What Is Gestalt Therapy?

Gestalt therapy: Established by American psychiatrist Dr. Dr. Frederick S. Pierce, also known as Gestalt therapy, it is the awareness, experience and awareness of your own disease. Self-healing method.

Chinese name: Gestalt therapy
Foreign name: Gestalt therapy
Typical technology: Dialogue exercises, two-chair technology

Founding period: 1960s
founder: Pierce
Application range: Psychotherapy

Introduction to Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt therapy uses many specific technologies, such as dialogue exercises and two-chair technology

Gestalt therapy , Responsibility training, analysis of dreams, etc. These technologies are used to strengthen the direct experience of patients, that is, "here and now" experience, to promote emotional release, to face conflicts and contradictions, to improve patient awareness, and to enable them to understand the psychological defense mechanism they use. Gestalt Therapy in Counseling: This therapy was founded by Pierce in the 1960s. The main points of Gestalt therapy are as follows: 1. People have the ability to deal with their own affairs. The central task of psychological counseling is to help the person who fully understands the existence and feeling of self in reality. Therefore, psychological counseling does not seek explanation and guidance for the client's difficulties, but encourages the client to take the initiative to take responsibility and preside over self-treatment and improvement. 2. People should focus their minds on real life and feelings, instead of thinking about past events. Many people's anxiety arises from not being able to properly handle the transition from past life to current life, and evading reality to deal with the challenges and pressures in personal life. This severely hinders a person's healthy growth. 3. An important means to make a person actively face the reality of healthy growth is to help him complete the unfinished business in his heart. This usually refers to an individual's bad emotional experience (such as upset, regret, guilt, anger, etc.) left by some psychological trauma and stimulation experience in the past. They are like knots that bind people to free movement in real life. In order for people to devote themselves wholeheartedly to real life, it is necessary to exclude these intrusive disturbances. 4. In terms of consulting methods, Gestalt Therapy emphasizes helping the client to change from environmental support to self-support, so that the client does not rely on others from the beginning and tries to tap the potential of the individual.

Historical origins of Gestalt therapy

Gestalt psychology is also known as Gestalt psychology.

Gestalt therapy One of the main schools of contemporary psychology, it was born in Germany in 1912 and later developed in the United States. Gestalt Psychology adopts Husserl's phenomenological point of view and advocates the experience of psychology studying phenomena, that is, the neutral experience of non-mind and non-things. When observing the experience of the phenomenon, we must keep the original appearance of the phenomenon, and we cannot analyze it as a sensory element, and consider that the experience of the phenomenon is whole or gestalt (Gestalt), so it is called Gestalt psychology. The main representatives are Wertheimer, Kohler and Kofka. They believe that the experience of phenomena is the whole or the gestalt, and the so-called elements are the products of unnatural analysis. Real experience can only prove "perceptual organization".

After Wertheimer, Kohler, and Kofka proposed the basic theory of Gestalt psychology, they gradually exerted some influence in society and academia. Pierce's consulting theory was directly influenced by their Gestalt ideas. The German-American psychologist Pierce was originally engaged in the theoretical research of the psychoanalytic school, but was greatly hit at an annual conference of psychoanalysis. Since then he has completely departed from the psychoanalytic school and proposed Gestalt therapy, which he believes is the essence of "I must take all responsibility for my existence". This therapy advocates improving the poor adaptation by increasing awareness of one's physical condition at this time, recognizing depressed emotions and needs, and integrating the divided parts of personality.

Gestalt therapy

Gestaltism was a school of opposition to Vonte constructivism that emerged in Germany in the early twentieth century. Born in 1912, "Gestalt" is a transliteration of the German word "Gestalt", which means "form" and "shape". This word is used in psychology to indicate any kind of separated whole. Gestalt was also translated as Gestalt Psychology.

Gestaltists believe that human psychological consciousness activities are transcendental "gestalts", that is, "complete processes with internal laws", exist before human experience, and are a prerequisite for human experience. All known external things and movements are gestalt effects. The wise behavior of humans and animals is a sudden emergence of a new type of cloze, called "epiphany."

