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Theory and Design in Counseling and Psychotherapy
Susan X Day , Iowa State University and University of Houston
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CHAPTER 7: Gestalt Therapy
Key Terms and Essential Concepts
Figure/Ground: Perls expanded this concept from Gestalt psychology
research. The researchers demonstrated that perception focuses on the foreground
of a scene, and the background fades into less distinct shapes and forms. Perls
used this description to explain the self’s perceptions in relation to personal
needs. The individual focuses awareness on what is important according to her
psychological world view, and disregards other elements of experience and the
environment as less important. Shifts in perception occur as the person’s awareness
changes.
Awareness: Being fully aware is a consciousness of one’s internal
self and of the environment, including reactions to other people. Awareness
is expressed as thoughts, feelings, behavior, and body sensations.
Polarities: Internal conflicts within an individual represent
one aspect of the personality that is in direct opposition to another, keeping
the individual stuck in the middle unable to make effective choices. Usually
polarities can be described as themes such as the struggle between top-dog and
under-dog—or tame versus wild.
Homeostasis: The ideal state of being in which the individual
is centered, able to balance his or her energy within the context of what is
best for the individual at the moment. In such a balanced state, there is an
integration of polarities within the self, and the person can make choices in
a state of equilibrium.
Top-dog/Under-dog: Conflicting polarized positions within the
personality represent opposing drives within the self. Top-dog is the bullying
force of the conscience that is righteous and attempts to dominate the under-dog,
or the natural self, that resists social demands and attempts to express personal
wishes.
Splitting: Pathological disorder in which an individual is
unable to balance the positive and negative polarities within themselves and
is unable to see others as simultaneously possessing both positive and negative
sides.
Contact: An aware state of mind allows the person to be conscious
of what is occurring in the here and now, both for external stimuli and for
the self. Being in tune with the moment includes the ability to connect to another
person through an empathic exchange of experiencing.
Support: Internal resources within the self, and external influences
in the environment, allow the person to maintain balance in self. The individual
is responsible for evaluating externals and creating the environment that is
self-enhancing.
Impasse: When a person experiences the absence of necessary
support systems and is unable to develop new influences, the individual is blocked,
unable to move forward in life. At this time, a client often seeks therapy.
Gestalt therapy will create interventions that expose how the person is emotionally
stuck, and provide experiences for emotional release. Once the impasse is unblocked,
the client can develop new venues of self-support.
Shoulds: Barriers that block the natural balance of the self
are rigid self-censures that may not be in awareness but are internalized to
the point that they hamper a person’s ability to be freely adaptable in a given
context.
Neurotic self-regulation: Unexamined learning within one’s
self enables the person to choose actions that seem natural and righteous, but
are, in fact, personal rules that block the individual’s organismic balance.
Full awareness requires a natural shifting so the person can adapt in the moment
to personal needs and external influences.
Disowning: When individuals do not make contact with others,
through several methods called boundary disturbances, they are limiting conscious
awareness. Separating one’s self from natural reactions and experiences, denies
fully living and can lead to self-restrictions and deprivation. In contrast,
owning the self’s natural way of being and staying open to the self’s reactions
to external influences as they really are, allow the self to live fully and
authentically.
Introjection: One of the five types of boundary disturbance,
which prevents accurate contact with the self as well as connections to others.
In introjection, an individual is unable to define her own values but instead,
wholly internalizes someone else’s entire value system as her own without fully
adapting the values to the self’s unique way of being.
Projection: In another type of contact boundary disturbance,
the individual transfers her own negative feelings and motives to other people,
instead of owning the reactions as a part of herself. The individual thereby
has an inaccurate perception of others, and consequently creates a block to
real contact.
Retroflection: In yet another contact boundary disturbance
the individual directs negative reactions to others or to external circumstance
to the self. An example would be a person who is angry with someone else but
directs the anger inward and becomes depressed.
Deflection: In another method for disturbing full awareness,
the individual avoids contact by strategically not paying attention to painful
subjects or feelings, and thereby turning aside the issues that are unpleasant
or painful.
