The Principles and Goals of Gestalt Therapy - Essay Example

Overview of the Principles and Goals of Gestalt Therapy 
 Gestalt therapy is a humanistic and experiential form of therapy that was initially intended to substitute traditional forms of psychoanalysis. By humanist, it means that the therapy places emphasis on studying the whole person and his behaviours through a therapist lenses and that of the client. By experiential, it means that the therapy places emphasis on studying the whole person’s experiences. Hence, in using Gestalt therapy, therapists and their clients depend on imaginative and experiential methods to foster self-awareness, self-direction, and freedom. Fritz and Laura Perls originally developed the therapy in 1940’s (Wagner-Moore, 2004). Gestalt therapy has traditionally served as an approach that creates or devises certain techniques that centre on helping clients to achieve the next stage in their growth and development. It focuses on an individual’s personal experiences and proposes that by developing an awareness of an individual’s own self, the individual can be assisted to solve issues affecting his life (Bednarova, 2009). Principles of Gestalt Therapy At the centre of gestalt therapy is the holistic theory, which contends that individuals are linked to as well as subject to influences by their environments, as well as that individual’s always endeavour to achieve growth and balance (Palmer, 2011). The therapy relies on context as a factor that influences experiences, and the idea that an individual cannot be completely or adequately understood when his or her context remains obscured (Fogarty et al., 2016). Instead, it requires that change should come about when a person accepts his present context and is willing to change. Hence, the therapy seeks to assist individuals to develop greater levels of self-awareness, and to gain acceptance and trust in their personal experiences and feelings so as to reduce distress (Kraft, 2016). Goals of the Approach The major goals of Gestalt therapy are developing awareness and dialogue. Regarding developing awareness, a significant goal of the therapy is that therapists should not aspire or seek to change a client. Rather, the therapist has to help the clients to develop self-awareness, which in turn enables them to resolve issues that affect their lives (Bednarova, 2009). Therefore, the therapist develops a partnership with the client and facilitates the client to develop self-awareness once they adopt an understanding of the client’s life experiences. The goal of developing awareness is to enable clients to be more aware of their personal realities. It also seeks to ensure that an individual accepts responsibility for selecting their responses current circumstances (Hender, 2001). Developing dialogue is an additional goal of the therapy. It seeks to ensure that a therapists works to create a partnership with a client, whereby they get to interact during a therapy session in order of centring on past or future events. This idea points to the significance of communication between the therapist and the client. In brief, the goal of this form of therapy is to enable a client to develop greater awareness of what he or she is doing, how she or he is doing it, as well as how she or he can successfully change himself while simultaneously learning to accept himself and develop a feeling of self-worth (Igbokwe et al., 2012). An explanation of How Marion Could be understood from the Perspective of your Chosen Approach Marion would be understood from the perspective of the Gestalt therapy once a set of circumstances in the environment, including the society that a client lives in and which influence her experiences are adequately understood. As Palmer (2011) explains, Gestalt therapy relies on context as a factor that influences experiences, and the idea that an individual cannot be completely or adequately understood when his or her context remains obscured (Bednarova, 2009). Through dialogue, it is possible to develop a partnership with Marion and encouraging her to awareness, or the experiences regarding her own feelings, actions, and overall existence. By awareness, it means that Marion would be more aware of the level of control she has over selecting certain kinds of behaviours and personal feelings. Hence, she would know what she does, how she does it, knowing that she can choose among alternatives, as well as knowing that he chose to be the way he is. A Description of How a Counsellor Might Work with Marion Using your Chosen Approach The Gestalt counsellor would work by engaging in dialogue with Marion instead of manipulating her to resolve her problem of loneliness. The counsellor’s key function would be to allow Marion to develop awareness, by understanding as what she senses, feels, does, waits, thinks and avoids. As Marion should be helped to learn and understand herself based on her present context through insight, the ‘empty chair’ technique is suggested to be applied to her. Empty Chair Technique Therefore, a counsellor may utilise Gestalt's "Empty Chair" technique to assist Marion in individual counselling to cope with her reaction to her children’s departure from home leaving her lonely, and her husbands’ constant absence. The approach would therefore integrate relational theory with Marion’s current state. Therefore, emphasis would be placed on Marion’s self-awareness. As Palmer (2011) explains, self-awareness is viewed to be at the centre of a client’s personal growth. However, the theory also acknowledges that sometimes self-awareness may be hindered by negative patterns of thought as well as behaviours that may make a client feel dejected. To this end, a therapist is obligated to encourage a self-awareness that is far from being judgemental to enable a client to conceive unique perspective on life. In this case, once Marion is made to become increasingly aware of how she thinks, feels, and acts at present while seated on a chair. In turn, the gestalt therapy offers greater insights into how she could assuage her current issues. Indeed, as Wagner-Moore (2004) explains, the "Empty Chair" technique is often applied to clients experiencing interpersonal problems, such a loneliness, or anger. Kraft (2016) defined it as a form of role-playing, although the client has to play both roles. In using Gestalt's "Empty Chair" technique, two chairs are used, where the therapist requests the client to shift places during the process of conversation. Wagner-Moore (2004) explains that the actual processes of acting and moving from one chair to other in order to elicit sensimotor emotions. Stage 1: In the first session, focus should be placed on determining where Marion is, instead of where the counsellor thinks she is. After formal introduction with the Marion and building rapport, the counsellor makes an effort to focus Marion’s attention toward her immediate experiences to avoid any speculations. The counsellor then would need to approach this stage by attempting to explore what Marion currently experiences in awareness. At this stage, Marion would be directed on how to experience the relationship between her verbal and non-verbal. For instance, the counsellor would need to observe Marion’s posture, breathing patterns, the tone of her voices and even her gestures (Bednarova, 2009). The therapist may use this information to tailor or carry out a therapy in a context that provide safety and support and to encourage the client to try adopting behaviours perceived to be