An Introduction to Gestalt: Sills, Lapworth and Desmond
Contents
Chapter 1 A Brief History of Gestalt
Goodman believed Gestalt was for the good of the community
as well as the individual. Central concept to Gestalt is wholeness. Gestalt
means organised whole. The whole is more than the sum of the parts, and Gestalt
is predominantly interested in the whole.
Psychoanalytic effect on Gestalt
1.
childhood
affects adulthood
2.
Pathological behaviour can be made sense of by
information that is out of awareness but can be brought into awareness
3.
Humans have an innate drive to equilibrium
4.
Humans have innate drives
Interpersonal effects on Gestalt
1.
Human problems are manifested physically
Gestalt psychology
1.
We perceive in wholes, according to our
perceived need
2.
Zeigarnick effect, i.e. unfinished business. We
naturally fill in the gaps of unfinished business and also have an urge to
finish them
Existential effect
1.
Perls: we are both connected to people and alone
2.
Phenomenology, onmly present experience is the
only truth we can know
Focussing on our immediate pressing need, can result in not
seeing in the ground a better way to satisfy it.
Hungry man sees sandwich forgets his wife said I’ve made
supper for you and its in the fridge.
Response-ability is the fact that responsibility gives you
the ability to respond in the way that you choose, and you can do so
authentically or not.
The paradox of interconnectedness and aloneness developed 2
different streams of Gestalt.
Field theory=nothing can be understood apart from its
context.
Aggression as a healthy drive to reach out and take from the
world
Moreno is the originator of psychodrama
The split in the path between connectedness and aloneness
saw Perl’s doing his circuses to full lecture halls
I think the first branch is Fritz who emphasized individual
experience and agency
Laura Perl’s saw Gestalt as a phenomenological approach
emphasising co-creation: this is relational Gestalt therapy.
Chapter 2 An overview of Gestalt principles and recent developments
Gestalt Principles, in priority order
1.
Relationship in Gestalt practice
2.
Awareness
3.
Whole making: the formation and completion of
gestalts
4.
Embodied Self
5.
Interconnectedness and the field
Relationship in Gestalt Practice
We are intrinsically nothing, rather we are what we are at
the current moment and this can change. Therefore adopt an attitude of curiosity
rather than judgement.
Awareness
Often we go through on autopilot with learned patterns. If these patterns cause problems then we need
to move to a greater awareness of how things are for us, thoughts, emotions,
behaviours etc. Thus we need to become
aware of our autopilot, and what it deals with, so that we can choose to do things
differently,.
As we become aware, then we can choose and thus we become
responsible. As we become responsible then we have greater agency and
possibility.
The self in Gestalt is taken as the ongoing process being
influenced and influencing by the world.
Whole Making
To complete unfinished business then the unfinished business
needs to be re-experienced in the here and now and completed.
People are whole, the outcome of the variety of their
systems.
People have a natural tendency to want to finish the incomplete. Unfinished business takes energy to support
it, as there is energy in the desire to complete.
The incomplete can be
1.
Finished
2.
Acknowledged that it can never be finished
Embodied Self
Lose your mind and come to your senses. We have taken the
mind\body split and become all mind, but doing this loses the source of our
personal wisdom about me. The idea here
is that the body holds wisdom, and that not all wisdom is achieved cognitively,
so this opens the door to creative responses, to treating the symptoms of the
body, as meaningful events.
Interconnectedness and the field
Experience is always through relationships between parts of
our experience. Our contact with our environment.
There is the belief that people self regulate, so that if
you have dissonance, then resolution is the natural tendency, so dialectics always
moves to synthesis. Self regulation always refers to sweating when hot, letting
off steam when angry
Recent trends in Gestalt
First Wave
Perl’s’ Gestalt was confrontational, putting you in the hot seat,
challenging you to be authentic, and individual.
Second Wave
This puts relationship at the heart of Gestalt and used much
from self psychology and person centred. Proponents are McEwan . There is
within this wave much on field relations .
Chapter 3 The Relationship in Gestalt Practice
Probably the most important thing a practitioner can offer
is the accepting of the client as they are.
