Gestalt therapy aims to help clients become aware of themselves and take responsibility for their choices. It focuses on experiencing thoughts and feelings in the present moment rather than past issues. Therapeutic experiments are designed collaboratively between the counselor and client to help the client gain awareness, make choices, and integrate themselves. Some techniques include role playing, dream work, and confronting different parts of oneself. The goal is for clients to fully experience their present realities and accept responsibility for themselves.

1. Gestalt TherapyIt is important to accept who and what we are rather than striving to become what we should beCP 6642Group Dynamics and Counseling Troy UniversitySummer 2009Jerry Traylor

2. Founder of Gestalt TherapyFailed 7th grade twiceEarned Medical Degree (Psychiatric Specialty)Served in World War I as medicEstablished the New York Institute for Gestalt TherapyPracticed at the Esalen InstituteInnovator in PsychotherapyThe Traveling Minstrel of Gestalt TheapyPeople Loved and AdmiredPeople Disliked and DisparagedFritz Perls

3. Co-founder of Gestalt TherapyPlayed Piano by 5 years oldPlayed with professional skill by 18 Incorporated music and dance into Gestalt TherapyCompleted an extensive study of Existential PhilosophyBegan collaborating with Fritz Perls in 1930Taught that every Gestalt Therapist needs to develop her/his own therapeutic styleLaura Perls

4. Gestalt BasicsAwarenessWholenessIntegrationHere and NowResponsibilityPersonal Choice

5. Gestalt View of Human NatureTherapy aims at integrating the sometimes conflicting dimensions within the individualIndividuals are capable of dealing with their life problems themselves, especially if they are fully aware of what is happening in and around themGestalt Theory of Change: The more we try to be who & what we are not, the more we stay the same

7. Therapeutic GoalsTo assist the client in obtaining AWARENESS!Expand the client’s ABILITY TO MAKE CHOICESFoster client’s INTEGRATON OF THE SELFSupport the client in TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

8. Therapeutic RelationshipXGenuine I/Thou RelationshipDialogicPresent CenteredNon judgmentalSupportive

9. I-Thou Relationships Essentially "contemplative" rather than practical. Here we meet an Other in such a manner that nothing beyond the meeting is desired or sought: the experience is one of something/someone which/who is seen and felt as an end-in-itself. The experience involves an appreciation of and a respect for the reality of the Other, grasped in its uniqueness and its mysteriousness. Here I am open and willing to receive the self-revelation of the Other as it stands-out-in-the-open-toward-me, showing itself just as-it-is. In this I welcome, and thus encourage, the Other to show me his/its own unique Truth. The experience is not expressible in descriptive language: it is fundamentally ineffable, since it is the experience of the Other in its uniqueness and its unfathomable mysteriousness: the Other is apprehended as a reality which we can never fully to know, predict, or control. The attitude which characterizes the person who experiences I-Thou is one of disinterested--yet caring and curious--fascination. (Crocker 2002)

10. ResponsibilityCounselor Assists Focuses Emphasizes PatternIdentifies Communication Confronts ClientActively Participate

11. Make Discovery

12. Interpret

13. Recognize Choices

14. Influence Environment

15. Therapeutic ExperienceWithdrawalSensationContactAwarenessMobilization of EnergyAction

16. The ExperienceTakes Place In the Hear and NowHow What When Who Questions-WHY QUESTIONS AVOIDEDWhat happened in the past is of limited importanceMakes contact in a vivid & immediate manner rather than simply talking about

18. Unfinished BusinessInterferes with the effective contact with oneself & others until one faces & deals with the unexpressed emotions

19. Therapeutic ExperimentTherapeutic Experiences are perceived as a series of experimentsExperiments are co-created by client and counselorDesigned to intensify experiencing and feelingExperiments are created and changed throughout the experience

20. Therapeutic Experiment PreparationTurn off Internal DialogRelaxFeel

21. Experimental WarningsExperiments Are Not For EverybodyExperiments for less organized, more severely disturbed, or psychotic clients can be problematicExperiments are powerful-Harm Can Occur Experiments require caution, skill, training and experience

22. “Stones”Promotes:Seeing in the momentIdentifying Important People, Places, and ThingsIdentifying patterns

23. Making the RoundsPromotes:Individual confrontationRisk takingDisclosure of selfExperiment with new behaviorGrowth

24. ARTPromotesRecognition of FeelingsExpressing feelings in ways other than in wordsA willingness to play and Free Associate Experiencing Feelings ChangesSelf DisclosureRisk Taking

25. Dialogue ExperimentA role playing techniqueEncourages dialogue opposing poles in one’s personalityPromotes a higher level of integration & acceptance of the 2 polarities“I Take Responsibility for …” Experiment Counselor asks a client to make a statement & then adds: “and I take responsibility for it” Promotes: Increased recognition & acceptance of the client’s feelings Decreased projection of their emotions onto others

26. Playing the Projection Experiment Counselor asks client to role play certain assertions that he/she makes about other peopleIncreases awareness of how he/she sees clearly in others the very things he/she does not want to see & accept in the selfReversal Technique ExperimentCounselor asks the client to role play the opposing side of the personality Permits the contact with pieces of the self that have been denied & submergedRehearsal ExperimentCounselor asks client to share his/her internal rehearsing to make him/her aware of how much energy & preparation is involved in “bolstering” their social roles