Gestalt Therapy

Frederick and Laura Perls

The Field Theory Perspective

The Phenomenological Perspective
The Existential Perspective
Gestalt Personality Theory Concepts
Gestalt psychology:
• A psychological approach that studies the
organization of experience into patterns or
configurations. Gestalt psychologists believe that
the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and
study, among other issues, the relationship of a
figure to its background.
Gestalt Personality Theory Concepts
• Ground: The background that contrasts with the
figure in the perceptions of a field.

• Figure: That part of a field that stands out in

good contour clearly from the ground.
 The Field Theory Perspective
• The field is a whole in which the parts are in immediate
relationship and responsive to each other and no part is
uninfluenced by what goes on elsewhere in the field.
• Work is in the here and now, with sensitivity to how the here
and now includes remainder of the past, such as body posture,
habits, and beliefs.
 The Phenomenological Perspective
• A method of awareness, in which perceiving , feeling,
and acting are distinguished from interpreting and
reshuffling pre-existing attitudes.

• Phenomenology is a discipline that helps people stand

aside from their usual way of thinking so that they can
tell the difference between what is actually being
perceived and felt in the current situation and what is
residue from the past (Idhe, 1977).
 The Existential Perspective
• Existential phenomenologists focus on people’s
existence, relations with each other, joys and suffering,
etc., as directly experienced .
• Most people operate in an unstated context of
conventional(believed) thought that obscures or avoids
acknowledging how the world is.
• Self-deception is the basis of inauthenticity: living that
is not based on the truth of oneself in the world leads
to feelings of dread, guilt, and anxiety.
 Goal of Therapy
• To make whole
• Mind and body
• Emotional, behavioral, and cognitive
• Past and present
 Goal of Gestalt Therapy
• By becoming aware, one becomes able to
choose and/or organize one’s own existence in a
meaningful manner. (Jacobs, 1978; Yontef, 1982,
1983).
 Theoretical Assumptions
• Humans perceive things as wholes and the
whole is more than the sum of its parts (i.e.
holistic)
• Life is best understood by knowing the
subjective, internal rather than the objective,
external (phenomenological)
• Awareness is ever-changing and each moment is
one of choice based on evolving awareness. We
are the creators of our own destiny (existential)
 Conti…
• The path to wholeness and health is to interact
with nature and with other people without
losing one’s individuality (contact)
• People are manipulative, avoid self-reliance, and
are not willing to accept their own perceptions
as valid.
• Change happens in the present.
Gestalt Personality Theory Concepts
• CONCERNS RELATED TO CONTACT
• When there are disturbances in the contact
boundaries, several difficulties result.
Awareness of these disturbances is one
focus of Gestalt therapy.
 Contact:
– The relationship between "me" and others.
Contact involves feeling a connection with
others or the world outside oneself while
maintaining separation from it.
 Levels of Contact (Neurosis) :
The Polarity of Creating Adjustment

• 1. The Phony layer: Reacting to others in

unauthentic or patterned ways: every day, casual
interaction or “small talk.”

• 2. The Phobic layer: An avoidance of

psychological pain. “I’m fine, I’m fine.” (Similar
to Denial)
 Levels of Contact (Neurosis)
The Polarity of Creating Adjustment
• 3. Impasse: Is the point at which we are afraid to
change or move.
An impasse is a situation in which external
support is not forthcoming and the person
believes he cannot support himself.
The individual attempts to manipulate the
environment to do his seeing, hearing, thinking,
feeling, and deciding for him.
 Levels of Contact (Neurosis)
The Polarity of Creating Adjustment
• 4. At the implosive level, the client may experience
their feelings, start to become aware of the real
self, but may do little about the feelings.