Gestalt doesn’t seek to change people as it sees an attitude
to health Ge as a natural attribute of humans. Gestalt believes that by being
fully aware of what you are experiencing and how you are acting, this can make
you responsible and therefore have agency and the possibility to change.
The self is a process and a product of relation within an
environment between influencing and being influenced.
Gordon Wheeler maintains we have different selves that
relate to different contexts, and that there is no unifying self. Again the self emerges out of relationship
The self therefore is dynamic and emerges within
relationship, but some parts are more static than others, which will see commonality
in the way that I can behaved.
Healthy and Unhealthy relational contact
Health People are:
1.
Positive
2.
Adaptable
3.
Have satisfying activities and relationships
4.
Proactive and creative, not passive
5.
Interdependent relationships
6.
Seeking out new experiences
7.
Be aware of all of our experience and owning it,
rather than projecting it.
8.
Emotionally aware and supportive
9.
Act according to current experience rather than habit
10.
Acting in the present rather than with attention
in the past or the future.
Creative indifference is the mid pint between polarities
that allows us to act either way. If you spend too much time focussed on the
past and the future, then the present may be a misty area, with no clear
figures.
A baby has the
healthy attributes that we seek
Dialogue
Buber has it that in an authentic encounter both parties are
changed. An I thou relationship is that the person is seen as a person, both individual
and connected.
I It, is a subject object relation, I thou a subject,
subject.,
I It: we control and manipulate, we use for our own ends. Alternatively
it may control or manipulate us.
I thou is relating to the subject as you find them now, with
no preconceptions of how they might be.
I thou relates to the whole subject and not just parts of them.
Transference is an I it relation
Your relationships with others dictate how you relate to
yourself.
I-it is necessary for living, I thou is necessary for a
fulfilled life.
Dialogic process moves between the two modes, I it and I
thou.
The therapist should develop the clients here and now
experience, in some way their I thou relationship to themselves, which can be
practiced with their relation to others. A Therapist will often respond with I it to
the client.
Different Relational Interactions required for effective
relationships
Being curious, being open to influence and being influenced
seems the attitudes of I thou.
Chapter 4 Awareness
Some say awareness is the goal of gestalt. Awareness is the
full recognition of our experience, of what we are feeling, thinking and doing
in the present moment, and what is happening around us.
Awareness is noticing without judgement. Awareness is not introspection
which is a deliberate turning attention inwards in a controlling manner.
Awareness is engagement with the newness of each strange new
moment.
Awareness means getting in touch with the things that we
have lost, through not using our senses or repression.
Repressing our responses, dulls our spontaneity and our
vitality to react in the way that most enlivens us.
If we become aware of in the present I am remembering, I am imagining,
it can make the past and the future seem less real, less present, less
active. If you constantly ruminate, its
like you are currently reliving this event, likewise the impact of imagination
is that you are currently experiencing even though it has never happened.
4 areas of awareness
1.
The inner zone: the body: Becoming aware of
bodily sensations supports the emergence of expression and action, rather that
doing what we think we should. Authenticity lives int eh body
2.
The outer zone: the five senses, the contact
functions
3.
The middle zone: cognitive: thoughts, fantasies,
memories and imaginations. Perl’s believed the source of many problems was
living in the middle zone
4.
Co-creating zone: this zone emerges in the
betweenness of people in contact. As difference comes together so you get
synthesis. Both are transformed by this
meeting.
Heightening our awareness in these four zones supports us
experiencing the fullness and beauty of life.
Many of our strong feelings when experienced here and now
are noisy and wet, we shout, cry, scream or laugh. We express them naturally
and they are gone. IN bereavement the
feelings come again and again in waves. Sometimes we get into a feeling habit,
where we repeatedly repress a an emotion, or respond in a fixed way that diminishes
the freshness of the feeling.
Curiosity is seen as an innate drive, and emotionally seems
similar to excitement
Feelings like thoughts can be habituated. These can be the
result of once in a specific context they were useful, but are they still.
Chapter 5 Embodiment
When embodying experiences then our bodies are alive and vibrant in the
present moment. This means being aware of both our inner and outer bodily
expressions moment by moment.
