Make up a list of psychological terms. Translate them into Russian. Get ready for group work
View of Human Nature. Gestalt Therapy
Fritz Perls (1969a) practiced Gestalt therapy paternalistically. Clients have to grow up, stand on their own two feet, and “deal with their life problems themselves”. Perls’s style of doing therapy involved two personal agendas: moving the client from environmental support to self-support and reintegrating the disowned parts of one’s personality. His conception of human nature and these two agendas set the stage for a variety of techniques and for his confrontational style of conducting therapy. He was a master at intentionally frustrating clients to enhance their awareness. The Gestalt view of human nature is rooted in existential philosophy, phenomenology, and field theory. Genuine knowledge is the product of what is immediately evident in the experience of the perceiver. Therapy aims not at analysis or introspection but at awareness and contact with the environment. The environment consists of both the external and internal worlds. The quality of contact with aspects of the external world (for example, other people) and the internal world (for example, parts of the self that are disowned) are monitored. The process of “re-owning” parts of oneself that have been disowned and the unification process proceed step by step until clients become strong enough to carry on with their own personal growth. By becoming aware, clients become able to make informed choices and thus to live a more meaningful existence. A basic assumption of Gestalt therapy is that individuals have the capacity to self-regulate when they are aware of what is happening in and around them. Therapy provides the setting and opportunity for that awareness to be supported and restored. If the therapist is able to stay with the client’s present experience and trust in the process, the client will move toward increased awareness, contact, and integration.
The Gestalt theory of change posits that the more we work at becoming who or what we are not, the more we remain the same. Fritz’s good friend and psychiatrist colleague Arnie Beisser (1970) suggested that authentic change occurs more from being who we are than from trying to be who we are not. According to the paradoxical theory of change, we change when we become aware of what we are as opposed to trying to become what we are not. It is important for clients to “be” as fully as possible in their current condition, rather than striving to become what they “should be.” Gestalt therapists focus on creating the conditions that promote client growth rather than relying on therapist-directed change. According to Breshgold (1989), Beisser saw the role of the therapist as one of assisting the client to increase awareness, thereby facilitating re-identification with the part of the self from which he or she is alienated.
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Some Principles of Gestalt Therapy Theory
Several basic principles underlying the theory of Gestalt therapy are briefly described in this section: holism, field theory, the figure-formation process, and organismic self-regulation. Other key concepts of Gestalt therapy are developed in more detail in the sections that follow.
HOLISM Gestalt is a German word meaning a whole or completion, or a form that cannot be separated into parts without losing its essence. All of nature is seen as a unified and coherent whole, and the whole is different from the sum of its parts. Because Gestalt therapists are interested in the whole person, they place no superior value on a particular aspect of the individual. Gestalt practice attends to a client’s thoughts, feelings, behaviors, body, memories, and dreams. Emphasis may be on a figure (those aspects of the individual’s experience that are most salient at any moment) or the ground (those aspects of the client’s presentation that are often out of his or her awareness). Cues to this background can be found on the surface through physical gestures, tone of voice, demeanor, and other nonverbal content. This is often referred to by Gestalt therapists as “attending to the obvious,” while paying attention to how the parts fit together, how the individual makes contact with the environment, and integration.
FIELD THEORY Gestalt therapy is based on field theory, which is grounded on the principle that the organism must be seen in its environment, or in its context, as part of the constantly changing field. Gestalt therapy rests on the principle that everything is relational, in flux, interrelated, and in process. Gestalt therapists pay attention to and explore what is occurring at the boundary between the person and the environment. In fact, Parlett (2005) writes: “Field has become one of the most frequently used terms in current Gestalt literature. . . . The field is the entire situation of the therapist, the client, and all that goes on between them. The field is made and constantly remade”.
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THE FIGURE-FORMATION PROCESS Derived from the field of visual perception by a group of Gestalt psychologists, the figure-formation process describes how the individual organizes experience from moment to moment. In Gestalt therapy the field differentiates into a foreground (figure) and a background (ground).
The figure-formation process tracks how some aspect of the environmental field emerges from the background and becomes the focal point of the individual’s attention and interest. The dominant needs of an individual at a given moment influence this process.
ORGANISMIC SELF-REGULATION The figure-formation process is intertwined with the principle of organismic self-regulation, a process by which equilibrium is “disturbed” by the emergence of a need, a sensation, or an interest. Organisms will do their best to regulate themselves, given their own capabilities and the resources of their environment. Individuals can take actions and make contacts that will restore equilibrium or contribute to growth and change. What emerges in therapeutic work is associated with what is of interest to or what the client needs to be able to regain a sense of equilibrium. Gestalt therapists direct the client’s awareness to the figures that emerge from the background during a therapy session and use the figure-formation process as a guide for the focus of therapeutic work. The goal is to help the client to obtain closure of unfinished situations, destroy fixed gestalts, and incorporate more satisfying gestalts.
The Now One of the main contributions of the Gestalt approach is its emphasis on learning to appreciate and fully experience the present moment. Focusing on the past and the future can be a way to avoid coming to terms with the present. Polster and Polster (1973) developed the thesis that “power is in the present.” It is a common tendency for clients to invest their energies in bemoaning their past mistakes and ruminating about how life could and should have been different or engaging in endless resolutions and plans for the future. As clients direct their energy toward what was or what might have been or live in fantasy about the future, the power of the present diminishes. Phenomenological inquiry involves paying attention to what is occurring now. To help the client make contact with the present moment, Gestalt therapists ask “what” and “how” questions, but rarely ask “why” questions. To promote “now” awareness, the therapist encourages a dialogue in the present tense by asking questions like these: “What is happening now? What is going on now? What are you experiencing as you sit there and attempt to talk? What is your awareness at this moment? How are you experiencing your fear? How are you attempting to withdraw at this moment?” Most people can stay in the present for only a short time and are inclined to find ways of interrupting the flow of the present. Instead of experiencing their feelings in the here and now, clients often talk about their feelings, almost as if their feelings were detached from their present experiencing. One of the aims of Gestalt therapy is to help clients become aware of their present experience. For example, if Josephine begins to talk about sadness, pain, or confusion, the Gestalt therapist attempts to get her to experience her sadness, pain, or confusion now. As she attends to the present experience, the therapist gauges how much anxiety or discomfort is present and chooses further interventions accordingly. The therapist might choose to allow Josephine to flee from the present moment, only to extend another invitation several minutes later. If a feeling emerges, the therapist might suggest an experiment that would help Josephine to become more aware of the feeling, exploring where and how she experiences it, what it does for her, and possible options to change it if it is uncomfortable.
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(Gerald Corey (2009) Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotheraphy, Eighth Edition)
Make up a list of psychological terms. Translate them into Russian. Get ready for group work.
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