SOLUSI UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Gestalt therapy

A research paper written in partial fulfilment of the Course: Pastoral Care and

Counselling

Presented by

Mqalisi Sibanda: SU160181W

Lecturer: Dr R.D. Mazibisa

Due Date: September to December 2018.

Introduction

Gestalt therapy rejects the dualities of the mind and body, body and soul, thinking, feeling

and action. According to Perl, people are not made up of separate components; this is mind,

body and soul. This rather points to the fact that human beings function as a whole. In doing

so, one defines who one in a sense of self by choice of responses to environmental interaction

boundaries. The word “Gestalt” is of German origin and refers to a “whole, configuration,

integration, pattern or form”1 (Patterson, 1986). It is therefore the purpose of this paper to

shade more light on the subject of counselling.

Back ground of Therapy

Fritz Perls the founder of Gestalt Therapy. According to Bernd Bocian, Fritz Perls was a

German-Jewish psychoanalyst who fled Europe with his wife Laira Perls to South Africa in

order to escape Nazi oppression in 1933.” 2 After World War II the couple immigrated to New

York City, which had become a centre of intellectual, artistic and political experimentation

by the late 1940 and early1950s.

Early influences of the Therapy

Perls grew up on the Bohemian scene in Berlin, participated in Expressionism and Judaism.

He experienced the turning of the artistic avant-garde toward the revolutionary left. The

deployment to the front line, the trauma of war, anti-Semitism, intimidation, escape, and the

Holocaust are further key sources of his biographical influence.3

Perls served in the German Army during World War 1, and was wounded in the conflict.

After the war he was educated as a medical doctor. He became an assistant to Kurt Goldstein,
1
Patterson, (1986) m Patterson, C. H. (1986). Theories of counselling and Psychology. New York, NY:
Harper & Row.
2
Bernd Bocian (2010). Fritz Perls in Berlin 1893-1933, Expressionism-Psychoanalysis-Judaism, EHP
Verlag Andreas Kohlhage, Bergish Gladbach.
3
Ibib 1
who worked with brain injured soldiers; Perls went through psychoanalysis with Wilhem

Reich and became a psychiatrist. “He assisted Goldstein at Frankfurt University where he met

his wife lore (Laura) Posner, who had earned a doctorate in Gestalt psychology.” 4 They fled

Nazi Germany in 1933 and settled in South Africa. Upon settling in South Africa Perls

established a psychoanalytic training institute and joined the South African armed forces,

serving as a military psychiatrist. During that time in South Africa, he was influenced by Jan

Smuts and his ideas about “holism.”

In 1936 Fritz Perls attended a psychoanalytic conference in Marienband, Czechoslovakia,

where he presented a paper on oral resistances, mainly based on Laura Perls’ notes on breast

feeding. His paper was turned down, and met a “deep disapproval.” 5 He later wrote ais first

book, Ego, Hunger and Aggression (1942, 1947), in South Africa, based in part on the

rejected paper. It was later re-published in the United States. Laura Perls wrote two chapters

of this book, but she was not given adequate recognition for her work.

A Gestalt therapist is one of the therapies which have been used in the past. The purpose of

the Gestalt Therapy concentrates on the present experiences of an individual. The therapy

does not pay attention to the past experiences of an individual or of the client. Gestalt

therapists argue that unresolved issues of the past must not hinder a person from deriving

maximum fulfilment from life. It states that life is lived in the present. Present relation to

follow human beings and other things are given significance; it is referred to as the present

state and relational theory. The unknown issues in the subconscious should not be

investigated. It is the present experiences that are interrogated and that have the greatest

4
For Goldstein’s influence on the theory and practice of Gestalt therapy see: Allen R. Barlow: Gestalt
Therapy and Gestalt psychology. Gestalt-antecedent influence or historical accident, The Gestalt Journal,
Volume IV, Number 2, (Fall, 1981)
5
Perls, F., (1969) In and Out the Garbage Pail Lafayette, CA: Real People Press.
meaning to the individual. The goal of the Gestalt therapy is to make the individual aware of

his present conditions and make best decisions to manipulate them.6 (Frederick Fritz Goal)

Empty Chair

It is used to liven the session. It allows the counselee to interact with the problem from a

vantage point. The empty chair technique is a “method of facilitating the role-taking dialogue

between the client and others or between parts of the client’s personality. It is generally used

in a group situation”7 (Patterson 1986). Two chairs are placed facing each other: One

represents the client or one of the client’s personality, and the other: represents another

person or the opposing part of the personality. As the client alternates the role, he or she sits

in one or the other chair.

The therapists may simply observe as the dialogue progresses or may instruct the client when

to change chairs, suggest sentences to say, call the client’s attention to what has been said, or

ask the client to repeat or exaggerate words of actions. In the process, emotions and conflicts

are evoked, impasses may be brought about and resolved, and awareness and integration of

polarities may develop-polarities or splits within the client, between the client and other

persons, or between the client’s wants and the social norms.8 (Paterson, C.H. 1986)

The effectiveness of the Therapy

Originally Gestalt Therapy was predominantly used to treat individuals who were anxious or

depressed and who were not showing serious pathological symptoms. Although still used in

the treatment of anxiety and depression, Gestalt Therapy has been effective in treating clients