Our society teaches us to be intellect only, intellect
identifying, we distance ourselves from our bodies and our relationships.
Indeed we talk about my body, as if it is distant from us, be we don’t talk
about my thinking. I identify my body as
the area where things happen to me, rather than me that is happening.
If we left our bodies out of experience, it would dull the
experience, and it wouldn’t not be meaningful.
Experience combines all zones, and the body, the inner zone
is part of the meaningfulness of a moment, of an experience.
The aim within gestalt is to rediscover ourselves in our
bodies, to be our body not merely to use it.
Integrating the body
Sometimes unfinished business is left in somatic experience
Be careful around shame felt in the body which may have been
objectified.
Internal somatic experiences
Sensations and feelings, how the body feels, what affect is
present
Outer Bodily Gestures and posture
We speak with gestures, and there is a reciprocal language
between both people in a conversation. Sometimes these physical manifestations
are replaying unfinished business.
If you have a good WA and the client has good support, you
may trying on their body posture.
Body in Movement
Movement of the body is required to change our experience.
Extending the repertoire of bodily movement can facilitate new action.
When you’re working on a problem with a client, and their
body moves in a certain way, get them to accentuate it, and get them to tell
you what its like for them, to see if this informs their narrative. Some ways a client may move their body have
been learnt early in life and prevent them from acting in certain ways.
Sometimes clients are invited to express how they are in the
present, what they wish for in the future, in their bodies, in movement.
Again , you can use your body as a sounding board. So to
choose between two options, then place them in different parts of the room, and
then walk into them, and report back as to what your body experienced.
Embodied Whole Includes our Cultural Context
We are born into a society, as bodies related to other
bodies. There is a culture of what our bodies can be used to mean, i.e. gestures,
what our different body parts mean, what is acceptable in how we touch
ourselves and others. This varies
depending on sex, class, society and
situation.
Eros: currently this is seen to be just sexual but is part
of a loving, caring and desiring engagement.
When we are with a friend we are attracted to there is an energy, a
liveliness, we may feel it in our genitals but it doesn’t need to be reduced to
a sexualised feeling. You need
boundaries between intimacy, affection
and sexual desire, and not to allow all to reduce to sexual desire, or fear of
sexual desire.
Chapter 6 Wholeness and the formation and completion of Gestalts
Gestalt is an organised whole, the whole preceding the
parts.
Working with clients, understand their problem within their
lives, how it is engaged with , how it developed, how it is in relation to
their relations, history and current situation.
How do they make gestalts of the world, of themselves.
To create meaning you
need figure and ground. The ground adumbrates the figure, no ground no figure. It is our need that dictates what will become
figure, as its where we put our attention. The ground is mostly out of our
awareness.
As a figure forms, say a post box to post a letter, there
are many chains of connection that enable this figure, such as knowing the
colour of post-boxes, where to get a stamp etc.
Healthy living is the ability to create clear and vibrant
figures that meet our needs and then to re-assimilate them into the ground to
enable us to meet our future needs.
Completion
Not only do we have a need to see in wholes but we have a
natural tendency to want to complete.
This can be in terms of behaviour, i.e. perceptually, behaviourally, or cognitively, or
emotionally. All of these can produce unfinished business.
Cycles
There are many cycles in life, day night, seasons,
digestion, starting, middles and endings of tasks, jobs, relationships.
Healthy cycle is
1.
Noticing sensation
2.
Forming a figure
3.
Taking action
4.
Completing
5.
Contact
6.
Assimilation and completion
7.
Withdrawal of energy
Stage One Sensation
Stimulus comes internally or externally, something prompts
our awareness, something moves across our field of vision. At this stage of the
sensation, there isn’t clarity about what it is, but there is a something that
has just happened, or is just happening. So this could be a general sensation
that something isn’t right, but then you still need to locate and identify the
sensation
Stage Two Recognition
The sensation emerges as more of the figure and ground are
formed. The individual locates, recognises the sensation, maybe even names it.
Stage Three Appraisal and Planning (Mobilising Energy)
Having given the figure full attention, then planning starts, a decision is taken and
energy is directed into this.
