reality
heavy focus in here and now - reality relative to what’s happening in the field
memories are activated + present in my experience, now it’s in the present field
Contact
being in touch with what is emerging in here + now, moment to moment
Through contact + contact boundaries, ppl connect to + separate from others, changing themselves + their experience of the world
Contact Boundary
point of interaction betw person + environment
Ppl can make contact with each other + meet their psychological, emotional + physical needs
Contact Boundary
Ppl also withdraw from contact in order to main own identity + regulate how much stimulation is received
Boundary Disturbances
disruptions in contact or awareness
when disruption in contact with emergent experience
Theory of Personality
cannot be considered apart from interactions with environment (other people)
Contact: being in touch with what is emerging in here + now, from moment-to-moment
Theory of Personality
Contact Boundary: point of interaction betw person + environment; connects ppl, but also maintains separation
Effective self-regulation includes contact with awareness, + differentiating what is nourishing from what is harmful
Theory of Personality
Creative adjustment: solve problems, ppl will find creative balance betw changing environment + adjusting to its current conditions
constantly in mutual negotiation with selves + with environment
Theory of Personality
radical ecological theory
no meaningful way to consider person apart of interpersonal relationship
Theory of Personality
self does not exist without the other
experience cannot exist without contact
field is differentiated by boundaries
aware of some aspects of experience, but not others
Theory of Psychopathology
In healthy functioning, needs emerge, area attended to + satisfied + then fade into background again
point in cycle in which there is interruption
Psychopathology when need- satisfaction cycle interrupted
Theory of Psychopathology
inability to identify with moment-to-moment experience, and/or respond to what emerges in awareness
boundary disturbance: interrupting contact
Theory of Psychopathology
result of impoverished environment (nonresponsive/indulgent parents), or initial creative adjustment that has become habit
Theory of Psychopathology
we developed creative adjustment strategies to fit environment (coping mechanisms), when field changes + it doesn’t fit, it just becomes a destructive habit - no longer adaptive
Boundary Disturbances
Introjection: taking in ideas, identity, beliefs without awareness; “swallowing the whole” without integration
problem comes when introjection + no assimilation
swallow whole, without chewing = introjection
assimilation: process of taking in, sort through + keep important parts
accepting conditions of worth of parents without questioning it
Boundary Disturbances
Projection: attributing aspects of self to another
avoid experience, placing it on them
Retroflection: caressing self or berating self instead of someone else
doing to oneself what one desires to do to another
Boundary Disturbances
Deflection: being overinclusive or remaining vague, jumping around from topic to topic
away from experience, casting dispersions from moment to moment experience, hide experience
Confluence: losing separation betw self + others; enmeshment of boundary betw you and others
Goals of Therapy
AWARENESS
achieve greater awareness in particular areas + improve ability to bring automatic habits into awareness
Goals of Therapy
“Awareness of awareness” ability to use skill with awareness to rectify disturbances in awareness process
need to be aware of how i block my awareness - so i gain insight in how to unblock awareness
independence of client - share with existentialism: responsibility
Therapy Process
relationship betw patient + therapist is central
therapist helps patient become aware of how they avoiding
experimentation to see if client can get aware
Three stages of therapy
Discovery – clients aware of situations they wish to change
ppl may not know what they need help in
process diagnostic
Three stages of therapy
Accommodation – clients explore + experiment with diff ways of acting
Assimilation – clients changes their behaviour, towards satisfying their needs
integrate changes they’ve made
Therapy Process
No specified treatment length
unstructured model
Therapy Techniques
Focusing: focus their awareness + bring attention to immediate situation + observe how awareness changes from moment to moment
clarify on what’s important in moment
nonverbal indications of changes in awareness
experimentation more than getting it right
seeing how these changes experience
Therapy Techniques
Enactment: putting thoughts or feelings into action (role plays, chair work, role reversal, creative expression)
chair work: psychodrama, speak from significant other - talk to self
Therapy Techniques
dialogue with parts of yourself that we are addressing
creative expression: art, movement, poetry
anything that facilitates contact and awareness
Therapy Techniques
Body awareness: bringing attention to body language; exploring discrepancies betw body posture + verbal behaviour - confrontational aspect
History of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)
Leslie Greenberg + colleagues
Theoretical + clinical research on EFT - York
Combines client-centred empathic responding with directiveness of Gestalt
History of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)
therapist guides client toward certain emotion-processing activities result in new insights for client
Change occurs through awareness, emotion regulation, reflection + transformation of emotion taking place in an empathically attuned relationship
History of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)
recognition of emotional experience + use to regulate behaviours
emotions have a function to organize action
essential to be connected to because they connect us to vital information for adaptive functioning - values, desires
transform emotion
Assumptions of EFT
incorporates humanistic + phenomenological principals:
Experiencing basis of thought, feeling + action
fundamentally free to choose how to construct their worlds
Assumptions of EFT
function holistically while at same time made up of many parts, or self-organizations, each of which may be associated with quite distinctive thoughts, feelings + self-experiences
Assumptions of EFT
function best + best helped by therapist who is psychologically present + establishes an interpersonal environment that is empathic, unconditionally accepting, + authentic People grow + develop to best of their abilities in supportive environments
Types of Emotional Response
Primary emotions person’s most fundamental, direct initial reactions to a situation
Secondary emotional responses: emotional reactions to primary emotional experiences (shame in response to fear)
habitual ways of responding
blocking experience of primary emotion
Types of Emotional Response
Maladaptive emotions: old, familiar feelings that occur repeatedly + do not change in response to changing circumstances; do not provide adaptive directions for problem solving
Types of Emotional Response
Instrumental emotion responses: used to influence + control others (using anger displays to intimidate, or sadness displays to elicit help)
can feel very real at the moment
Types of Emotional Response
holistic: made up of diff experiences, even competing ones, but they make up the entire experience
Theory of Psychopathology
experience psychological difficulty when problems symbolizing own experience
putting language to what they’re feeling
Theory of Psychopathology
Pathology results from activation of dysfunctional emotion (maladaptive primary or secondary emotions)
Goals of Therapy
help client deepen experience + symbolize it accurately in awareness
emphasis on narrating experience
what makes sense? what is meaningful?