The main representatives of this school are Weitemo (1880 ~ 1934), Kohler (1887 ~ 1967) and Kaufka (1886 ~ 1941). Wei Temo's main point: experimental research on the perceptual problem of motion-like phenomena. He believes that motion-like phenomena is a gestalt. The whole of psychological phenomena is not equal to the sum of parts. The nature of the whole does not exist in its parts. It exists in the whole. Kafka's main point: that the task of psychology is to study the causal relationship between behavior and psychophysical field. The so-called psychophysical field contains the polarities of self and environment, and each part of these two polarities has its own structure. He divided the environment into geographic environment, that is, the external actual environment; behavioral environment, that is, the environment in the mind of the individual. Behavior arises from the context of the behavior.

Theoretical basis of Gestalt therapy

The basic premise

Pierce believes that if one wants to reach maturity, he must look for his own responsibility in his own lifestyle. The client's basic goal is to be aware of what they are experiencing and what they are doing. Through this awareness

Gestalt therapy Become self-knowledgeable, and gain enough knowledge to correct yourself, so that you learn how to take responsibility for your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. Because the focus of attention is on the client's perception of the actual environment, its orientation can be described as phenomenological; and because the basis of this treatment is here and now, it also has an orientation. In other words, the existence at this moment involves the transition phase of one's past and future. Therefore, the treatment requires the parties to bring their relevant past and possible future into this moment and then experience them directly. It can be seen that Gestalt therapy is lively and lively, and it can actually improve people's direct experience, rather than just talking about the situation in an abstract way. At the same time, the treatment is experiential, and the parties must absorb the emotions, thoughts, and behaviors when interacting with the therapist. The effectiveness of Gestalt therapy depends on how much the parties are willing to confess their wishes during the treatment process. If it is effective, it comes from the willingness of the two to be in candid contact, not because of the technology used by the healer or some reasonable explanation.

One of the roles of the healer is to design an experiment to increase the client's self-awareness of what he is doing and how to do it. Through this awareness, the client can see other possible options that can change them. Asked to take the initiative to see, feel, sense and explain, rather than passively waiting for the therapist to give them insights and answers. ^[1]

Gestalt therapy main concepts

Gestalt therapy human view

The human nature view of Gestalt therapy is mainly based on existential philosophy and phenomenology. It is believed that real knowledge is produced by the immediate experience of the perceptual. The purpose of treatment is not analysis, but rather integration of internal conflicts that a person has from time to time. "Re-owning" the parts of the individual that were once negated, and the process of integration needs to gradually progress until the parties are strong enough to continue their own growth. And by perceiving, one can make a decision, and thus live a more meaningful life.

Gestalt therapy basically assumes that individuals can effectively deal with problems that occur in their lives, and in particular they are fully aware of what is happening around them. People often use a variety of different ways to evade certain specific problems that may be faced. Therefore, in their growth process, they will often form some personality obstacles. In this regard, Gestalt therapy provides the necessary processing methods and the skills to face challenges, it helps the parties to move towards integration, frankness, and a more vital existence.

Gestalt therapy at the moment

According to Pierce, nothing exists except "at this moment." Because the passers-by have already passed away, the comer has not yet come, only now is the most important. One of the main concepts of Gestalt Therapy is: Emphasizing the moment and the moment, emphasizing full study, understanding, and feeling the moment, and nostalgia for the past is to escape from the experience of the present.

For many, the "now" power has been lost. They don't know how to grasp the moment, but they just throw their energy into lamenting the mistakes made in the past, thinking hard about how to change their lives, or throwing their energy into the endless choices and plans in the future. When they focus their energy on remembering the past or meditating on the future, the power of the "now" disappears. In order to effectively help clients reach the present, gestalt therapists often ask "what" and "how" questions, and rarely ask "why" questions. In order to increase the client's awareness of the current situation, the therapist encourages present-style conversation.

Gestalt therapy unfinished event

Another important focus of Gestalt therapy is "unfinished business", which refers to unexpressed emotions, including: remorse, anger, resentment, pain, anxiety, sadness, guilt, sense of abandonment, etc. Although these emotions are not expressed, they are connected with vivid memory and imagination. Because these emotions are not fully experienced in the field of consciousness, they linger in the subconscious and are brought into real life without consciousness, thereby preventing effective contact between themselves and others. Unfinished events often persist until the individual has the courage to face and deal with these unexpressed emotions.

