Key Concepts Of Gestalt Therapy
“Gestalt Therapy” is a phenomenological-existential therapy founded by Frederick (Fritz) and Laura Perls in the 1940s. It teaches therapists and patients the phenomenological method of awareness, in which perceiving, feeling, and acting are distinguished from interpreting and reshuffling pre-existing attitudes. Explanations and interpretations are considered less reliable than what is directly perceived and felt. Patients and therapists in Gestalt therapy dialogue, that is, communicate their phenomenological perspectives. Differences in perspectives become the focus of experimentation and continued dialogue. The goal is for clients to become aware of what they are doing, how they are doing it, and how they can change themselves, and at the
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The emphasis is on what is being done, thought and felt at the moment rather than on what was, should be, might be and/or could be.
Key Concepts of gestalt therapy:
• Person-centred awareness - Focusing on the future, and imagining it divorced from the present and past is considered essential. The process follows an individual's experience in a way that does not involve seeking out the unconscious, but staying with what is present and …show more content…
A therapist encourages the client to 'experience' in all of these ways, vividly in the here and now
• Creative experiment and discovery - There is a range of experimental methodology used by therapists to test their client's experience. These involve highly creative and flexible techniques to help them open up and acknowledge hidden feelings.
• Social responsibility - The gestalt approach recognises that humans have a social responsibility for self and for others. It demands respect for all people and acknowledges that everyone is different. Ultimately it encourages individuals to adopt an egalitarian approach to social life.
• Relationship - Relating is considered central to human experience and gestalt therapy considers individuals as 'whole' when they have a good relationship with themselves and others around them. The interpersonal relationship between the individual and therapist that is developed and nurtured in sessions is a key guiding process if
The emphasis is on what is being done, thought and felt at the moment rather than on what was, should be, might be and/or could be.
Key Concepts of gestalt therapy:
• Person-centred awareness - Focusing on the future, and imagining it divorced from the present and past is considered essential. The process follows an individual's experience in a way that does not involve seeking out the unconscious, but staying with what is present and …show more content…
A therapist encourages the client to 'experience' in all of these ways, vividly in the here and now
• Creative experiment and discovery - There is a range of experimental methodology used by therapists to test their client's experience. These involve highly creative and flexible techniques to help them open up and acknowledge hidden feelings.
• Social responsibility - The gestalt approach recognises that humans have a social responsibility for self and for others. It demands respect for all people and acknowledges that everyone is different. Ultimately it encourages individuals to adopt an egalitarian approach to social life.
• Relationship - Relating is considered central to human experience and gestalt therapy considers individuals as 'whole' when they have a good relationship with themselves and others around them. The interpersonal relationship between the individual and therapist that is developed and nurtured in sessions is a key guiding process if