6
Frederick Fritz
7
Patterson, 1986
8
Patterson C. H., Theories of counselling and psychology, New York, N.Y: Harper &Row, 1986.
with personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder. Gestalt Therapy is also

effective in counselling groups, couples, and families.9

The Gestalt Therapist works by engaging in dialogue rather than by manipulating the patient

toward some therapeutic goal. Such contact is marked by straight forward caring, warmth,

acceptance and self-responsibility. When therapists move patients toward some goal, the

patients cannot be in charge of their own growth and self-support. Dialogue is based on

experiencing the other person as he or she really is and showing the true self, sharing

phenomenological awareness. The Gestalt therapist says what he or she means and encourage

the patient to do the same. Gestalt dialogue embodies authenticity and responsibility. A focus

of developing awareness is that of clients’ awareness of their own realities. In order to do

this, clients must first accept responsibility. The client may attempt to use avoidance

responses or project individual traits onto other people or external causes, for example, “She

makes me so angry;” “It’s his fault.” Both avoidance responses and projection of traits

attempt to displace ownership and responsibility onto an external cause.

According to (Seligman, 2006), another goal of Gestalt Therapy is that therapists should

work to create an “I-thou” relationship with clients in which both the therapist and client are

present in the here-now-now rather than focusing on the past or future. 10 Perls et al postulate

that, “The therapist’s job is to invite clients into an active partnership where they can learn

about themselves by adopting an experimental attitude toward life in which they try out new

behaviours and notice what happens.”11 Gestalt Therapy deems that people cannot be

considered as separate from their environment or from interpersonal relations. The individual

9
Corsini H. J., & Wedding, D, Current Psychotherapies 6 th Edition, Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning,
Inc, 2000.
10
Seligman, L., Theories of counselling and psychotherapy: Systems, strategies, and skills, 2 nd edition,
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Ltd, 2006.
11
Perls, Hefferline and Goodman, 1954 in Corey, 2005.
is seen as being self-regulating and is able to motivate oneself to solve problems. Individuals

are able to work towards growth and develop as their environments allow.

The four characteristics of dialogue

Inclusion

The Gestalt therapist expresses herself to client. Regularly, judiciously, and with

discrimination she expresses observations, preferences, feelings, personal experience and

thoughts. Thus, the therapist shares her perspective by modelling phenomenological

reporting, which aids the client’s learning about trust and use of immediate experience to

raise awareness. If the therapist relies on theory-derived interpretation, rather than personal

presence, she leads the client into relying on phenomena not in his own immediate experience

as the tool for raising awareness. In Gestalt therapy the therapist does not use presence to

manipulate the client to conform to re-established goals, but rather encourages clients to

regulate themselves autonomously.

Commitment to dialogue

Contact is more than something two people do to each other. Contact is something that

happens between people, something that arises from the interaction between them. The

Gestalt therapist surrenders herself to this international process. This is allowing contact to

happen rather than manipulating, making contact, and controlling the outcome.

Dialogue is lived

Dialogue is something done rather than talked about. “Lived” emphasizes the excitement and

immediacy of doing. The mode of dialogue can be dancing, song, words, or any modality that

expresses and moves the energy between or among the participants. An important

contribution of Gestalt therapy to phenomenological experimentation is enlarging the

parameters to include explication of experience by nonverbal expression. However the

interaction is limited by ethics, appropriateness, therapeutic task, and so on.12 (Mazibisa).

Some of the therapy benefits

There is empirical research to support Gestalt Therapy and its techniques. (Corey, 2005),

argues that, “Specifically, Gestalt Therapy is equal to or greater than other therapies in

treating various disorders; Gestalt Therapy has a beneficial impact with personality disorders,

and the effects of the therapy are stable, works with the past by making it relevant to the

present.”13 (Corsini et al 2000) highlights that, “A psychologically healthy person is someone

who is self-regulating through the changes in life and has developed a sense of “wholeness”

between mind and body.”14

Conclusion

Gestalt Therapy focusses on the integration between the “whole” person and his or her

environment. This therapy sees a healthy individual as being someone who has awareness in

his or her life and lives in the here and now rather than focusing on the past or future. Gestalt

Therapy has a number of successful techniques that are applicable in therapy today and may

be utilised across a broad spectrum of emotional issues.

12
R D Mazibisa, Characteristics of dialogue, class notes
13
Corey, C., Theories and practice of counselling & psychotherapy, 7 th edition, Belmont CA: Thomson
Learning, 2005.
14
Corsini H. J., & Wedding, D, Current Psychotherapies 6th Edition, Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning,
Inc, 2000.
Bibliography

Allen R. Barlow: Gestalt Therapy and Gestalt psychology. Gestalt-antecedent influence or

historical accident, The Gestalt Journal, Volume IV, Number 2, Fall, 1981

Bernd Bocian, Fritz Perls in Berlin 1893-1933, Expressionism-Psychoanalysis-Judaism, EHP

Verlag Andreas Kohlhage, Bergish Gladbach. 2010.

Corey, C., Theories and practice of counselling & psychotherapy, 7th edition, Belmont CA:
Thomson Learning, 2005.

Corsini H. J., & Wedding, D, Current Psychotherapies 6th Edition, Belmont, CA: Thomson
Learning, Inc, 2000.

Frederick Fritz

Patterson C. H., Theories of counselling and psychology, New York, N.Y: Harper &Row,
1986.
Perls, F., (1969) In and Out the Garbage Pail Lafayette, CA: Real People Press.

Perls, Hefferline and Goodman, 1954 in Corey, 2005.

R D Mazibisa, Characteristics of dialogue, class notes

Seligman, L., Theories of counselling and psychotherapy: Systems, strategies, and skills, 2nd
edition, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Ltd, 2006.