Chapter 7

Gestalt Therapy
Be who you are and say what you feel because those
who mind dont matter and those who matter dont
mind.
Dr. Seuss

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
Outline the development of Gestalt therapy and Fritz Perls
Explain the theory of Gestalt therapy including its core concepts
Discuss the counseling relationship and goals in Gestalt therapy
Describe assessment, process, and techniques in Gestalt
therapy
Demonstrate some therapeutic techniques
Clarify the effectiveness of Gestalt therapy
Discuss Gestalt play therapy

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Overview Gestalt Therapy

Fritz Perls
The Nature of People
Theory of Counseling
Counseling Method
Cross Cultural Application
Managed Health Care

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Fritz Perls
A native of Germany
Childhood of questioning and rebellion
Degree from Friedrich Wilhelm University in 1921
Worked in South Africa for 12 years and there
formulated all the ideas he would later call Gestalt
therapy
Lived in New York, Miami, California and British
Columbia

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Gestalt
A German term that cannot be translated exactly
into English, but explained as:
A form, a configuration or a totality that has, as a
unified whole, properties which cannot be derived by
summation from the parts and their relationships. It
may refer to physical structures, to physiological and
psychological functions, or to symbolic units.
(English & English, 1958, p. 225)
2011 Brooks/Cole, A

The Nature of People

The most important areas of concern are the
thoughts and feelings that people are
experiencing at the moment
Normal healthy behavior occurs when people act
and react as total organisms.
Many people fragment their lives, distributing
concentration and attention among several things
at one time

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

The Nature of People

View of human nature is positive
People are capable of becoming self-regulating
beings who can achieve a sense of unity and
integration in their lives
Lose your mind and come to your senses
Awareness alone can be curative
With full awareness self-regulation develops and
the total person takes control
2011 Brooks/Cole, A

General principles for healthy

functioning
1. Valuing the here-and-now in order to
experience each minute fully
2. Embracing self-awareness and experience,
understanding and accepting all parts of self
3. Prizing wholeness or responsibility and
understanding life is a process; as people
mature they move past old ways and
become more self-sufficient, self-observing,
and self-understanding
(Fall et al., 2004)
2011 Brooks/Cole, A

People cause themselves problems by

not handling their lives in these ways:
Lacking contact with their environment.
Confluence: incorporate themselves into
others or the environment into themselves
Unfinished business: unfulfilled needs,
unfinished situations

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Cause of problems
Fragmentation: inability to find what one
needs caused fragmentation
Top/under dog: split between what they
should do and what they want to do
Polarities: need to resolve conflicts between
existing polarities

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Five Types of Polarities

1. Physical: masculine-feminine, and
parasympathetic-sympathetic nervous system
2. Emotional: pleasure-pain, love-hate,
excitement-depression, love-hate
3. Mental: Parent-child, feeling-reason, top dogunderdog
4. Spiritual: intellectual doubt dogmatism
5. Inter-Individual: man-woman, black-white,
Christian-Jew
2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Theory of Counseling
The five layers of neurosis (counseling stages)
1. Phony Layer: Trying to be what they are not
2. Phobic Layer: Aware of the fears that force the
Phony game
3. Impasse Layer: Shed environmental supports of their
game without a better way to cope with fears and
dislikes
4. Implosive Layer: Aware of how they limit themselves
and begin to experiment with new behaviors
5. Explosive Layer: Discover unused energy tied up
maintaining a phony existence

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Theory of Counseling
1. Body language project thoughts onto empty chair
as significant person
2. Direct experience of the here and now Integration
and maturation Gestalts as new needs
3. Help people help themselves grow up
4. Integration is creating whole person whose
behavior matches their inner state
5. People should: grow in awareness take
responsibility for their actions move from
environmental support to self support

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

A sampling of counseling
methods
I language: Disallow you
as in you know how it is
Substitute wont for cant
Insist on client taking responsibility
Substitute what and how for why
what do you feel not why do you feel
No gossiping: talk to people not about people
Use an empty chair to talk to
2011 Brooks/Cole, A

A sampling of counseling
methods
Change questions to statements
I should not do you think I should
Take responsibility: Right now I feel
_______and I take _______ % of the
responsibility
Sentence completion
I help/hurt myself when I ___________
2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Sampling of counseling
methods
Bipolarities Top/under dog or I should vs. I
want
o
o
o

Use an empty chair for a discussion

Client sits in one chair to defend I should
Moves to another chair to discuss I want

My greatest weakness
o

Write a paragraph on my greatest weakness

and why it is a strength

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Decision Making
SYNERGISE
SYNTHESIZE

TOP DOG
I SHOULD

UNDER DOG
I WANT
COMPROMISE
2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Counseling method
Integrate thoughts and feelings
For three closest people write
I resent _____
I demand _____ and
I appreciate _____

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Counseling methods
Fantasy Games for creating awareness
Client fantasizes being an animal and
tries to understand what it feels like

Wise person: client asks and answers

one question to/from a wise person

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Counseling Methods
Dream Work

Dreaming is an awareness of the world

Pieces of a dream are fragments of a

personality that must be integrated

Describe a dream list the objects client

gives a voice to each part and has them
converse

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Gestalt Play Therapy

Concern of therapy is the integrated
functioning of all aspects of the child so that
senses, body, emotions, and intellect are
well coordinated in a creative adjustment
A dance that sometimes the counselor
leads and other times the child leads
Contact is having the ability to be
completely present in a situation
2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Gestalt Play Therapy

Goal is to restore the childs natural
functioning and self-regulatory
processes
Experiencing the contacting process
leads to integration, choice and
change

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Gestalt Play Therapy

Focus on development of inner strength
and confidence in the child through
opportunities to make choices, achieve
mastery, own their projections,
participate in imaginative play, and
expel aggressive energy appropriately

2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Cross-cultural Applications
Works well for some and offends others (such as
cultures where emotions are not expressed)
Dedicated to lifestyle change rather than problem
resolution: If you learn how to behave, the problems
will take care of themselves.
Present oriented but past can be dealt with using
empty chair
People are responsible for their lives no victims
discounts the past
Counselor must (in all cases) adapt to the culture
and world view of their clients
2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Managed Health Care

1. Managed health care companies would
have difficulties with this approach because
of the lack of specificity
2. How do you know when therapy is finished?
When the client has achieved the open
honest manner of interaction
3. Can be viewed as instant cure because that
sometimes happens quickly
2011 Brooks/Cole, A