Gestalt Theory

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Gestalt Theory

• Fritz Perls

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A Gestalt Moment...

• THINK FOR A MINUTE, WHEN HAVE YOU HAD A GESTALT,
  MEANING THAT YOU HAD A SINGLE MOMENT OR REVLATION
  OR INSPIRATION RATHER THAN A SLOW , GRADUAL
  LEARNING PROCESS. (Kottler)

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Fritz Perls

• No other theory was carved more closely from the
  personality of its inventor than Gestalt therapy
  
• (Kottler, 2001)

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Gestalt

• In fact, in its early days, the approach was
  known as the Fritz style, referring to Fritz
  Perls (Kottler, 2001, p. 90).

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Gestalt

• Gestalt therapy thrived on being aggressive,
  combative, anti-intellectual mostly because
  Perls liked to provoke people and to have
  controversy (Kottler).

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EARLY HISTORY

• Perls fled from Nazi Germany and moved to NY as a
  psychoanalyst. Following Wilhelm Reich, Perls
  became interested with the body as the mind.
  This worked well for someone who was learning
  English. He liked a theory that used less talk
  and more action.

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Perls on Gestalt

• Perls used the concept of Gestalt to describe
  the irreducible nature of human growth. He
  believed that people become disconnected from
  their essential selves-fragmented- and that the
  process of therapy was one of helping them to
  reintegrate themselves into a whole (Kottler,
  2001, pp. 91-92).

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Gestalt Therapy

• Fragmented people have to be reintegrated.
• Gestalt therapy helps to make people whole again.

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Comparison to Freud

• If psychoanalysis was formal, fate driven, and
  biologically based, then Perls would develop an
  approach that was whimsical, playful, and based
  completely in the present rather than the past
  (Kottler, p. 92)

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Human Nature

• Perls believed that humans are manipulative and
  avoid self-reliance and responsibility.
• Given the basic assumption, the Gestalt
  therapists function is to confront and frustrate
  the clients escape from responsibility (Corey,
  p. 195)

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Therapy

• Perls wanted his clients to grow up, stand on
  their own feet, etc.
• This push for self-reliance, made for a
  confrontive, frustrating style of therapy.
• Modern Gestalt is much less frustrating.

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Gestalt

• The initial goal for clients is to gain
  awareness of what they are experiencing and
  doing.
• Through this awareness, change automatically
  occurs
• (Corey)

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Gestalt Theory

• Focuses on client perceptions of reality
• Focuses on the belief that people are always
  becoming, rediscovering
• Very lively, direct experiencing, not passive at
  all

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Therapy

• Client has to come to grips with what and how
  they are thinking, feeling and doing as they talk
  to the therapist.

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What is the Most Important Time?

• NOW - appreciate and fully experience the present
  moment (Corey, p. 197)

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Unfinished Business

• Things in your past that are not resolved. They
  can bring about resentment, rage, pain, anger,
  grief, etc. (Corey)

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5 Layers of Neurosis

• Our personality is like an onion
• 1. The phony
• 2. The phobic
• 3. The impasse
• 4. The implosive
• 5. The explosive

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Resistances

• Introjection
• Projection
• Retroflection
• Deflection
• Confluence

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Counselor

• Pays attention to body language
• Nonverbal language
• Language patterns
• It talk
• You talk
• Questions
• Metaphors

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Three Stage Integration Sequence in Therapy

• 1. Discovery clients reach a new understanding
  of themselves
• 2. Accommodation recognize they have a choice
• 3. Assimilation learning to influence the
  environment, not passively accepting everything

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According to Gestalt Theory

• ..you cant do Gestalt therapy you must be a
  Gestalt therapist (Perls, 1969).

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Techniques

• Internal Dialogue - top dog and underdog (splits
  in personality function)
• Empty Chair
• Making the Rounds
• Exaggeration Exercise
• Staying with the Feeling
• Dream work

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Thoughts

• GESTALT THERAPY

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What Do These Gestalt Terms Mean to You?

• Experiential
• Humanistic
• Teaches Awareness
• Personally Engaged
• Holistic
• Field Theory

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Explain the Following

• Paradoxical Theory of Change
• Awareness Process
• I-Thou Relation
• Good Gestalt
• Polarities
• Anxiety
• Impasse

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Agree or Disagree?

• Mental illness is simply the inability to form
  clear figures of interest and identify with ones
  moment-by-moment experience and/or to respond to
  that of which one becomes aware
• (Corsini Wedding, 2001, p. 317)