more constructive. Indeed, the therapist may take advantage of traditional diagnostic categories to seek pertinent information and to inform the client on what he, as the therapist, feels or behaves in contrast to what the client feels or behaves. This may assist in helping the Marion to enhance her self-awareness. Ultimately, Marion is helped to accept and learn to live with her traits or to get rid of certain traits. Additionally, the counsellor also seeks to encourage and facilitate responsibility, which essentially implies her capacity to respond rather than react, towards her personal feelings, thoughts, and sensations. The counsellor would need to request Marion to make restatements and repetitions of certain expressions or sentences. Examples include instances where she substitutes “want for should” or “can’t for "won't." Stage 2: In the second stage, once Marion has develop some knowledge on how she can focus on awareness as well as how to express feelings, the counsellor can now request her to explore her loneliness by having an external dialogue with her husband, or she three children. This depends on whom she suggests to be the main source of her loneliness. By using two chairs, the counsellor asks Marion to converse with her husband, or the person with who she presented experiences those feelings. On the other end, the therapist also observes her verbal or non-verbal cues in her, as well as helps her to become more aware of their connection. At this stage, Marion may be asked to act out her feelings of loneliness. At the end of this stage, Marion should be totally engrossed in the practice of self-discovery. She should also need minimal guidance to change between the two chairs. She should also suitably express her emotions as well as monitor her patterns of behaviours. Overall, the stage has the overall goal of ensuring that Marion can sufficiently explain the experiences in her relationship with her husband or three children, and the hidden feelings intricate in her relationship with her husband. Stage 3: In the second stage, the counsellor may have related to Marion’s inner loneliness and enabled her to increase her power over her problems. To explain this further, once Marion recognizes how she contributes to her present marital problems, she actually increases her own power to change the outcomes instead of just feeling like she is the victim. This would occur once her thoughts, loneliness, and bodily responses linked to her loneliness come into her awareness. A variety of "The Empty Chair" techniques are applicable at this stage. For instance, the counsellor may request Marion to try and create dialogue with herself, and to deliberate over her internal tension. For this process to be seen as a success, Marion will need to recognize the idea that conflict under examination by externally engaging in a dialogue externally with her husband, as well as be more adequately understood. By using this approach, her husband may be well understood and more effectively resolved. This can be achieved once Marion reflects on the deep internal tension within her and her tendency for contact avoidance. Wagner-Moore (2004) explains, a fundament ability of the "Empty Chair" technique activity at this stage is an escalation of confrontation among divergent aspects within Marion’s experiences. Stage 4: In the last stage of the "Empty Chair" technique, in this stage, for the intervention to be considered successful, Marion should be aware of what she is doing, how she does it, as well as how she should change herself, as well as learned to accept and value herself. Explained differently, she should at this stage be experiencing a feeling of having become in touch with all dimensions of her personality or self. Examples of Questions or Dialogue that might be involved in Taking this Approach 
 What are you feeling? "What are you thinking? Are you missing your three children, and Tony? Whom do you feel you miss most? Why do you think you are missing Tony? If Tony was here, how different would it be to you? If all your children were here, how different would it be to you? Evaluation of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Taking this Approach with Marion The empty chair technique effectively facilitates how Marion integrates different aspects of her personality of self, which promotes psychotherapeutic insight. Marion is allowed to experience diverse aspects of her own loneliness. Indeed, as Howes (2010) observes, when the clients talk less or minimally engage in verbalising their problems, therapists easily use the empty chair technique as an expressive technique. Marion also mentioned other aspects apart from loneliness eg what others think, feeling unable to choose and engage in activities and being an EMPTY NESTER. By facilitating the process of exploring a persons’ drive to orgasmic self-regulation, the empty chair technique offers a system that can assist Marion to overcome her loneliness, as well as to attain full potential and satisfaction with a life where her children and husband are always away. The Gestalt therapy puts the client, in this case Marion, to be responsible, or the primary agent who should determine her own behaviours. However, its application relies on Marion’s personal experiences. The therapist is also cautious about hurting Marion’s feeling, and therefore is obligated to establish a strong and trusting alliance by first building a rapport during their initial meeting. Conclusion The Gestalt therapy puts the client, in this case Marion, to be responsible, or the primary agent who should determine her own behaviours. In using this therapy, the therapist fosters an awareness of self, self-direction, and autonomy on Marion. It is hoped that by using the empty chair technique, Marion can overcome the feelings of emptiness and loneliness. This is because the technique canassist Marion to shift her mind-set from merely talking about her problem of loneliness, because of her children who have departed and her husband who is always away, to becoming in touch with the present experience. References Bednarova, D. (2009). Applying gestalt therapy principles in counselling a female orienteer. Acta Univ Palacki Olomuc, 39(1), 17-25. Fogarty, M., Bhar, S., Theiler, S. & O'Shea, L. (2016). What do Gestalt therapists do in the clinic? The expert consensus. British Gestalt Journal, 25(1), 32–41 Hender, K. (2001). Is Gestalt therapy more effective than other therapeutic approaches?. Clayton: Centre for Clinical Effectiveness Howes, R. (2010). Cool intervention #9: the empty chair. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-therapy/201001/cool-intervention-9-the-empty-chair-1 Igbokwe, O., Agohar, B., Akomolafe, A. & Manickam, L. (2012). Assimilative integration of gestalt therapy in the treatment of Pentazocine drug dependence: A Case Report. Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology, 39(1), 75-80. Kraft, D. (2016). The relevance of gestalt therapy to clinicians who use hypnosis today. journal of Integrative Research, Counselling and Psychotherapy, 2(1), 1-12. Mortola, P. (1999). Narrative formation and gestalt closure: Helping clients make sense of “disequilibrium” through stories in the therapeutic setting. Gestalt Review, 3(4):308–320. Palmer, K. (2011). Gestalt therapy in psychological practice. Inquiries Journal, 3(11), 1. Wagner-Moore, L. (2004). Gestalt therapy: past, present, theory, and research. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training,41(2), 180-189. Read More

