Gestalt Therapy

Presented By : Arielle Kate Estabillo

Specific techniques to increase
body awareness include:
Where do you feel X in your body?
What would [body part/movement] say if it
had a voice?
Exaggerate a movement
 Try it youself!
Identify a difficult emotion you have had in the past week.
Either with a partner or alone on paper, use these questions
to explore where and how you experience it in your body.
Notice how your understanding and experiencing of the
problem shifts after answering the questions.
Where do you feel X in your body?
What would [body part/movement] say if it had a voice?
Exaggerate a movement
 What comes to mind
when you hear the word
Gestalt?
 Gestalt Counseling and Psychotherapy

A phenomenological, existential, and process-based approach

that emphasizes that people must be understood holistically
and contextually.
 Key Figures

Fritz Perls Laura Posner Perls Erving and Miriam

Polster
 Overview of Counseling Process

Layers of Neurosis Integration Sequence

1. Phony Layer Discovery
2. Phobic Layer Accomodation
3. Impasse Layer Assimilation
4. Implosive Layer Integration
5. Explosive Layer
 The Therapeutic Relationship
Person of Counselor: Here and Now, Presence,
Being Fully Human and Spontaneity

Imperfect Role Model Dialogic Engagement

Confirmation and Inclusion

 Case Conceptualization
Assessing the Field
What was your experience?
How did you contribute to creating your experience?
What were the experiences of others? How did you contribute to their
experience?
What other factors may have contributed to your experience? How might have
you affected these factors?
How is the sharing of this situation in the counseling encounter affecting your
experience of this situation?
 Case Conceptualization
Contact Boundaries
Refer to distortions in perceptions of self or others

Encounter
Involves a continuum of seven phases, beginning with initial
perception, moving toward direct encounter, and ending in
withdrawal
 Continuum Phase Resistance Process Example of Resistance

Ignoring increasing violence by

1.Sensation/perception Desensitization
partner in fights.

Becoming what your parents

2. Awareness Introjection
wanted you to be.

Rejecting sexual aspects of self

3.Excitement/mobilization Projection and then perceiving others as
“oversexed.”
 Continuum Phase Resistance Process Example of Resistance

Rather than creating conflict

4. Encounter/action Retroflection with others, focus criticism on
self.

Working long hours to avoid

5. Interaction/full contact Deflection spouse or avoiding own
emotions.

Claiming to be “in love” but not

6. Assimilation/integration Egotism being open to changing self to
meet needs of relationship

Agreeing with spouse to extent

7.Differentiation/
Confluence that one no longer allows self to
withdrawal
have a divergent opinion
 Case Conceptualization
Polarities and Disowned Parts
Common problematic polarities include the following:
Social self versus natural self
Adult versus child
Perfect versus failure
Emotional versus logical
Shallow versus deep
Responsible versus carefree
 Case Conceptualization
“Shoulds”
Gestalt counselors confront persons living by “shoulds” and
encourage them to make more authentic choices that are not
fear-based or based on social pressure.
 Case Conceptualization
Unfinished Business
Refers to any incompletely expressed feeling, which most often
takes the form of resentment
 Unfinished Business
Assessment Game
“For the next two minutes, I want you to list out as many things
as you can that you are feeling resentful about. You can do this by
starting your statements with: ‘I resent ...’ Just keep going and
try to identify as many as you can, no matter how silly they may
seem. Have fun with it, and we will talk about it when you are
done. Any questions? Ready? Go.”
 Goal Setting

AWARENESS
Organismic Self-Regulation

Acceptance of “What is”: Paradoxical Theory of Change

Integration of Polarities
 Goal Setting
Initial and Working Phases
Examples:
Increase awareness of suppressed anger that fuels depression
Decrease avoidance of difficult interpersonal exchanges and increase
expression of feelings in situations where client fears negative rejection
from others (or increase assertiveness with others)
Increase ability to identify and separate own feelings from those of others
and ability to act on these feelings
 Goal Setting
Closing Phase Client Goals
Examples:
Increase organismic self-regulation in marriage to increase emotional
intimacy
Increase acceptance of “driven” versus “relaxed” polarities to create better
work-home balance
Increase capacity to make direct contact with family of origin
Increase ability to accept “what is” related to loss of mother
 Interventions
The Internal Dialogue Exercise
A technique that can be used to bring about integrated functioning and
acceptance of aspects of one’s personality that have been disowned and denied
 Interventions
Gestalt Experiments and the Empty Chair
 Interventions
Future Projection Technique
A client creates a future time and place with selected people, brings this event
into the present, and gets a new perspective on a problem.
 Interventions
Making the Rounds
An exercise that involves asking a person in a group to go up to others in the
group and either speak to or do something with each person.
 Interventions
The Reversal Exercise
The clients are asked to reverse their typical behavior or style to make contact
with those parts of themselves that have been hidden and denied.
 Interventions
The Rehearsal Exercise
When clients share their rehearsals out loud with a therapist, they become more
aware of the preparations they make to improve their social roles.
 Interventions
The Exaggeration Exercise
In this exercise the person is asked to exaggerate the movement or gesture
repeatedly, which usually intensifies the feeling attached to the behavior and
makes the inner meaning clearer.
 Interventions
Semantics and Language Modification
Questions to statements
“I” Versus “You” or “It” statements
“Choose” Versus “Can’t”
“Want” Versus “Have To”
“But”
 Interventions
Staying with the Feeling
When clients refer to a feeling or a mood that is unpleasant or difficult, the
therapist may urge clients to stay with their feeling and encourage them to go
deeper into the feeling or behavior they wish to avoid.
 Interventions
Dream Work
The counselor and client can explore how the different parts of the self
interact, what each might represent, and how they have been neglected or
emphasized in the person’s life
Thank You