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 Therapy It is important to accept who and what we are rather than striving to become what we should be CP 6642 Group Dynamics and Counseling Troy University Summer 2009 Jerry Traylor

2. Founder of Gestalt Therapy Failed 7th grade twice Earned Medical Degree (Psychiatric Specialty) Served in World War I as medic Established the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy Practiced at the Esalen Institute Innovator in Psychotherapy The Traveling Minstrel of Gestalt Theapy People Loved and Admired People Disliked and Disparaged Fritz Perls

3. Co-founder of Gestalt Therapy Played Piano by 5 years old Played with professional skill by 18 Incorporated music and dance into Gestalt Therapy Completed an extensive study of Existential Philosophy Began collaborating with Fritz Perls in 1930 Taught that every Gestalt Therapist needs to develop her/his own therapeutic style Laura Perls

4. Gestalt Basics Awareness Wholeness Integration Here and Now Responsibility Personal Choice

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

7. Therapeutic Goals To assist the client in obtaining AWARENESS! Expand the client’s ABILITY TO MAKE CHOICES Foster client’s INTEGRATON OF THE SELF Support the client in TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

8. Therapeutic Relationship X Genuine I/Thou Relationship Dialogic Present Centered Non judgmental Supportive

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)

11. Make Discovery

12. Interpret

13. Recognize Choices

15. Therapeutic Experience Withdrawal Sensation Contact Awareness Mobilization of Energy Action

16. The Experience Takes Place In the Hear and Now How What When Who Questions-WHY QUESTIONS AVOIDED What happened in the past is of limited importance Makes contact in a vivid & immediate manner rather than simply talking about

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

19. Therapeutic Experiment Therapeutic Experiences are perceived as a series of experiments Experiments are co-created by client and counselor Designed to intensify experiencing and feeling Experiments are created and changed throughout the experience

20. Therapeutic Experiment Preparation Turn off Internal Dialog Relax Feel

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

22. “Stones” Promotes: Seeing in the moment Identifying Important People, Places, and Things Identifying patterns

23. Making the Rounds Promotes: Individual confrontation Risk taking Disclosure of self Experiment with new behavior Growth

24. ART Promotes Recognition of Feelings Expressing feelings in ways other than in words A willingness to play and Free Associate Experiencing Feelings Changes Self Disclosure Risk Taking

25. Dialogue Experiment A role playing technique Encourages dialogue opposing poles in one’s personality Promotes 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 self Reversal Technique Experiment Counselor asks the client to role play the opposing side of the personality Permits the contact with pieces of the self that have been denied & submerged Rehearsal Experiment Counselor 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

27. Staying with the Feeling Counselor encourages the client to stay with the retain unpleasant feelings from which the client would prefer to escape Gestalt Dream Work Experiments The royal road to integration The counselor encourages the client to relive & act out the dream in the present tense Each part of the dream is understood as a projection of the self All the different parts of the dream are expression of one’s contradictory & inconsistent sides By entering a dialogue between the opposing sides, one becomes more aware of the range of one’s emotions

28. Gestalt Therapy Criticisms Doesn’t Utilize Formal Diagnosis or Assessments The counselor must have a high level of personal development May not be embraced within cultures that stress reserve Experiencing Not Easily Seen To Solve Problems

29. References Power Point Presentation Gestalt Therapy File Format: Microsoft Powerpoint - View as HTML The Gestalt Experiment. Counseling sessions are perceived as a series of experiments which are a creative adventure developed collaboratively between ...chdsw.educ.kent.edu/mcglothlin/Theories/Gestalt%20Therapy.ppt Slide No. 1 Corey, G. (2004). Theory & Practice of Group Counseling (6 ed.). (L. Gebo, Ed.) Belmont, California, USA : Brooks/Cole, pg. 301 . Slide No. 2 Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (8 ed.). M. Flemming, Ed.) Belmont, California, United States: Thomson Brooks/Cole, pg. 98. Slide No. 3 Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (8 ed.). M. Flemming, Ed.) Belmont, California, United States: Thomson Brooks/Cole, pg. 99 Slide No. 4 Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (8 ed.). M. Flemming, Ed.) Belmont, California, United States: Thomson Brooks/Cole, pg. 455. Slide No. 5 Corey, G. (2004). Theory & Practice of Group Counseling (6 ed.). (L. Gebo, Ed.) Belmont, California, USA : Brooks/Cole, pg. 301 Slide No. 7 Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (8 ed.). M. Flemming, Ed.) Belmont, California, United States: Thomson Brooks/Cole, pg. 460. Slide No. 9 Corey, G. (2004). Theory & Practice of Group Counseling (6 ed.). (L. Gebo, Ed.) Belmont, California, USA : Brooks/Cole, pg. 309-310. Slide No. 10 Crocker, S. F. (2000, July). "I-Thou" and Its Role in Gestalt Therapy. Gestalt! an electronic journal, 4 . Vancouver, Washington, USA: Gestalt Global Corporation. Slide No. 18 Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (8 ed.). M. Flemming, Ed.) Belmont, California, United States: Thomson Brooks/Cole, pg. 466.