Stage 4 Action
Now the person makes movement towards achieving their goal,
this could mean some trial and error experiments, or maybe straight into
action.
Stage 5 Contact
Here there is full engagement with what has been chosen to
do, where everything else recedes into the background as action meets need.
HERE There is a clear and distinct figure, where all of me is engaged within
the action, which satisfies my need.
Stage 6 Assimilation and completion
If the need has been met with full contact, then the person
feels a sense of completion and satisfaction. Even if the action was a painful
one, such as crying, then there is still some felt sense of relief. If the original sensation still remains then
a reappraisal needs to take place, so that a new plan can be formed.
Stage 7: Withdrawal of Energy
The individual loses attention in this figure which now
becomes background and it gradually loses its interest
The space between
Known as the fertile\creative void, between one gestalt and
the next. Here we may experience directionlessness, and if we stay in the here
and now, then when remain open to new opportunities. The creative void can also be experienced as
a futile void, where it feels empty, meaningless and a person can lapse into
despair. If you rush too quickly to fill this void, then you miss emerging
figures.
Disturbances in the cycle
There are many sensations that could call forth gestalts to
be completed, but we bring them to a premature end so that we can focus on that
which we value. So we don’t complete gestalts on the basis of choice.
Sometimes the cycle of awareness is interrupted prematurely,
which leads to us not making full contact and gaining satisfaction. The
disturbance of gestalt completion is known as a creative adjustment at the time
to enable you to manage a difficult situation.
Creative adjustments then get made habitual and function as
interruptions to the cycle of experience.
Cycle of experience=cycle of awareness.
Modifications to Contact
Contact is the full meeting with another, or desires to our
satisfaction, where we do not merge
There are 7 ways to interrupt contact
1.
Desensitisation
2.
Deflection
3.
Introjection
4.
Projection
5.
Retroflection
6.
Egotism
7.
Confluence
Desensitisation
This is the process where someone numbs themselves to
experience their senses and the world. So it means dulling of the senses to
external or internal event. This can range from not being
physically\emotionally aware, through to full catatonia.
You can also be over sensitized which will lead to
avoidance.
Both of these states can be achieved by drugs and alcohol.
Mainly desensitisation happens at the sensation part of the
cycle, although it can happen at others so in the completion and withdrawal
phase, if you’re desensitised to hear
praise then you wont complete correctly.
Sometimes desensitisation can be really useful, when your
knee is hurt and your playing tennis.
You can tell what you are desensitised to by when all of a sudden you
realise you are very….stressed, tired etc.
For over-sensitisation, do you notice yourself feeling
overwhelmed and overstimulated by the world, you may want to try slowing down
and deciding what you want before facing the world
Deflection
Deflection is where we divert energy from its natural path
to an alternative one. It prevents the energy from making an impact happen on
us and can happen at any part of the cycle of experience. Deflection often
happens at the sensation point, when we seek to not be aware or a sensation by
turning elsewhere, or acting elsewhere.
Introjection
This is the process of swallowing whole some message. So
this can be something swallowed whole in the past without question and operates
now in the present. Most introjects
happen when we are young vulnerable and impressionable. In adult life we are generally
more discerning. Advertisers depend on introjection to sell their products,
which we have to accept without question. The key questions to introjects is
are they true, are they useful.
Introjects are often noticed at the mobilisation phase,
where there is planning. There can also
be sensation interjections, e.g. don’t get angry. As we learn we may introject the modeller,
then refine as we get more confident with the rule
A good anti introjection stance is to chew before swallowing
Projection
This is disowning one part of yourself and placing it on
something or someone outside you.
Projection has a double hit in terms of contact, I don’t
fully meet another person as there is a part of me I’m not brining, I don’t
fully meet them as I’m putting part of me on them, so don’t see them as to how
they are. Projection can often happen
due to a previous injunction, e.g. don’t be angry.
Projection is a mixture of retroflection and projection
which is. This is doing to others
something that you want to do to yourself, so if you have an injunction don’t
ask for help, then you make someone else a cup of tea when you want one
yourself. To re-own your projection then
ask yourself as you judge others, in what way am I like that too. If you offer
a colleague something ask yourself do you want that?