Confluence: Another contact barrier is erected when a person
merges the emotions and perceptions of another person into her own, thereby
ignoring the differences and distinctions between the self and another.
Unfinished business: When individuals play out experiences
from their past, within their present life, they are living out experiences
that were never resolved. This is a result of unexpressed emotions, or open-ended
issues from the past, which continue to resurface until they are fully realized
in the moment and completed. The resolution of this cycle is a primary goal
within Gestalt therapy.
Layer: Perls described the human personality as expressed through
ever deepening levels and used the layers of an onion as an analogy for peeling
away tiers of the person’s awareness. At the deepest level of self-awareness,
the person is aware of external influences and able to constantly take in what
is outside and still stay in touch with the real state of the self in the moment.
Perls described therapy as following "
layers of neuroses"
to unveil all levels
where the person comes in contact with the boundary, or line, between the self
and the external world.
Phony layer: The personality level where the individual responds
according to a superficial definition of self, reacting only in accordance with
typically acceptable social behavior, and negating awareness of the natural
self.
Phobic layer: The personality level where the person hides
in fear of the reactions of others, spending more time covering up helpless
feelings than dealing with the real issues.
Impasse layer: On this level, a person is confused as to what
to do next. He may seek help from others, hoping someone else will tell him
what to do.
Implosive layer: The personality level where the phony mask
no longer works and the person questions the authenticity of his identity.
Explosive layer: An exciting, growthful personality stage when
the person lets go of inauthentic defenses and is freed up to act in accordance
with his natural, self-defining identity.
Organismic self-regulation: According to Perls, the self seeks
to integrate personality polarities into a sense of wholeness. Such a process
is natural and provides the means for the person to gain a balance within an
ever changing life of multiple experiences and personal needs.
Experimentation: Gestalt therapists prefer to have clients
actually do something rather than only talk about their experiences. New behaviors
may be assigned as homework. Counseling sessions may focus on the client’s awareness
of what is happening in the moment. When clients describe a feeling, the counselor
may encourage the client to, "
Stay with that"
to focus attention on the here
and now. Imaginary scenes may be enacted within the client’s mind while the
client describes in detail what the experience is like. Techniques that bring
out mind/body/feeling reactions are called experiments in living in the present.
Paradoxical theory of change: Gestalt therapists assign to
clients experimental activities that are designed to heighten awareness. Often
the experience is the opposite of what might be expected. So, the client could
be told to do more of a symptom, rather than less; or to do the opposite of
whatever was done before that wasn’t working to see what happens. Doing something
new brings new intensity to experience and may bring new insight.
Psychodrama: A client in a Gestalt group describes her experience,
and group members act out assigned roles to reenact the client’s description.
The client and therapist direct the action so the scene is vividly portrayed
as each actor displays a range of behaviors and feelings. The client could experiment
with new ways of reacting or get in touch with the intensity of the drama. Instead
of just talking about psychological issues, everyone involved is involved, actually
living real experience.
Role playing: Clients may rehearse new behaviors or act in
roles that depict personality polarities or parts that represent new perspectives.
Role plays can resolve unfinished business or arouse awareness of unrecognized
needs. The empty chair technique is where two empty seats are assigned a character,
attitude, emotion, or personal quality. The client sits in one chair and gives
voice to the perspective of that seat, then changes and speaks for the other
chair. Such role playing intensifies experience to bring the client to a new
awareness.
Hot seat: In a Gestalt group, one member may sit in specified
place and do psychological work with the group leader.
Spectator learning: Those group members observing a client
working with the therapist become aware of interaction and of their reactions
to the experience. They may also offer comments regarding what they saw and
felt.
Dream work: A Gestalt client may present a dream verbally
and through dramatic reenactment. An empty chair technique may be used or other
means are found to fully explicate the experience. Gaps in the scenes are explored
to discover those areas that may be missing for the client. Themes or hidden
meanings may be revealed.
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