Ray Bruce

The Gestalt Theory

Foundation Course in Psychotherapy and Counselling

Monday March 13th 2006

An essay submitted in partial fulfilment of the foundation course in psychotherapy and counselling.

In this essay I will be explaining the principles of the Gestalt Therapy. I will describe how the therapy works in general and from my own interest I will highlight the creative element to Gestalt.

The Founders of The Gestalt approach.

The two main founders of the gestalt approach were Frederick (Fritz) Perls ( 1893-1970) and his wife Laura Perls ( 1905-1992).

The Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt is a German word meaning "pattern". Although there's no easily translated term in English, it's meaning loosely translates into "the whole picture". This is one of the main purposes of the Gestalt Therapy in that it's aim is to get a sense of the client as being a "whole" or what the client is actually about.

Gestalt is an alternative humanistic approach, it focuses on the Existentialism and Phenomenological ideas of Psychotherapy.

The initial goal of the therapy is to promote self-awareness and personal growth. Therefore, focusing on the process of what is happening rather than what is being discussed. It emphasis on what is being done, thought and felt at the moment rather than on what was, might be, could be or should be.

Gestalt Therapy regards the client as an ever changing, self-adapting, human being who is in a process of continuous change and development. Gestalt Therapy is used for the natural change in the client through the constant interacting with others and everyday challenges, such as opportunities, possibilities and the inevitable problems that are put upon us. This leads to an assumption that human beings should not be theorized about in a way that suggests there is a separation between the inner and outer realms of existence. Basically, this means that the individual has to be seen as being in relation to themselves and their environment in which they live. Therefore, family, work colleagues, organisational and national life are classed as 'other', these are all part of the living experience and are in effect 'part of oneself'.

Therefore, the Gestalt perspective of the client is a holistic one, seeing the person as pole within a constantly changing field.

Gestalt Therapy does not involve lying on a couch and is practised in groups and individual therapy. It is a practical psychotherapy with an emphasis on communication between the client and the therapist. The therapist works with the client to be aware of their responses in the here and now. As the client talks about their experiences and personal material, they are encouraged to notice their physical and emotional responses.
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The concept of what Perls calls unfinished situations is central to the Gestalt Theory.

Perls believed that our organism is so complicated that every time something happens to it

we are thrown out of balance and have to regain our balance to function successfully.

This disturbance of balance creates unfinished situations.

In a lecture entitled Finding Self through Gestalt Therapy Fritz Perls likened these unfinished situations to the symptom of insomnia.

Say you have revenge which you haven't carried out,...Somebody has hurt your self esteem. So you toss and ...

This is a preview of the whole essay