Gestalt therapy escape

Avoidance is a concept related to unfinished events. It refers to the tools people use to avoid facing unfinished events and to avoid unpleasant emotions caused by unfinished situations. According to Pierce, most people would rather avoid experiencing painful emotions than make the necessary changes. As a result, they become dull and unable to break through the deadlock, which hinders the possibility of growth. Therefore, gestalt therapists encourage parties to fully express tensions that have never been expressed directly before during the treatment phase.

Gestalt therapy touch

Contact is a necessary condition for growth and change in the field of Gestalt therapy. When we are in contact with the environment, change inevitably happens. Contact is achieved by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and moving. Good contact refers to the natural interaction with others, but still without losing their personal sense of individuality.

Gestalt therapy energy

In the concept of Gestalt therapy, special attention is paid to the question of energy, including: where is it? how to use? And how to get blocked. Blocked energy is another form of resistance to contact. It may manifest as tension in certain parts of the body. For example, posture changes, body tightening, trembling, looking elsewhere when talking to others, abnormal tones, etc., but these are just a few examples.

Gestalt therapy operation method and process

Gestalt therapy target

The basic goal of Gestalt Therapy is to achieve a state of awareness,

Gestalt therapy And get more choices and shoulder more responsibilities. Perception includes understanding the environment, understanding oneself, accepting oneself, and being in touch with others. The improvement and enrichment of the ability to perceive is considered effective in itself. If it is not noticed, the person will not have the tools to make a personality change. With awareness, they have the inclusiveness to face and accept the part they originally refused to accept, and can fully appreciate the subjectivity of this part. Then they will gradually become unified and complete. When a person stays in a state of awareness, important unfinished events always surface and can then be addressed during treatment. Gestalt therapy is to help the parties to notice their own perception process, so that they can be held responsible and can make selective choices. In the context of a sincere meeting between the client and the counselor, awareness emerges.

Functions and Roles of Gestalt Therapists

When we face who we "now" have become, instead of just thinking about who we "should" be, we have more possibilities to change ourselves. In this spirit, the goal of Gestalt therapy is not to change the parties. The role of the consultant is to help them develop their awareness and experience of who they were at the time through contact with the parties. The task of the counselor is to invite the parties to actively participate, learn to know themselves by experimenting with life, try new behaviors during the treatment process, and pay attention to what changes have taken place.

One of the important functions of a gestalt therapist is to pay attention to the physical movements of the parties. The client's non-verbal cues can provide therapist with a wealth of information, because it often reveals the client's own unawareness. Pierce believes that the parties' gestures, behaviors, gestures, sounds and other actions all illustrate some facts of the facts. He also warned that ditches through language can often be misleading. Therefore, if the therapist only pays attention to the content of the client's spoken language, it is easy to misunderstand one's essence. Real communication goes beyond words.

Therefore, the therapist must pay attention to whether there is any inconsistency between the language of the client and the body movements, especially when the client is avoiding full contact with reality at all times. Come out and become part of their limb movements. In addition, the gestalt therapist must also pay attention to the relationship between language form and personality, because the language form of the parties often reveals emotions, thoughts and attitudes. Gestalt therapy emphasizes the need to pay attention to the parties' speaking habits in order to improve their self-understanding, especially by asking them to pay attention to whether their language is consistent with their experience? Does it deviate from its emotions? This will improve the self-understanding of the parties.

On the other hand, the therapist must be gentle with the client to help them perceive the impact of language forms on them. Due to the focus on linguistic forms, the parties can increase their awareness at this moment and how they can avoid contact with the experience at this moment.

Gestalt therapy parties' experience in treatment

The basic direction of Gestalt therapy is to make the client learn to think for himself

Gestalt therapy , Feeling, and acting with greater responsibility. The healer is often questioned by the person trying to avoid the responsibility, while testing whether they are willing to continue the treatment, what they want to learn from the treatment, how to use the treatment time, etc. As for other treatment priorities, the relationship between the therapist and the client, and the similarity between the relationship and the client and others. Therefore, the parties play a role of active participants in the treatment process. They will explain and give meaning to their words and actions, and at the same time, take a proactive attitude to improve their awareness and clarify the relationships. Meaning for yourself.