Retroflection
Retroflection is a process where energy that is naturally
directed outwards is directed inwards. Retroflection’s
are experienced in our bodies, where we might bite our lip when we are angry at
someone. Retroflecting enables society to exist, so that we stop ourselves jumping
to the front of the queue, and we make this ok, by feeling anger internally at
how slow it is moving. Retroflection is
often seen at the action stage and the user is both actor and recipient.
There are two types of retroflection
1.
I use my energy to do what I want to do to you,
to me. I stroke myself instead of you
2.
They do
to themselves something that relates to what they want from the environment, so
I smoke, where I want comfort from the world
Retroflection is important for society, if every time you
got angry you punched someone, you wouldn’t do very well To work with retroflection’s, then first of all
you need to stop them, so do an incompatible behaviour, then see what need that
leaves.
Egotism
Egotism in this context means self-monitoring or
spectatoring. This prevents true
involvement in any situation., This can
be useful as you learn something, but after that if prevents you doing it. Eogtism can happen at any stage of the cycle
but is often seen at the completion stage. So instead of enjoying completion, a
person stands outside themselves and judges themselves. ~Thus instead of being aware of the inner
feeling of completion, and the satisfaction from it, people step back to
evaluate and judge their performance.
Egotism can take the form of pride and admiration or self
criticism and denigration. Self
–analysis can lead to introspection which can lead to a flow of the cycle of
experience, as it can take away the sense of awareness of completion and
satisfaction
Confluence
This is merging with another or your environment so the
sense of separateness is gone. This prevents individualisation and
differentiation.
Unhealthy confluence prevents you from experiencing your own
experiences. Healthy confluence shares a shared experience. Confluence as a problem can be seen at the
point of completion prior to the creative void.
The individual may fear being alone as they understand the world as part
of a we relationship and how to experience by yourself. They might find it hard to choose, hard to
say no, hard to take decisions as they are only effective in a confluent
relationship.
Confluence , can also appear at other points in the cycle,
so at mobilising people may get wedded to an idea and have difficulty in
letting it go, i.e. once I find you we’re together forever no matter what. Confluence is particularly relevant to groups
and teams and precludes creativity. To
keep confluence then you need to maintain the status quo, there can be no
creativity, nothing surprising, or spontaneous to disturb the fixed
relationship. This ends up safe but
boring, confluent.
Confluence can be healthy, in intense moments between people
that are then withdrawn from
Resnick looks at the
isolation=>separation=>Contact=>Intimacy=>Confluence continuum
And argues that we need time at each place for a healthy
relationship.
Modifications to Contact: Moving between the poles
Each interruption to contact has its opposite
|
Desensitisation
|
Sensitivity
|
Acutely sensitive
|
|
Deflection
|
Reception
|
Attraction
|
|
Introjection
|
Chewing/Considering
|
Rejection
|
|
Projection
|
Co-Owning
|
Ownership
|
|
Retroflection
|
Energy Outwards
|
Impulsiveness
|
|
Egotism
|
Expressing
|
Spontaneity
|
|
Confluence
|
Withdrawing
|
Isolation
|
The idea being that if the figure is one of these, the rest
of them is ground. It seems helpful to be aware of the full range of
possibility.
Unfinished Business
Interruptions to the cycle are unfinished business. Our awareness in the present will be affected
by incomplete gestalts. It is easier to
delay\postpone unpleasant gestalts. We
have gestalts that we consciously put to one side until later, i.e. completing
my course. However putting things to one
side can cost energy, in not being aware of it, of putting it to one side, of
avoiding thinking about it. Delaying the completion of a task, preventing the
full expression of a feeling, or preventing the development of an idea all take
energy. This is similar to the
psychoanalytic idea of repetition. When needs are not met in childhood, we feel
the need to repeatedly meet them in adult hood.
If someone doesn’t know what’s important to them, get them
to focus on their body, and see what the needs are there, maybe they are blocking something off.
Fixed Gestalts
Many incomplete gestalts originate in childhood. Premature closure is the term to describe the
premature completion of a cycle, so there is an interruption to the cycle and
it is closed down, without finishing. A
fixed gestalt would be for example the result of an introject of big boys don’t
cry, so if you feel sad, then feel angry.
