Gestalt Therapy

PSY 3960 February 15, 2005

Warm-Up Activity: Continuous Awareness

With your partner, report out everything you are aware of beginning with the phrase, Right now I am aware _____. Partner listens, observes and provides feedback Reverse roles

Key Figures
Frederick (Fritz) Perls Gestalt Psychologists
Max Wertheimer Wolfgang Kohler Kurt Koffka

A Gestalt

Application
1. As you read this question and look at it, this question is the:
a. b. c. d. a. b. c. d. field figure ground gestalt field figure ground gestalt

2. The rest of this slide is then called the:

Gestalt Psychology
Psychological phenomena are organized wholes rather than specific parts Figures differ in their strength and form

Stages of Completeness

Application
Which of these is the weakest Gestalt? a. b. c. d.

Key Concepts of Gestalt Therapy

Existential and phenomenological Initial goal is for clients to gain awareness of what they are experiencing and doing now
Our power is in the present Direct experiencing rather than abstractness of talking about situations

Unfinished Business
Feelings about the past are unexpressed
These feelings interfere with effective contact

Result:
Preoccupation, compulsive behavior, wariness, oppressive energy, and selfdefeating behavior

Contact and Resistance to Contact

CONTACT interacting with nature and with other people without losing ones individuality RESISTANCE TO CONTACT- the defenses we develop to prevent us from experiencing the present fully
Five major channels of resistance:
Introjection Projection Retroflection Deflection Confluence

Therapeutic Techniques
Internal Dialogue empty chair Enactment Stay with the feeling Reversal Rehearsal Exaggeration

1. Which is not true of Gestalt therapy?

a. The focus is on the what and how of behavior b. The focus is on the here-and-now c. The focus is on unfinished business from the past d. The focus is on the why of behavior

2. According to the Gestalt view, awareness

a. is by itself therapeutic b. is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for change c. without specific behavioral change is useless d. consists of understanding the cause of ones problems

a. b. c. d. e.

introjection projection retroflection confluence deflection

3. The process of distraction, which makes it difficult to maintain sustained contact, is

4. The tendency to uncritically accept others beliefs without assimilating or internalizing them is a. introjection
b. c. d. e. projection retroflection confluence deflection

a. b. c. d. e.

5. The process of blurring awareness of the boundary between self and environment is
introjection projection retroflection confluence deflection