Gestalt therapy therapeutic relationship

The basic focus of Gestalt therapy is the one-to-one relationship between the healer and the client. The therapist should take responsibility for the quality of the consultation, his or her understanding of the client, and whether the client can remain open. At the same time, a good treatment environment should be established and maintained to promote change. The therapist's experience, insight and awareness are the basis for achieving the effect; the client's ability to perceive and respond is the key to successful treatment. It is important that when a counselor makes contact with the client, the counselor should allow himself to be influenced by the client and be able to share his perceptual experience with the other party.

Gestalt therapy not only hopes that the parties show their true colors, the consultants and the willingness to express their reactions and observations of the parties, they will share personal experiences in an appropriate way, but will not try to manipulate the parties. At the same time, the therapist must give feedback to the client's physical response. With feedback, parties can develop a perception of what they have done. The healers need to face the client with sincerity and keen response, and challenge their possible behavioral orientation without denying them. In addition, the healer must work with the client to explore their internal fears, catastrophic expectations, obstacles, and resistance.

Gestalt therapy technology and application

Gestalt Therapy Gestalt Techniques

The technology of Gestalt Therapy is to help the client obtain more acute awareness and experience.

Gestalt therapy Conflicts in conflict, resolution of inconsistencies and polarization, breakthroughs that impede deadlocks to resolve unfinished events. Pierce and others have briefly described some techniques of Gestalt therapy, including:

1. Dialogue exercises.

2. Empty chair technology.

3. Go round.

4. I am responsible.

5. Projection.

6. Reverse.

7. Preview.

8. Exaggeration.

9. Feeling lien.

10. Gestalt dream therapy

Gestalt therapy dialogue exercises

The dialogue exercise

As mentioned earlier, the goal of Gestalt therapy is to integrate a person's functions and to accommodate the negative and rejected aspects of his personality. The therapist pays special attention to the schizophrenia in the person's personality. Personality can be divided into "top-dog" and "under-dog" poles, so the focus of treatment is on the taw saw between the two.

Winners usually represent integrity, authority, morality, command, domination and manipulation, like a pair of "picky parents" who bother people with a "should" and "must" mentality and manipulate others with disastrous power . In contrast, the loser uses the role of a victim, being defended, guilty, helpless, weak and incompetent to contain the other side. It shows the passive side, the irresponsible side and the evasive side. The winner and the loser fight in this different way in order to gain control. Such struggles help explain why one's commitments and solutions cannot be implemented, and why lazy habits continue to change. The overbearing winner often teaches others this way by command, while the loser is challenging like playing a disobedient urchin. In the case of fighting for control, the individual is split into two parts, the controller and the controlled, and the two sides are always fighting for the sake of their own existence.

The conflict between the opposites in the above personality is due to the role of the injective mechanism. Through this mechanism, individuals often incorporate the opinions of others (usually parents) into their self-system. Pierce believes that a person must, but also inevitably, learn from the opinions and characteristics of others, but if they are fully accepted without their own criticism, Values are dangerous and will hinder one's independence. Therefore, a person must be careful to inject himself into whether he will harm the self-system and hinder the integration of self-personality.

Gestalt therapy empty chair technology

Empty-chair

Empty chair technology is one of the ways to make parties' introverts visible. This technique uses two chairs, asking the parties to sit on one of them, controlling a winner, then changing to another chair to play the loser, and let the parties play a continuous dialogue. The essence of this technology is a role-play, allowing the parties to play all parts. In this way, the injectives can be surfaced so that the parties can fully experience the conflict, and since the winner and the loser can be accepted and integrated in the party's role play, the conflict can be resolved. At the same time, this technology will assist the parties to contact their hidden emotions, and the side that they may even deny themselves; by this they make the emotions manifest and experience it fully, not just the discussion. In addition, this technology is intended to help parties understand that emotions are a real part of them. For example, the person said, "It feels like my father is in me!" When the person suppresses the internal parental injecting effect, and uses it to punish and control himself, this injecting effect will continue the "self-torture" process.

