The document discusses stepping out of one's comfort zone. It notes that people remain in their comfort zone due to feelings of safety, habits, fears of failure or rejection, and a lack of awareness of alternatives. Factors that can provoke stepping out include needs not being met within one's current approach, significant life changes, and a need for exploration. The optimal performance zone exists outside the comfort zone where small amounts of stress can drive motivation or growth.

1. Stepping out of the comfort zone
Presented at the
10th EAGT conference on Gestalt Therapy 2010
in Berlin
with the topic: Lost in transformation?”
By
Joanna Kato
M.Sc. Psychologist, Speech Therapist, Gestalt Psychotherapist, Greece
Bianca Ellinger
Psychologist, Gestalt Psychotherapist, Physiotherapist, Greece
Mariola Kochanowicz
M.Sc. Psychologist, School Psychologist, Gestalt Psychotherapist, Greece
Maria Farmaki
Nursery School Teacher, Psychologist, Gestalt Psychotherapist, Greece

2. Liquid Modernity

3. comfort zone
Introjections
Fixed gestalt
Frame
Field
Ground
Patterns
Self-image
Life script
Phenomenology
optimal
performance zone
danger zone
danger zone
Small quantities of
stress experienced
either as anxiety or
as motivation

4. What hold me inside my comfort zone?
The feeling of safety and comfort
Secondary gain
Adaptation
Introjections (believes)
Avoiding responsibility
Fears:
 of making mistakes
 of failure
 of success
 of being rejected
 of the unknown
Missing awareness of the process
Missing awareness of having choices
Missing motivation
Missing excitement
Missing awareness of own capabilities
Habits
Learned roles
Learned helplessness
Inertia
Homeostasis
comfort zone 1
Screen Beans ®
MOBILISATION
OF ENERGY
AWARENESS
ACTION
WITH
DRAWAL
CONTACT
SENSATION INTEGRATION/
ASSIMILATION

5. comfort zone
Problem
 Challenge
Desire
What provokes me to step out of my comfort zone?
 Things I need and/or want, which I can’t satisfy
(anymore) with my known ways of acting and I
don’t choose to postpone any longer
 Significant change in the environment that force
me to leave my comfort and habits and to find
ways of creative adaptation (crises as
opportunity)
 Our need for uncertainness, exploration,
development
«Anxiety is the interruption of the
excitement of creative growth»
Perls et al 1951, p231
Screen Beans ®
MOBILISATION
OF ENERGY
AWARENESS
ACTION
WITH
DRAWAL
CONTACT
SENSATION INTEGRATION/
ASSIMILATION

6. comfort zone
Problem
 Challenge
Desire
Screen Beans ®
MOBILISATION
OF ENERGY
AWARENESS
ACTION
WITH
DRAWAL
CONTACT
SENSATION INTEGRATION/
ASSIMILATION

7. comfort zone
Problem
 Challenge
Desire
Screen Beans ®
MOBILISATION
OF ENERGY
AWARENESS
ACTION
WITH
DRAWAL
CONTACT
SENSATION INTEGRATION/
ASSIMILATION

8. comfort zone
Screen Beans ®
MOBILISATION
OF ENERGY
AWARENESS
ACTION
WITH
DRAWAL
CONTACT
SENSATION INTEGRATION/
ASSIMILATION
door

9. Bibliography
• Img. water-drops-retouched: http://lindsaymaynard.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/liquid-identity-and-
modernity/
• Img. Liquid: http://3whitedesks.com/?p=4 By Fran
• Img. Earth: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: woodleywonderworks, Pink Sherbet
Photography
• Bauman, Zygmunt, Liquid Modernity, 2000, Polity press in ass. With Blackwell Publishers Ltd
• Beisser, A. M.D. (1970). Paradoxical Theory of Change. Fagan and Shepherd’s. Gestalt Therapy
Now, Harper Colophon Book. www.gestalt.org/arnie.htm
• Bridges N.A. Moving Beyond the Comfort Zone in Psychotherapy,2005 Jason Aronson Inc.
• Gilbert M. Evans K. Psychotherapy Supervision,2000Open University Press, Buckingham,
Philadelphia
• Kegan, R.,&Laskow Lahey, L. (2001). The real reason people won’t change. Harvard Business
Review,79,85-92.
• Koch, M.W., Bjeregard, P.& Curtis, C.(2003). Acculturation and mental Heath-empirical
verification of J.W. Berry’s model of acculturative stress. Section of Research in Greenland,
National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen, Denmark
• Lichtenberg, Philip, Undoing the Clinch of Oppression, Gestalt Institute of Cleveland Press, 1990
• Perls F, Hefferline R. & Goodman P. 195, Gestalt Therapy New York Dell
• Plunmer D. Fernbacher S. 2005 Cultural Influences and Considerations in Gestalt Therapy,
Gestalt Therapy Theory and Practice, Ed. Ansel, L. Woldt, Sarah M. Toman, Sage Publications
Ltd
• Venuto T. www.burnfat.com
• White, Alasdair, From Comfort Zone to Performance Management, www.pm-solutions.
com/Performance_ManagementApril2008.pdf
• White, A. (2008). From Comfort Zone to Performance Management.White & MacLean
Publishing.

10. Bibliography
• Img. water-drops-retouched: http://lindsaymaynard.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/liquid-identity-and-
modernity/
• Img. Liquid: http://3whitedesks.com/?p=4 By Fran
• Img. Earth: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: woodleywonderworks, Pink Sherbet
Photography
• Bauman, Zygmunt, Liquid Modernity, 2000, Polity press in ass. With Blackwell Publishers Ltd
• Beisser, A. M.D. (1970). Paradoxical Theory of Change. Fagan and Shepherd’s. Gestalt Therapy
Now, Harper Colophon Book. www.gestalt.org/arnie.htm
• Bridges N.A. Moving Beyond the Comfort Zone in Psychotherapy,2005 Jason Aronson Inc.
• Gilbert M. Evans K. Psychotherapy Supervision,2000Open University Press, Buckingham,
Philadelphia
• Kegan, R.,&Laskow Lahey, L. (2001). The real reason people won’t change. Harvard Business
Review,79,85-92.
• Koch, M.W., Bjeregard, P.& Curtis, C.(2003). Acculturation and mental Heath-empirical
verification of J.W. Berry’s model of acculturative stress. Section of Research in Greenland,
National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen, Denmark
• Lichtenberg, Philip, Undoing the Clinch of Oppression, Gestalt Institute of Cleveland Press, 1990
• Perls F, Hefferline R. & Goodman P. 195, Gestalt Therapy New York Dell
• Plunmer D. Fernbacher S. 2005 Cultural Influences and Considerations in Gestalt Therapy,
Gestalt Therapy Theory and Practice, Ed. Ansel, L. Woldt, Sarah M. Toman, Sage Publications
Ltd
• Venuto T. www.burnfat.com
• White, Alasdair, From Comfort Zone to Performance Management, www.pm-solutions.
com/Performance_ManagementApril2008.pdf
• White, A. (2008). From Comfort Zone to Performance Management.White & MacLean
Publishing.