Much of the work in Gestalt involves identifying and undoing
fixed gestalts. WS
Chapter 7 Interconnectedness and the field
Context gives meaning. So if you look at one part of a
persons behaviour you will get one meaning, as you incorporate that in all of
their current behaviour, given the experiences they have had, the culture that
they grew up in then you will get other meanings
Kurt Lewin is the originator of field theory
There are new complexity theories where we are both being
affected and creating new patterns which affect us and others.
The thing is that the context is always changing according
to need, and to changes within the field, therefore there can never be total
meaning, total understanding.
Five principles of field theory
1.
The principle of organisation
2.
The principle of contemporaneity
3.
The Principle of singularity
4.
The principle of changing process
5.
The principle of possible relevance
The principle of organisation
We derive meaning from perceiving the whole situation. Meaning changes depending on context, e.g. 2
legged chair. Therefore don’t jump to conclusions
The principle of contemporaneity
All of the field is happening simultaneously now. Emotions
are an outcome of how you are currently So if a client is thinking about the
past and feeling sad, then we need to know how this is created and experienced
in the present.
The Principle of singularity
Everyone is unique. Gestalt doesn’t treat diagnosis, e.g.
depression, anxiety, but how someone is experiencing these descriptions in
their own way.
The principle of changing process
Nothing is static. A pathology is a creative
adjustment. There are no people
characteristics, rather a person is behaving a certain way at this time Perl’s thinks the self creates itself moment
by moment at the contact boundary.,
People exist within sex, class, family, society,
relationship, friend network, country, planet, Context is given through all of
these.,
Field work:
1.
Field sensitive
a.
Let meaning emerge don’t push
2.
Field insightful
a.
Seeing relations in the field, patterns and
parts of the field that haven’t been explored
3.
Field affecting
a.
Asking questions that enlarge the field, and
affect the figure
4.
Field present
a.
Seeing ourselves as part of the field
The principle of possible relevance
Everything in the field has possible meaning. Everything is
part of the total organisation. We cannot ignore the relevance of any aspect of
the field to meaning. A gestaltist at an
art exhibition would be aware of picture, frame, art exhibition etc.
Chapter 8 Assessment and the change process
Think of assessing to produce a structure to help understand
a person as they are at the current time, as opposed to saying something
permanent about them, which would limit our ability to understand them
holistically and phenomenologically as you would be reifying them and
closing down interpretation.
Taking this approach you should always use verbs to describe
your client, so obsessing rather than obsessed, one is a transient action, the
other a state of varying degree of permanence., So active verbs rather than
nouns helps this description.
Phenomenological assessment
Observable contact functions
1.
Movement and posture
2.
Voice
3.
Seeing: eye contact
4.
Hearing do they hear correctly
Contact boundary
1.
How well does the client make contact with you
2.
What sort of contact
3.
Do you feel an immediate response from them or
are the distant or distracted
4.
How and when does she modify contact
Cycles of experience
1.
Is the client aware of his sensations, does he
mobiles his resources, make a plan and take action, does he complete his action
and satisfactorily withdraw
2.
What modifications to the cycle do you notice
3.
What unfinished business or fixed gestalts do
you notice
4.
What patterns emerge from the clients relationships
Self and environmental support
1.
What is the clients breathing like, is it deep
where it expects the environment to nourish it
2.
Are they able to soothe and regulate, is the
chair used as a relaxing support
3.
Are they overly dependent on feedback or do they
refuse it
4.
Do they have a supportive network of friends
The field
1.
What life circumstances are impinging on the
client at the moment
2.
What are the cultural, social and organisational
implications of their context
3.
What feelings and images do you have in response
to the client
4.
Do you like them
5.
What do you notice in your body, try to allow
your observations to be tentative.
Suitability for Gestalt
Gestalt can increase the amount of contact, with the world,
the amount that I take to contact the world, the amount of the world I can
contact, it can be a solvent to weaken old habits, so it is useful for people
who want invigorating, but not for people whose experience of the world is too
much and cant make sense of their experience and need glue not solvent.