The purpose of the dialogue between the two opposing forces is to achieve a higher level of integration between people's internal opposition and conflict, that is, to learn to accept and exist side by side with this opposition, rather than to eliminate some personality of a person Traits. Pierce believes that other treatments place too much emphasis on change, so that the parties can fundamentally remove the problem of self-torture. Because the parties have many conflicts in their hearts, they have a game of self-talk from time to time.

Gestalt therapy around the circle

Making the rounds

This Gestalt technique involves asking a member of a group to come to someone else

Gestalt therapy Talking to the other party or doing something before, the purpose is to achieve quality, take risks, express yourself, experiment with new behavior patterns, promote growth and change. This technique may be used when the therapist feels that a participant's problem is necessary to face each member of the group. For example, a member might say, "I've been sitting here for a long time, I want to participate, but I dare not, because I can't trust the people here, and I don't think it's worth the time of the group for me." The healer may answer: "Are you willing to do something now to make yourself more engaged and gain confidence and trust from others?" If he answered affirmatively, then the healer could suggest: " Now, go around, and say in front of everyone, "I don't trust you, because ...". In this way, any idea that can help individuals to invest and take certain actions to eliminate fear can be innovatively invented.

Gestalt therapy I am in charge of therapy

I take responsibility for ...

The healer may ask the client to add "and I will be responsible for it." For example, "I feel bored, but I will be responsible for my boredom.", "I don't know what to say now , But I will be responsible for my ignorance. "," I feel excluded and lonely, but I will be responsible for this feeling of exclusion. "The implementation of this technology can effectively expand the personal sensation field, while helping personal acceptance And recognize their own emotions, instead of putting their own emotions on others. Although this technology is quite mechanized, it makes sense.

Gestalt therapy projection

Playing the projection

Projection refers to what a person sees on others, which is actually what he has, but he does not want to see or accept. A person often spends a lot of energy to deny his emotions and pass on certain motivations to others. Therefore, in a group, when someone is talking about others, it is often said to be a projection of his own attributes. In the course of projection, the healer will ask the person who says "I can't trust you" to play an untrustworthy role, or to become someone else so that they can discover that distrust turned out to be an internal conflict. In other words, the healer is asking the person to "try on for size" his account of others in the group.

Gestalt therapy inversion technique

The reversal technique

Certain symptoms, words and deeds of the parties are often the reverse of their potential actions. In response to this situation, the healer can ask this type of person who is suffering from excessive timidity to try to play a charismatic person in the group. In the past case, there was a woman who hated all foods except sugar-coated food, and the healer asked her to reverse the typical style of the past, and try to behave contrary to the past. After doing so, she quickly found her favorite taste, that is, she was able to recognize and accept her "negative side" and "positive side".

The reversal technique works by requiring the person to dive into every incident that will cause him anxiety and to make contact with the part he has buried and denied. This technology helps parties to begin to accept certain personal attributes that were previously denied.

Gestalt therapy preview exercise

The rehearsal exercise

As far as Pierce is concerned, many of our thoughts are actually in preview. We often preview the roles we expect to play in the real world in the imaginary world. When the actual performance started, fear and anxiety surged because they were afraid that they would not perform well. Since the internal rehearsal consumes too much energy, it inhibits our initiative and hinders our willingness to try new patterns of behavior.

With the help of group members to help each other and share the rehearsal situation with each other, the parties can be more aware of their social rehearsals, and also make them more aware of others' expectations and try to achieve them. . In addition, this also makes them more aware of the extent and scope of their desire to be praised, accepted and liked by others.

Gestalt therapy exaggeration exercise

The exaggeratiOn exercise

One of the purposes of Gestalt therapy is to make the parties more sensitive to the weak signals or clues transmitted by their body language. Although both movements and postures can be used to convey the message, the expression may not be complete. If the parties can be required to repeatedly exaggerate the actions or gestures they want to express, the emotions related to the behavior will be intensified, and their hidden meanings will be more clearly expressed.

There are some behaviors that are suitable for using this exaggeration technique, such as: expressing pain or some angry emotions, such as shaking, bending down, fists, frowning, bitter gourd, hands crossed chest, etc., but with an inconsistent smile . Taking shaking as an example, if the client tells the healer that his leg is shaking, the healer may now ask the client to stand up, shake his legs more exaggerated, and then explain this action.