An explanation of How Marion Could be understood from the Perspective of your Chosen Approach Marion would be understood from the perspective of the Gestalt therapy once a set of circumstances in the environment, including the society that a client lives in and which influence her experiences are adequately understood. As Palmer (2011) explains, Gestalt therapy relies on context as a factor that influences experiences, and the idea that an individual cannot be completely or adequately understood when his or her context remains obscured (Bednarova, 2009).

Through dialogue, it is possible to develop a partnership with Marion and encouraging her to awareness, or the experiences regarding her own feelings, actions, and overall existence. By awareness, it means that Marion would be more aware of the level of control she has over selecting certain kinds of behaviours and personal feelings. Hence, she would know what she does, how she does it, knowing that she can choose among alternatives, as well as knowing that he chose to be the way he is. A Description of How a Counsellor Might Work with Marion Using your Chosen Approach The Gestalt counsellor would work by engaging in dialogue with Marion instead of manipulating her to resolve her problem of loneliness.

The counsellor’s key function would be to allow Marion to develop awareness, by understanding as what she senses, feels, does, waits, thinks and avoids. As Marion should be helped to learn and understand herself based on her present context through insight, the ‘empty chair’ technique is suggested to be applied to her. Empty Chair Technique Therefore, a counsellor may utilise Gestalt's "Empty Chair" technique to assist Marion in individual counselling to cope with her reaction to her children’s departure from home leaving her lonely, and her husbands’ constant absence.

The approach would therefore integrate relational theory with Marion’s current state. Therefore, emphasis would be placed on Marion’s self-awareness. As Palmer (2011) explains, self-awareness is viewed to be at the centre of a client’s personal growth. However, the theory also acknowledges that sometimes self-awareness may be hindered by negative patterns of thought as well as behaviours that may make a client feel dejected. To this end, a therapist is obligated to encourage a self-awareness that is far from being judgemental to enable a client to conceive unique perspective on life.

In this case, once Marion is made to become increasingly aware of how she thinks, feels, and acts at present while seated on a chair. In turn, the gestalt therapy offers greater insights into how she could assuage her current issues. Indeed, as Wagner-Moore (2004) explains, the "Empty Chair" technique is often applied to clients experiencing interpersonal problems, such a loneliness, or anger. Kraft (2016) defined it as a form of role-playing, although the client has to play both roles.

In using Gestalt's "Empty Chair" technique, two chairs are used, where the therapist requests the client to shift places during the process of conversation. Wagner-Moore (2004) explains that the actual processes of acting and moving from one chair to other in order to elicit sensimotor emotions. Stage 1: In the first session, focus should be placed on determining where Marion is, instead of where the counsellor thinks she is. After formal introduction with the Marion and building rapport, the counsellor makes an effort to focus Marion’s attention toward her immediate experiences to avoid any speculations.

The counsellor then would need to approach this stage by attempting to explore what Marion currently experiences in awareness. At this stage, Marion would be directed on how to experience the relationship between her verbal and non-verbal. For instance, the counsellor would need to observe Marion’s posture, breathing patterns, the tone of her voices and even her gestures (Bednarova, 2009). The therapist may use this information to tailor or carry out a therapy in a context that provide safety and support and to encourage the client to try adopting behaviours perceived to be more constructive.

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