Counselling Theory: Understanding Gestalt Approach And Application

Gestalt Therapy and Application of the Therapy

Discuss about the Counselling Theory.
 

In the 1940s, Fritz Perls, developed a form of psychotherapy, known as Gestalt therapy. This theory has been derived from the Gestalt school of thought (Gregory, 2014).This theory is guided by the relational principle, which states that an individual is a person, and their situation could be well understood in their present situation. The key factor to this theory is self-awareness which helps the patient to have their personal growth and help in developing their potential (Nevis, 2014).This theory says that self-awareness, which is person's strength could get obstructed by pessimistic thoughts and behaviour, and this leaves the person unhappy and dissatisfied. The aim of every gestalt counsellor in this theory is to promote self-awareness, which is non-judgmental in nature, and it enables a person to have a particular perspective in his or her life. They also help the patient to have insights into their problems and find out the solution as how they can solve their present problem and be optimistic in life (Evans & Gilbert, 2015). In this essay, we shall utilize the Gestalt theory approach in analysing the case study and applying it to the given case study based on its application and relevant theories. 

According to Wollants (2012), gestalt therapy has an “existential approach”, as its supporting assumption is that people must find their own way in life and must accept individual accountability for their life experiences. Hence, in order to understand the goal of responsiveness, it is necessary to understand the key principles on which the gestalt approach is based (Nevis, 2014). These are as follows: contact, resistance of contact, layers of neurosis, formulation of gestalt, impasse, unfinished business, awareness and present alertness. Contact is regarded as the heart of the gestalt approach. This means interaction with the environment and other people, however, at the time same maintaining individuality (Staemmler, 2016). Contact between individuals can be made by seeing, touching, smelling, moving or speaking.  A person who lacks the aptitude to make contact with the environment can be influenced by many boundaries that exist around him. The boundaries may include value, expressive and exposure boundaries. The layers of neurosis can be compared to the peeling of an onion that involves unfolding of every layer of personality enabling a person to achieve a sense of accomplishment by discovering new dimensions of his personality (Zinker, 2013). Impasse refers to the point when an individual comes to a point where he wants to makes changes in his life but is unable to do so. A counsellor should make the individual stay within the experience of impasse so that he or she is able to make changes in his life by overcoming the factor of fear (Kepner, 2014). Other important principles of gestalt therapy include unfinished business, awareness and present awareness. The goal of gestalt therapy is to provide greater awareness to people so that they are able to cure their personality disorder. In this therapy, clients are told to increase their awareness by exploring more of what they are doing, feeling, thinking and interpreting. Additionally, it involves exploration of the behaviours of the client and their relationships (Zinker, 2013).

Key Principles of Gestalt Approach

The explanation provided is, if as a counsellor, one has to understand Marion from the approach of Gestalt then the counsellor may have to identify the ways in which she has felt disassociated with her family. Marion has often been complaining of feeling low these days since the time her last child left. She has been finding it difficult to focus on her life right now and she often asks questions to herself as to whether she really made the right choices in life or not. In short, she cannot relate to her present life. The focus of this approach is on the client counsellor relationship and not on techniques and interpretations (Crocker, 2013). The counsellor relies more on experiments and hence Marion can be helped by focusing on what is happening within their body and lays importance on what they feel and how she feels. The counsellor may focus on how Marion feels about her life and her present situation, may increase the level of awareness of Marion, and focus on body messages, avoidance, and blockage of awareness. A counsellor has to focus on the voice that is used by Marion for explaining her present life issues; this helps the counsellor to be able to identify on what level is the client less motivated. For example, if the client suddenly looks very sad despite relaying his thoughts of anger to the counsellor, the counsellor may become attentive about his feelings of sadness. However, a counsellor should avoid interpretation, intellectualizing and offering a cure straightaway (Roney & Trick, 2003).

The description of the role of a gestalt counsellor  is, to make the client feel important about his survival. In the case of Marion, the counsellor  has to make her feel that she has not taken wrong decisions in her life and that she has utilized her life to the fullest of her survival (Polster & Polster, 2013). Upbringing of children is not an easy task and this is what she has done best in her life that is brought up the kids in a nice and respectable manner. The counsellor has to create such an atmosphere in which the client is able to explore and identify their thoughts, feelings and perceptions so that they find it easier to relate to the process of dialogue (Barber, 2006). Similarly, in the same way Marion should also be presented in an environment where she feels easier to relent her perceptions, feelings and thoughts. This shall help Marion to increase self-awareness and self-consciousness. A counsellor has to ensure that their clients stay focused on the present situation instead of diverting to some other situation or scenario. In the same way, the counsellor will have to keep Marion focused on the present situation and not diverting to some other topic or issue (Hochberg, 2014). Additionally, the counsellor also has to show respect to the problems of Marion. Marion should not feel that the counsellor is not addressing her problems appropriately. Hence, respect and empathy plays a very important factor when a client is in need of counselling from the counsellor. The psychotherapist should not be judgmental about the situation of Marion. He or she can only provide his prescription on the prevailing condition instead of telling the client what is right or wrong. A strong fiduciary relationship exists between a client and the psychotherapist. The counsellor all throughout the period of counselling should maintain the respect and dignity. The counsellor should show genuine respect and authenticity towards their patient. 

