PSYC 406 - Theories of Counseling Flashcards

Process of interacting with nature and with other people without losing one's sense of individuality. Contact is made by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and moving.

In psychoanalysis dreams are interpreted, intellectual insights is stressed, and free association is used to explore the unconscious meaning of dreams. The Gestalt approach does NOT interpret and analyze dreams. Instead, the intent is bring dreams back to life and relive them as though they were happening NOW. The dream is acted out in the present, and the dreamer becomes a part of his or her dream.

One of Gestalt therapy is for clients to become more aware of the subtle signals and cues they are sending through body language. Movements, postures, and gestures many communicate significant meanings, yet cues man be incomplete. IE. Client is asked to exaggerate a movement or gesture repeatedly, which intensifies the feeling attached to the behaviour and makes the inner meaning more clear - ex. Trembling hands or legs, slouched posture, clench fists, tight frowning...etc.

Exercises are ready-made techniques that are sometimes used to make something happen in a therapy session or to achieve a goal. They can be catalysts for individual work or for promoting interaction among members of a therapy group. Experiments – in contrast, grows out of the interaction between client and therapist (ex. Corey coming in late for an appt with Ruth, showing her that he also is human and can late and do not have control over everything in life – men are also wrong). Experiments can be considered the very cornerstone of experiential learning. Experiments are spontaneous, one of a kind, and relevant to a particular moment and a particular development of a figure-formation process. They are not designed to achieve a particular goal but occur in the context of a moment-to-moment contacting process between therapist and client.

Paying attention to and exploring what is occurring at the boundary between the person and the environment.

Attending to a client’s thoughs, feelings, behaviours, body, and dreams.

the I/Thou relationship and the quality of the therapist’s presence is more powerful in a session than using technical skills. The therapist’s attitudes and behaviour and the relationship that is established are what really counts. Dialogue explores the roles of therapeutic relationship as a factor in healing and the extent to which the client-therapist relationship is focus on therapy. ** Therapist to operate from this orientation establish a present-centered, nonjudgmental dialogue that allows clients to deepen their awareness and to find contact with another person.

One of Gestalt therapy is to bring about integrated functioning and acceptance of aspects of one’s personality that have been disowned and denied. Gestalt therapist pays attention to the split in personality function: Top dog – is righteous, authoritarian, moralistic, demanding, bossy and manipulative. This is the critical parent that badgers with “should” and “oughts” and manipulates with threats of catastrophe. Underdog: Manipulates by playing the role of victim, by being defensive, apologetic, helpless and weak and powerless. This is the passive side, one without responsibility and the one that finds excuses. The top dog and the underdog are constantly engaged in struggle for control. The conflict between the two opposing sides in personality is rooted in the mechanism of introjection which involves incorporating aspects of others, usually parents, into one’s ego system. ** Important that the client is aware of their introjects.

Empty chair technique is one way of getting the client to externalize the introject (trying NOT to assimilate the other’s beliefs and standards into one’s personality). Using 2 chairs, therapist asks the client to sit in one chair and be fully the top dog and then shift to the other chair and become the underdog,.. dialogue is continued between the two sides. Essentially, the is a role-playing technique in which all the parts are played by the client. In this way the introjects can surface, and the client can experience the conflict more fully. (211)

Layers of neurosis were famously covered in Shrek (to use a modern media reference) but were discussed prior to Gestalt theory. It really means that issues are interwoven. You may not have a simple fear of snakes but rather a need to be protected, easily triggered startle response, and a learned fear of snakes bundled into reactivity overall. Trying to simplify issues and deal only with the symptoms is like putting a bandage on a major wound...it does little for healing the real issue. Unpeeling the layers makes for greater understanding and potential resolution -- seeing the gestalt of the issue rather than the individual bits.

(which can also happen to the therapist) is when the client does not want contact with their own inner self and feelings, etc.

clients take the plunge into the very thing that is fraught with anxiety and make contact with those parts of themselves that have been submerged and denied. This technique can help clients begin to accept personal attributes that they have tried to deny (ie. Girl surgary sweet tries to be negative)

most of us avoid unpleasant feelings. At key moments when clients refer to a feeling or mood to avoid an unpleasant and from which they have a great urge to flee, the therapist may urge the clients to stay with their feelings (ie. Ruth talking about how she was caught by dad playing doctor. ) The therapist may encourage them to go deeper into the feeling or behavior they wish to avoid. Facing, confronting, and experiencing feelings not only takes courage but also is a mark of a willingness to endure the pain necessary for unblocking and making way for new levels of growth.

- Polster and Polster (1973) develp the thesis that “power is in the present”. Many people invest their energies in bemoaning their past mistakes and ruminating about how life could and show have been different, or they engage in endless resolutions and plans for the future. As they put time and energy into the what might have been, the power of present diminishes. As a result, Gestalt therapist help client make contact to the present moment by asking “what” and “how questions” but rarely asks “why” questions. This will promote the now awareness. (p195)

Unexpressed feelings (such as resentment, guilt, anger, grief) dating back to childhood that now interfere with effective psychological functioning; needless emotional debris that clutters present-centered awareness.