Exaggerated exercises can also be applied to language behavior. For example, the healer can teach the client to repeat what he wants to cover up, and repeat it louder and louder. This often makes the client really listen to his true heart.

Gestalt therapy feeling indwelling

Staying withThe feeling

When the client wants to escape at a critical moment when the emotion or emotion is unpleasant, the healer asks the other party to maintain such feeling. Most parties want to escape fear or unpleasant feelings, but the healer will encourage them to take the opportunity to delve into these feelings of escape by asking them to stay in the fear or unpleasant experience. To face and experience feelings requires not only courage, but also the willingness to endure the pain that may be encountered when removing obstacles, but after experiencing these, people can have new growth.

Gestalt therapy Gestalt dream therapy

The Gestalt approach to dream Work

Gestalt therapy does not advocate analyzing dreams, but bringing dreams to reality

Gestalt therapy Make it happen again in life. Dreams are no longer considered to be a thing of the past, but to be manifested now. The dreamer may be part of the dream. The ways to deal with dreams include: showing dreams, remembering everyone, things, things, and moods in the dreams, then turning yourself into every part of the dreams, trying to express the dreams and eliciting dialogue. Because each part of the dream is assumed to be self-projecting, the dreamer will create a script for each role or short encounter in the dream, and the different parts of the dream are their own manifestations of contradictions and inconsistencies. Through these dialogues between the opposite levels, the parties can gradually perceive the world of their emotional expression.

The concept of projection is the core of Pierce's dream theory. According to what he sees, everyone in the dream represents the object that the dreamer projects. He believes that the parties do not need to explore the dream, but rather treat the dream as a script and then experiment with the dialogue between the various parts of the dream. If the parties can perform conflicts of internal opposition, they can also absorb their differences and integrate these opposing forces. Pierce also believes that dreams are the most spontaneous manifestations of human beings. It not only represents unfinished events, but may also far exceed these unfinished affairs or unfulfilled wishes. In fact, each dream represents a person's existence message and inner struggle. If all the dreams can be understood and assimilated, everything in the dream can be easily detected. In fact, every job done in a dream can lead to some degree of assimilation. Pierce believes that if dreams are handled properly, the message of existence will become clearer. In dreams, the lack of personality is best found by revealing missing parts and ways to escape. If you do not want to remember your dreams, you are refusing to face problems in your life. Gestalt therapists will then ask the client to talk about their missing dreams.

Gestalt therapy contribution

Whether it is individual or group consultation, this action-based therapy can bring conflict and struggle into life. With this technology, the parties can actually experience their struggle instead of just talking about it in a perfunctory manner. problem. The result of this is to increase the party's perception of reality in particular, and to enable them to discover their new side.

Another contribution of Gestalt therapy is to use a lively way to bring the past-related parts into the present, and then deal with these past problems with a lively attitude. Healers use creative methods to motivate clients, helping them to be aware and capable of removing obstacles to real-life function. In addition, paying attention to the client's obvious language and body movements during the consultation process is also an effective treatment. With the use of technology and keen observation, Gestalt therapy can help parties strengthen their awareness of the moment as the center. This allows them not only to perceive the feelings and thoughts at this time, but also to fully understand what they are doing . After this journey, they can take greater responsibility for what they say and do.

Limitations of Gestalt therapy

1. Pierce-style Gestalt therapy does not pay much attention to the recognition of personality. Pierce does discourage thinking about one's experience. Many gestalt scholars emphasize perception and expression, but often overlook the part of inspection and thinking. Some workers engaged in experimental treatment believe that bringing cognitive structure into the experience of treatment is a defense against sensory experience here and now.

2. The current work of Gestalt therapy attaches great importance to the contact and dialogue between the therapist and the client. This refers to the existence of an interview during the treatment process, which is beneficial to the client. For the Gestalt Therapy to really work, the therapist must have a higher level of personality development. On the one hand, he can fully perceive his needs, and he can prevent these needs from interfering with the client's treatment. The ground is at this moment, and at the same time can reveal itself without defense. However, there is still a danger that if the therapist lacks proficient training, he will most likely have a positive desire to focus the treatment on the client and try to manipulate them. ^[1]