• 5. Contact with the implosive level is authentic

and without pretense.
 Contact boundaries:
• The boundaries that distinguish between one
person (or one aspect of a person) and an
object, another person, or another aspect of
oneself. Examples include body-boundaries,
value-boundaries, familiarity-boundaries, and
expressive-boundaries.
Contact Boundaries and Support

– Contact: TH/Cl relationship is critical

– Boundaries connect and separate us

• Weak boundaries-we confuse other’s needs with our own
• Rigid boundaries-we feel alone and alienated

– Support: Anxiety occurs when we do not believe we have or

will have the support we need. (ex. Fear of future events)
 Signs that you are out of
touch with your emotions or
needs
 SHOULDS
• A form of neurotic self-regulation
– Occurs when you live according to rules you’ve
learned so well that they seem natural

Sometimes in automatically being polite and

agreeable with others, we are “rude to ourselves”
disregarding our own interests, concerns and
opinions (Pearls).
 CONTACT BOUNDARY
DISTURBANCES
• Introjection: This occurs when individuals accept
information or values from others without evaluation
or without assimilating them into one's personality. The
individual experiences something as him/herself when in fact it
belongs to the environment (false identification).
• Projection: When we ascribe aspects of ourselves to
others, such as when we attribute some of our own
unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or behaviors to friends,
projection takes place. The individual experiences something
in the environment when in fact it belongs to him/her (false
alienation).
 CONTACT BOUNDARY
DISTURBANCES
• Retroflection: When we do to ourselves what we
want to do to someone else or do things for
ourselves that we want others to do for us, then
we experience retroflection. The individual
holds back a response intended for the
environment and substitutes it with a response
for him/herself.
 Conti….
• Deflection: When individuals avoid meaningful
contact by being indirect or vague rather that
being direct, deflection occurs.
 CONTACT BOUNDARY
DISTURBANCES

• Confluence: When the separation between one's

self and others becomes muted or unclear, we
experience confluence. Thus, it can be difficult
to distinguish what is one's own perception or
values from those of another person. the
condition of no-contact. Instead of an ‘I’ and a
‘You’ there is a ‘we’ or a vague, unclear
experience of self.
 Awareness:

• Attending to and observing what is happening in

the present. Types of awareness include
sensations and actions, feelings, wants, and
values or assessments.
 Unfinished business:

• Unexpressed feelings from the past that occur in

the present and interfere with psychological
functioning. They may include feelings,
memories, or fantasies from earlier life (often
childhood) that can be dealt with in the present.
 Conti….
• Unfinished business leads to psychological
symptoms
• Feelings about the past are unexpressed
• These feelings are associated with distinct
memories and fantasies.
• Feelings not fully experienced linger in the
background and interfere with effective contact,
resulting in
 FOUR CHARACTERISTICS OF
GESTALT DIALOGUE
1. Inclusion: This is putting oneself fully as
possible into the experience of the other
without judging, analyzing, or interpreting
while simultaneously retaining a sense of one’s
separate, autonomous presence. Inclusion
provides as environment of safety for the
client’s phenomenological work and, by
communicating an understanding of the
client’s experience, helps sharpen the client’s
self-awareness.
 2. Presence:
• The Gestalt therapist expresses herself to the
client. Regularly,and with discrimination she
expresses observations, feelings, personal
experience, and thoughts, modeling
phenomenological reporting. If the therapist
relies on theory-derived interpretation, rather
than personal presence, she leads the client into
relying on phenomena not in his/her own
immediate experience as the tool for raising
awareness.
 3. 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. This is
allowing the contact to happen rather than
manipulating, making contact, and controlling
the outcome.
 4. 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 participants, including the awareness
of nonverbal expressions.
Gestalt Therapy
TECHNIQUES
 Experiments