Gestalt not really suitable for Axis 2 or secondary care,
certainly no psychotic work.
Don’t work with a client if you feel frightened of them as a
result of your unfinished business
Planning the work p92
Agree the focus of your work with you client. The gestalt goal would be for them to meet
with you fully and explore whatever emerges and to achieve mutuality of
contact. There is the aim on one hand to
have an I Thou meeting but then on another to focus in on what the client
contributes to their problems and therefore have an I It relationship. In some
ways in therapy there is an aim to meet and within that meeting to focus on the
problems that are presented. Problems can sometimes detract from meeting.
The Map
We should not confuse the map with the territory. Sometimes
maps are best filled in when you explore. So with a treatment plan, use it as a
guide, but do not let it stop you exploring the territory
Three stages of Gestalt:
First Phase
Second Phase
Final Phase
First Phase
Building a relationship, make a contract. The clients task
is to find out who am I , how am I in the world. Normally this stage is not associated with
change, unless there is an immediate crisis or problem to be solved. It is also concerned with developing health
process and enough self support to go on a deeper exploration and the possible
challenging of old ways of being. What
comes out is themes of thinking, feeling and behaving. Also the disowned parts of the person, may be
recognised, struggled with and integrated.
If the client projects danger this stage may take a long time, as he may
not trust the counsellor. If the client is blocked at the sensation awareness
stage then the process of heightening awareness will be slow.
Second Phase
The task here is to explore the themes that have emerged in
the first stage in more depth. Sometimes this may involve finishing unfinished
business. Gestalt aims to make figures
in the present lively to aim for satisfaction, however unfinished figures from
the past still affect the present.
Clients may discover and challenge core beliefs, and try new
behaviours. Feelings are used as the
compass to orient us to where we want to or don’t want to go.
Final Phase
This phase involves the integration and practising of new
ways of being and behaving. You should
see more dialogic relationship between client and therapist. Issues of ending need to be addressed. Review
of the journey so satisfaction can take place is needed as well. Problems with
ending can be clinging onto contact, or not wanting it, so rushing to the next
things.
The method of travel
This is the method chosen to approach each problem.
The first band is the phenomenological approach, which
enables full contact of a dialogic relationship.
The second band are the use of specific interventions
designed to assist the client in achieving better understanding and awareness
of themselves. These are known as experiments as the aim is to find out and not
to change. Experiments pay specific
attention to interruptions in the cycle of awareness, of fixed gestalts,
unsatisfying completions. The therapist also will notice how the presenting
problem is related to the problems with the cycle of awareness to design the
experiment accordingly.
Exercises
Awareness of the Inner Zone
The physical
Notice your body which parts are relaxed or tense and what
the movement in your body is. Then lie down, start a breathing meditation, then
do progressive muscle relaxation, and notice the sensation in your body
Feelings and Emotions
Remember the whole experience (all senses, all zones) of
1.
happy
2.
angry
3.
Sad
4.
Fearful
5.
Anxious
Awareness of the Middle zone
Close your eyes, Pay attention to your thoughts, notice how
many are about past, or future rather than the present.
Awareness of the Outer zone
Seeing
Really look with attention and just that, with curiosity,
see what you see
Sounds
Really listen see what you hear
Touching
Really touch around you
Taste
Get some food and allow yourself to taste it slowly
Smell
Try different smells, lick the back of your hand then smell
Talking
Experiment with 7 different ways to say the same thing
Moving
Imagine you have a client in front of you, and notice all
the different ways of conveying a message using all of your different sense.
Practice with a partner
Take it in turns and go through an I am aware that about
what you see, then focus on what your partner is saying. Explore each others
hands by touch and be aware as giver and received
Awareness of the Co-Creating Zone
Have a conversation between you about something that is
unfinished and that one of you cares about.
As you converse notice what is happening in the three zone. Notice your familiar responses and any unique
ones. After 15 minutes debrief then
repeat and see for the next 10 minutes if anything else emerges.
Practise combining the zones
Say now that I’m aware of, and follow your attention without
criticism. Note where your favourite
zone is. Note your favourite sense. Also notice if you are avoiding something
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