Understanding the Role of a Gestalt Counsellor

Few examples of dialogue that the counsellor may use during this process to ensure that the client remains focused are:

Marion: [Looks Sad]

Counsellor: what are you thinking of?

Marion: I am sad

Counsellor: stay with it!

Marion: Feels sad and loses focus

Counsellor: I see you losing focus and staying sad

Marion: I want to do something in life that makes me feel better

Counsellor: stay with the want!

The above-mentioned dialogue is an example of “focusing” that is used by many gestalt therapists. This helps in the encouragement of client to focus on what they are experiencing right then. This helps in the encouragement of the client to develop their experience and helps them in understanding themselves in a far better way. In the example of dialogue given above, the client was told to focus on the “stay” with his or her feelings (Knights & Koenig, 2013).

Another example of a dialogue that the counsellor might take with his dealing with the client is. This method of dialogue focuses on making the approach of client in conveying the “I” message:

Counsellor: Tell me something about your husband

Marion: You may have a feeling of awe when you see him back from work

Counsellor: Can you say that “I feel awful the moment I see him back from work?”

Marion: I did

Counsellor: yes, But I want you to focus on the use of first person and answer me in that way itself  

Marion: Ok!

Many times gestalt therapist focus on the language that their clients use to speak about their problems as they feel that use of language is a way of expressing their thoughts and feelings. The gestalt therapist assess whether the language used by the gestalt therapist matches with the way he is feeling or not (Zinker, 2013). For example, by using words such as “I” “You” clients have the tendency of depersonalising their experience. 

The advantages of taking the Gestalt approach with Marion are that Marion will be able to increase her level of self-consciousness and self-awareness (Evans & Gilbert, 2015). Increasing a person’s self-esteem is a very important step towards acceptance of a person in their life. Marion will feel confident about herself and she will be able to lead her life well, based on the current scenario. The communication skills of Marion will be improved by applying the gestalt therapy. This shall help Marion and the counsellor to share a satisfying relationship with one another. The client is able to enhance her ability to escape negative feelings around her. Conclusively, Marion will be able to make good decisions in her life and not feel sad about the decisions that she has taken earlier. With the help of this therapy, she will be able increase her wisdom and identify her emotions appropriately so that she can connect with herself easily.

Examples of Dialogue Used by Gestalt Counsellors

The disadvantages that are related to the Gestalt approach is that, sometimes the therapist are very “on the face” regarding the issues that a client faces. A client like Marion may not like this kind of approach of the counsellor as they find such approach as casual and less involved. In real sense, the Gestalt therapy is a very intensive therapy and it may not be suitable for every patient. If the counsellor fails to set up a good relation with the clients, then this therapy may not work well. However, based on the analysis of the case study of Marion, gestalt shall be considered as the correct and best approach as there is a need for Marion to focus on life and feel better about current life situations (Jacobs, 2013).

Based on the application of Gestalt therapy in the above-mentioned part of the essay, the familiarity can be evidenced with the help of existing relevant theory and literature related to this theory. The quintessence of this therapy is that it focuses on the “here and now situations.” According to Fogarty et al., (2016), past and future survival is related to the present scenario and in order to make the present meaningful the past needs to be settled appropriately. For future to be good and worthy of survival the present needs to be well settled and well spent. This is the essence of the gestalt therapy. However, present centeredness does not reject the significance of the past or the future; rather it only lays emphasis to those attributes of time in which feelings of nostalgia, resentment and regret is associated. Reality survives in the moment of living as a noble experience, if attended to; it can lead personal growth of individuals. Partiality of past or future destroy present association, and lack of association with the present situation leads to flight to the future or to the past. The focus of the application of the gestalt therapy is on contact or association. This is inclusive of all the internal as well as the external factors that shall determine the working and analysis of the contact process. 

According to Fantz (2014), if a non-judgmental, dialogic and authentic client and therapist relationship is created then it may lead to a crucible change within the client. In order to exchange phenomenon, Gestalt therapist must bring a capacity and an interest to be present as a person in the psychoanalytic encounter, including of his inner world, sense of knowledge and information and skills. Hence, this therapy is a well grounded and a well developed theory with innumerable principles, concepts and methods along with expressive and expressive therapies.

Staemmler (2016) conducted a research in which the therapist used the questionnaire method to identify the ways in which the application of gestalt therapy can be effective. The subjects of this research were people who remain fixed to their experiences and live in the anticipation of making their future better. After analysis of the research, it was found that the application of this research could be very helpful for those who have lost focus in life and find difficult to lead their present life in a stabilized manner. Hence, gestalt therapy is a “phenomenological” approach to counseling that focuses on the experience of the client in the present moment. The research of Staemmler (2016) provides evidence of integration of theory and practice of the gestalt therapy.

Conclusively, it may be stated that gestalt therapy helps the clients to gain better awareness of their way of surviving in the world and how to make appropriate contact with the surroundings and the environment. In this essay, the principles, goals, aims and objectives of the therapy was discussed. Additionally, the essay also has identified the description and explanation of the relevant theory related to the gestalt therapy and evidence of integration of theory and practice is discussed in this essay.  

References: 

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