It is important to accept who and what we are rather than

striving to become what we should be

CP 6642
Group Dynamics and Counseling
Troy University
Summer 2009
Jerry Traylor
  Founder of Gestalt Therapy
 Failed 7th grade twice
 Earned Medical Degree (Psychiatric
Specialty)
 Served in World War I as medic
 Established the New York Institute for
Gestalt Therapy
 Practiced at the Esalen Institute
Fritz Perls  Innovator in Psychotherapy
 The Traveling Minstrel of Gestalt Theapy
 People Loved and Admired
 People Disliked and Disparaged
  Co-founder of Gestalt Therapy
 Played Piano by 5 years old
 Played with professional skill by 18
 Incorporated music and dance into Gestalt
Therapy
 Completed an extensive study of
Existential Philosophy
Laura Perls  Began collaborating with Fritz Perls in
1930
 Taught that every Gestalt Therapist needs
to develop her/his own therapeutic style
 Gestalt Basics
 Awareness

 Wholeness

 Integration

 Here and Now

 Responsibility

 Personal Choice
Gestalt View of Human Nature
 Therapy aims at integrating the
sometimes conflicting dimensions
within the individual

 Individuals are capable of dealing with

their life problems themselves,
especially if they are fully aware of
what is happening in and around them

 Gestalt Theory of Change:

 The more we try to be who & what
we are not, the more we stay the same
 Therapeutic Goals
 To assist the client in obtaining AWARENESS!

 Expand the client’s ABILITY TO MAKE CHOICES

 Foster client’s INTEGRATON OF THE SELF

 Support the client in TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

 Therapeutic Relationship
 Genuine I/Thou Relationship

 Dialogic

 Present Centered

 Non judgmental

 Supportive
 I-Thou Relationships
Essentially "contemplative" rather than practical. Here we meet an Other in such a
manner that nothing beyond the meeting is desired or sought: the experience is one
of something/someone which/who is seen and felt as an end-in-itself. The
experience involves an appreciation of and a respect for the reality of the
Other, grasped in its uniqueness and its mysteriousness. Here I am open and willing
to receive the self-revelation of the Other as it stands-out-in-the-open-toward-me,
showing itself just as-it-is. In this I welcome, and thus encourage, the Other to show
me his/its own unique Truth. The experience is not expressible in descriptive
language: it is fundamentally ineffable, since it is the experience of the Other in its
uniqueness and its unfathomable mysteriousness: the Other is apprehended as a
reality which we can never fully to know, predict, or control. The attitude which
characterizes the
person who experiences I-Thou is one of
disinterested--yet caring and curious--fascination. (Crocker
2002)
 Responsibility
Counselor Client

 Assists  Actively Participate

 Focuses  Make Discovery

 Emphasizes Pattern  Interpret

 Identifies Communication  Recognize Choices

 Confronts  Influence Environment

Therapeutic Experience
Withdrawal Sensation

Contact Awareness

Mobilization
Action of Energy
 The Experience
 Takes Place In the Hear and Now

 How What When Who Questions-WHY QUESTIONS AVOIDED

 What happened in the past is of limited importance

 Makes contact in a vivid & immediate manner rather than simply

talking about
Unfinished Business

Interferes with the effective contact with

oneself & others until one faces & deals
with the unexpressed emotions
 Therapeutic Experiment
 Therapeutic Experiences are perceived as a series of
experiments

 Experiments are co-created by client and counselor

 Designed to intensify experiencing and feeling

 Experiments are created and changed throughout the

experience
 Therapeutic Experiment
Preparation
Turn off Internal Dialog

Relax

Feel
 Experimental Warnings
 Experiments Are Not For Everybody

 Experiments for less organized, more severely disturbed, or

psychotic clients can be problematic

 Experiments are powerful-Harm Can Occur

 Experiments require caution, skill, training and experience

 “Stones”
Promotes:

Seeing in the moment

Identifying Important People, Places, and Things

Identifying patterns
 Making the Rounds
 Promotes:

 Individual confrontation

 Risk taking

 Disclosure of self

 Experiment with new behavior

 Growth
 ART
 Promotes

 Recognition of Feelings

 Expressing feelings in ways other than in words

 A willingness to play and Free Associate

 Experiencing Feelings Changes

 Self Disclosure

 Risk Taking
Dialogue Experiment
A role playing technique
Encourages dialogue opposing poles in one’s personality
Promotes a higher level of integration & acceptance of the 2 polarities

“I Take Responsibility for …” Experiment

Counselor asks a client to make a statement & then adds: “and I take
responsibility for it”
Promotes: Increased recognition & acceptance of the client’s feelings
Decreased projection of their emotions onto others
Playing the Projection Experiment
 Counselor asks client to role play certain assertions that he/she
makes about other people Increases awareness of how he/she sees
clearly in others the very things he/she does not want to see & accept
in the self
Reversal Technique Experiment
 Counselor asks the client to role play the opposing side of the
personality Permits the contact with pieces of the self that have
been denied & submerged
Rehearsal Experiment
 Counselor asks client to share his/her internal rehearsing to make
him/her aware of how much energy & preparation is involved in
“bolstering” their social roles
Staying with the Feeling
 Counselor encourages the client to stay with the
retain unpleasant feelings from which the client
would prefer to escape

Gestalt Dream Work Experiments

The royal road to integration
The counselor encourages the client to relive & act
out the dream in the present tense
Each part of the dream is understood as a projection
of the self
All the different parts of the dream are expression
of one’s contradictory & inconsistent sides
By entering a dialogue between the opposing sides,
one becomes more aware of the range of one’s
emotions
Gestalt Therapy Criticisms
 Doesn’t Utilize Formal Diagnosis or Assessments

 The counselor must have a high level of personal

development

 May not be embraced within cultures that stress

reserve

 Experiencing Not Easily Seen To Solve Problems

 References
Power Point Presentation Gestalt Therapy File Format: Microsoft Powerpoint - View as HTML
The Gestalt Experiment. Counseling sessions are perceived as a series
of experiments which are a creative adventure developed collaboratively
between ...chdsw.educ.kent.edu/mcglothlin/Theories/Gestalt%20Therapy.ppt

Slide No. 1 Corey, G. (2004). Theory & Practice of Group Counseling (6 ed.). (L. Gebo, Ed.) Belmont, California, USA :
Brooks/Cole, pg. 301 .

Slide No. 2 Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (8 ed.). M. Flemming, Ed.) Belmont,
California, United States: Thomson Brooks/Cole, pg. 98.

Slide No. 3 Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (8 ed.). M. Flemming, Ed.) Belmont,
California, United States: Thomson Brooks/Cole, pg. 99

Slide No. 4 Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (8 ed.). M. Flemming, Ed.) Belmont,
California, United States: Thomson Brooks/Cole, pg. 455.

Slide No. 5 Corey, G. (2004). Theory & Practice of Group Counseling (6 ed.). (L. Gebo, Ed.) Belmont, California, USA :
Brooks/Cole, pg. 301

Slide No. 7 Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (8 ed.). M. Flemming, Ed.) Belmont,
California, United States: Thomson Brooks/Cole, pg. 460.

Slide No. 9 Corey, G. (2004). Theory & Practice of Group Counseling (6 ed.). (L. Gebo, Ed.) Belmont, California, USA :
Brooks/Cole, pg. 309-310.

Slide No. 10 Crocker, S. F. (2000, July). "I-Thou" and Its Role in Gestalt Therapy. Gestalt! an electronic journal , 4 .
Vancouver, Washington, USA: Gestalt Global Corporation.

Slide No. 18 Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (8 ed.). M. Flemming, Ed.) Belmont,
California, United States: Thomson Brooks/Cole, pg. 466.