Principles of Emotional Change
Awareness: know what we feel, we connect to needs being signaled by emotion + motivated to meet those needs
process of making meaning, assimilating
Principles of Emotional Change
Regulation: when we can regulate emotional experience, learn that we have control over intensity + expression
modulate emotion in a way that’s healthy
Principles of Emotional Change
Reflection: explore + reflect upon emotional experiences, we create meaning of the experience
what we make of emotion makes up who we are, self construction
Principles of Emotional Change
Transformation: when we undo maladaptive states by activating other, more adaptive emotional states we are transforming emotion by emotion
Therapy Process: Three-step process
Bonding + awareness – From first session therapist holds therapeutic attitude of empathy + positive regard
Emotional evocation + exploration - Emotions are evoked, and if necessary, intensified
Therapy Process
Transformation + generation of alternatives - Having arrived at a core emotion emphasis shifts to construction of alternative ways of responding emotionally, cognitively + behaviourally
change ways i respond to this feeling (beliefs about it, behaving differently)
Therapy Process
Client markers: indicate type of intervention to use + client’s current readiness to work on this problem
identifiable by markers that signal affective problem
indicate underlying process is activated
Therapy Process
trained to identify and intervene in ways that are suited for each problem
Tasks: models of actual process of change that acts as a map to guide the therapist intervention
for each marker, there is a task that will address problem
Marker-Driven Tasks and Resolutions
Problematic reactions expressed through puzzlement about emotional or behavioural responses to particular situations
Marker-Driven Tasks and Resolutions
Task: Systematic evocative unfolding is vivid reconstructions of experience to promote re-experiencing + make sense of the reaction
Resolution: New understanding of self-functioning (outside awareness shame)
Marker-Driven Tasks and Resolutions
Unclear felt sense: unable to get clear sense of experience
Task: Focusing helps person mindfully accept embodied aspects of experience + approach these with curiosity + willingness to experience them + put words to bodily felt sense
Resolution: bodily felt shift + creation of meaning
Marker-Driven Tasks and Resolutions
Conflict splits: aspect of the self is critical or coercive towards another aspect
Task: Two-chair work where two parts of self put into dialogue with each other
Resolution: integration between diff parts of self, including self-acceptance
Marker-Driven Tasks and Resolutions
Self-interruptive splits: part of the self interrupts or constricts emotional experience + expression
Task: Two-chair enactment make interrupting part of self explicit
Resolution: expression of previously blocked experience
Marker-Driven Tasks and Resolutions
Unfinished business: statement of lingering unresolved feeling toward a significant other
Task: Empty chair intervention to activate client’s internal view of significant other + experience + express their unresolved feelings + needs
Marker-Driven Tasks and Resolutions
Resolution: Holding other accountable or understanding or forgiving the other
Vulnerability: state in which self feels fragile, deeply ashamed, or insecure
Marker-Driven Tasks and Resolutions
Task: affirming empathic validation to validate + normalize client’s experience of vulnerability
Resolution: strengthened sense of self that results from empathic attunement to affect
Marker-Driven Tasks and Resolutions
task is intervention
create contact between diff parts of emotional experience
sometimes it’s the appraisal that is problematic, not the feeling itself
Video of EFT
unclear felt sense
focus on embodied experience of emotions
where in the body is he feeling it
relationship: directive, collaborative
Psychotherapy Research on Humanistic-Experiential Therapies
Large pre-post client change at treatment termination
Post-therapy gains maintained over early + late follow-ups
Large gains relative to clients who receive no therapy
Clinically + statistically equivalent to other therapies
Psychotherapy Research on Humanistic-Experiential Therapies
Process research established that therapist empathy, clients’ emotional productivity, experiencing + manner of personal narrative disclosures significantly contribute to good outcomes in HEP treatments, providing convergent validity for key HP theoretical assumptions and practice principles