• Gestalt therapists use the technique of experiments or learning

experiences with their clients.
• The experiments are designed for the individual and take the
form of an enactment, role play, homework, or other activity
which promotes the individual’s self-awareness (Seligman,
2006).
• An example of this technique is with a man who feels insecure
in social situations. He has a work function to go to in two
weeks time so the therapist gives him the experiment of
starting a conversation at the function with someone he does
not normally speak to. Spending time thinking about what he
might say promotes self-awareness and the experiment itself
gives him more confidence in social situations.
 Use of Language
• Gestalt therapists choose language that will encourage change in the
client. The following are ways that this can be accomplished (Seligman,
2006):
• 1) Emphasis on statements rather than questions to highlight a
collaborative client-therapist relationship.
• 2) “What” and “How” questions (when questions are used) to keep the
client in the present and promote integration.
• 3) “I” statements are used to promote clients ownership of feelings
rather than placing blame on others.
• 4) The present tense is used so the focus is on the present rather than
the past.
• 5) Encouraging responsibility for clients of their words, emotions,
thoughts, and behaviours so they recognize and accept what they are
feeling.
 Empty Chair
• The empty chair technique is a “method of facilitating the role-taking dialogue
between the patient and others or between parts of the patient’s personality. It is
generally used in a group
• situation” (Patterson, 1986).
• Two chairs are placed facing each other: one represents the patient or one aspect of
the patient’s personality, and the other represents another person or the opposing part
of the personality. As the patient alternates the role, he or she sits in one or the other
chair.
• The therapist may simply observe as the dialogue progresses or may instruct the
patient when to change chairs, suggest sentences to say, call the patient’s attention to
what has been said,
• or ask the patient to repeat or exaggerate words or actions.
• In the process, emotions and conflicts are evoked, impasses may be brought about
and resolved, and awareness and integration of polarities (having two poles) may
develop – polarities or splits within the patient, between the patient and other persons,
or between the patient’s wants and the social norms (Patterson, 1986).
 Topdog – Underdog
• A commonly utilised Gestalt technique is that of the
topdog-underdog dialogue. This technique is used when
the therapist notices two opposing opinions/attitudes
within the client.
• This is a game that an individual play to avoid the anxiety
that he encounters in his environment. Top dogs are
those factors which the individual has desire to meet
because of social norms and standards. For example, a
person might say “I should be on time” or “I should
study hard and get good grades”. Underdogs are the
opposite of top dogs. They are excuses that the individual
uses to explain why those demands should not be met.
 Dreams

• Dreams are used to bring about integration by

the client. The focus of a client’s dream is not
on the unconscious, rather on projections or
aspects of the dreamer (Seligman, 2006).
• The therapist would get clients to talk about
their dream/s in terms of the significance of
each role in the dream and this allows clients to
take responsibility for the dreams and increase
awareness of their thoughts and emotions.
 Fantasy

• Fantasy is used in Gestalt therapy to increase

clients’ self-awareness of their thoughts and
emotions and to bring about closure to
unfinished business (Seligman, 2006).
• Therapists use guided imagery techniques
(fantasy) to encourage clients to imagine
situations such as what they would do in a
certain situation or by projecting themselves into
different roles.
 The Body as a Vehicle of
Communication
• Gestalt therapy sees that not only are thoughts and emotions important to
creating a feeling of “wholeness” for the client, the physical sensations are
also important.
• Seligman (2006) has identified three strategies to help with focusing attention
on the physical sensations:
• 1) Identification - Gestalt therapists should be able to recognize physical signs
of their clients. For example, a client might be tapping their feet on the
ground. The therapist may say “Become your leg and give it a voice?” This
creates awareness of the client’s physical sensations and emotions.
• 2) Locating emotions in the body - Gestalt therapists may ask clients where
they are experiencing the emotion in their body. For example, a client may say
they are feeling nervous about something. The therapist may ask where this is
coming from in the body and the response from the client may be that the
feeling is butterflies in the stomach. This helps the client to bring about more
awareness into sensations and their emotions.
 Conti…
• 3) Repetition and exaggeration - If there is
repetition such as the example of the client
tapping their feet on the ground, the therapist
would get them to exaggerate the movement and
talk about feelings that come up. This in turn
focuses on the emotion and should help to
release the blocked awareness.
 Confusion

• The technique of dealing with confusion of the

client is about drawing attention to the client’s
hesitation in talking about something unpleasant.
• The hesitation can be shown through avoidance,
blanking out (forget), verbalism (expression rather
than content)and fantasy (Patterson, 1986).
• By drawing attention to the hesitation, it creates
self-awareness for the client and allows the client to
work through the issue.
 Confrontation

• In Gestalt therapy, confrontation means ‘to

challenge or frustrate the client’.
• The client is challenged with sensitivity and
empathy on the part of the therapist to face the
issues important to them.
• It is an invaluable tool for bringing clients into
clear awareness of their realities, when used
appropriately. However, confrontation is not a
technique that can be used with all clients.
 APPLICATIONS

• Originally Gestalt therapy was predominantly used

to treat individuals who were anxious and/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 with personality disorders such as
borderline personality disorder.
• Gestalt therapy is also effective in counselling
groups, couples, and families (Corsini & Wedding,
2000).