The document discusses therapeutic techniques and experiments in Gestalt therapy. It defines experiments as ready-made techniques used to promote change in therapy or group interaction, while techniques grow out of client-therapist dialogue. Experiments are avenues for clients to experience behaviors and insights, while bringing out internal conflicts. The document outlines several forms of Gestalt experiments, including role plays, dialogues, and reenacting memories. It emphasizes the importance of flexibility and using techniques appropriately based on individual client needs.

1. THERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUE
AND PROCEDURE

2. EXERCISES are ready-made techniques that are
sometimes used to make something happen in a
therapy session or to achieve goal. It serves as
catalyst for individual work or for promoting
interaction among members of the therapy group
(Corey, 2009).

3. EXPERIMENT grows out of the interaction between
the client and therapist in a dialogic process;
cornerstone of dialogic process.
It heightens the client’s awareness and
understanding through experience (Frew, 2008)

4. An EXERCISE or technique is a performed experiment
with specific learning goals….An EXPERIMENT, on the
other hand, flows directly from psychotherapy theory
and is crafted to fit the individual as he or she exist in
the here and now (Melnick and Nevis, 2005).

5. EXPERIMENT
 Avenue for clients to live experientially
 A creative adventure where clients can themselves
behaviorally
 Invites clients to engage in experiments that lead to
fresh emotional experience and new insight
(Strumpfel & Goldman, 2002)
 Determines what does or does not fit for the client
through their own awareness (Yontef, 1993)

6. It brings out some kind of internal conflict by making
the struggle an actual process (Polster, 1987)

7. FORMS OF GESTALT EXPERIMENT ACCORDING TO
POLSTER
 Imagining a future encounter
 Setting up a dialogue between a client and some
significant person in his/her life
 Dramatizing the memory of a painful event
 Reliving a particularly profound early experience in the
present

8.  Assuming the identity of ones mother or father
through role playing
 Focusing on gestures, postures, and other non verbal
signs of inner expression
 Carrying on a dialogue between two conflicting
aspects within the person

10.  To be sensitive enough to know when to leave the
client alone
 To derive maximum benefit from Gestalt experiment,
the practitioner must be sensitive to introducing them
at the right time and in a appropriate manner
 The nature of the experiment depends on the
individual’s problems, what the person is experiencing,
and the life experiences that both the client and the
therapist bring the session

11.  Experiments require the client’s active role in self-
exploration
 Gestalt experiment work best when the therapist is
respectful of the client’s cultural background and is in
good contact with the person
 If the therapist meets with hesitation, it is good idea to
explore its meaning for the client

12.  It is important that the therapist be flexible in using
technique, paying particular attention to how the
client is responding
 The counselor should be ready to scale down tasks so
that the client has a good chance to succeed in his/her
effort
 The therapist needs to learn which experiment can be
best be practiced in the session itself and which can
best be performed outside

14.  To bring about integrated functioning and acceptance
of aspects of one’s personality that have been
disowned and denied

15. EMPTY-CHAIR TECHNIQUE
 one way of getting the client
externalize the introject
 helps the client to get in touch
with a feeling or a side of
themselves that they may be
denying
 it discourages clients from
disassociating the feeling

16.  involves asking a person in a group to go up to others
in the group and either speak to or do something with
each person.
 to confront, to risk, to disclose the self, to experiment
with new behavior, and to grow and change.

17.  to represent reversals of underlying and latent
impulses
 “plunging the client into the part of themselves that
have been submerged and denied”
 to help clients accept certain personal attributes that
they try to deny

18.  Prepares the client to in their social role
 Increases awareness on how they try to meet the
expectation of others, of the degree to which they want
to be approved, accepted, and like, and of the extent to
which they go attain acceptance

19.  Aims the client to become more aware of the subtle
signals and cues they are sending through boy
language.

20.  urges the client to stay with their feelings and
encourage them to go deeper into the feeling or
behavior they wish to avoid

21.  It brings back the dream to life and relieve them as
though they are happening now.
 The dream is acted out in the present, and the dreamer
becomes part of his/her own dream.

23. Emphasizes helping people incorporate and
accept all aspects of life.
Helps client focus on resolving areas of
unfinished business.
The approach is flexible and not limited to a
few technique.

24. Primary emphasizes on doing rather than
talking
Appropriate for certain affective disorder,
anxiety states, somatoform disorder, etc.
Gestalt is versatile.