Gestalt Therapy Theory with Dr. Faisal Mahmood
Gestalt Therapy Theory
Dr Faisal Mahmood
Faisal Mahmood
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Aims
•
To explore the basic concepts of Gestalt
therapy theory.
•
To reflect on ‘theory’ in relation to ourselves.
•
To introduce the key concepts of Gestalt
therapy theory: Phenomenology, Field theory
and Dialogical relationship
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Plan
Day 1
•
10:00 – 10:30 – Check in
•
10:30 – 11:30 – Introduction to GTT
•
11:30 – 11:45 – Break
•
11:45 – 13:00 – Phenomenology
•
13:00 – 14:00 – Lunch
•
14:00 – 15:30 – Field Theory
•
15:30 – 15:45 – Break
•
15:45 – 17:00 – Experiential Group Work
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Plan
Day 2
•
10:00 – 10:30 – Check in
•
10:30 – 11:30 – Dialogical Relationship
•
11:30 – 11:45 – Break
•
11:45 – 13:00 – Contact + Modification
•
13:00 – 14:00 – Lunch
•
14:00 – 15:30 – Experimentation
•
15:30 – 15:45 – Break
•
15:45 – 17:00 – Experiential Group Work + Ending
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About me
•
Individual and Group Psychotherapist
•
UKCP Approved Supervisor
•
UKCP and BACP Accredited Therapist
•
Head of Subject - Counselling & Psychotherapy
– Newman University, Birmingham
•
Modality – Gestalt and Integrative
•
Trainer
•
Researcher
5
Faisal Mahmood
Gestalt Approach
Key contributors – Fritz Perls and Laura Perls
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•
Psychoanalysis
•
Gestalt psychology
•
Field theory
•
Phenomenology
•
Existential philosophy
•
Psychodrama
•
Eastern spiritual traditions
Historical Roots
8
Gestalt……
German word
Gestalt
is not easily translated
into a single English term.
It embraces such a wide variety of concepts:
the shape, the pattern, the whole form, the
configuration.
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Gestalt therapy
is a
holistic
,
process-oriented
,
dialogical
,
phenomenological
,
existential
, and
field theoretical
approach to human change
with the centrality of
contact
,
awareness
, and
personal responsiveness
and
responsibility
.
The person is never reduced to parts and
structural entities but viewed as an integrated
whole with innate potential of growth and
mature self-expression (Yontef, 1993).
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Gestalt Approach – Robert Resnick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lggz_4oi8r0
•
From – 6.40
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The aim of GTT is to raise
AWARENESS
The
three
pillars of Gestalt (Yontef, 1993)
Phenomenology
Field Theory
Dialogue
12
Gestalt Approach
3 Pillars
Field theory
: the person’s experience is explored in the context
of their situation/field.
Phenomenology
: the search for understanding through what is
obvious and/or revealed, rather than through what is interpreted
by the observer.
Dialogic Relating
: a specific form of contacting (not just talking)
that is concerned with the between of the relationship and what
emerges in that between.
`1
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The Whole is More Than the Sum of Its
Parts
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The Whole is More Than the Sum of Its
Parts
•
A family is made up of separate members,
each with individual psychology.
•
One could analyse each of them without
seeing the others
•
But the way in which the family operates as a
systemic whole is uniquely more than, and
different from, the sum total of the individual
psychologies of the family members.
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Key Concepts in Gestalt Therapy
•
Self as process
– as a verb not a noun.
•
‘
Selfing
’ - takes place in the between of relationship, with self-
experienced through contact taking place at the contact
boundaries
•
Figure and ground
- figures are constantly emerging from the
background as we organise the ‘field’ according to here and
now needs. Historic experience can limit/influence figure
formation
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Key Concepts in Gestalt Therapy
•
Creative Adjustment
is the process of adaptation to the
situation we inhabit in terms of our ‘being in the world’ via
our ability to modify how we behave, think, feel, move
towards/away from interest depending on the support/lack of
support felt
•
Paradoxical Theory of Change
: change is seen as the result of
supporting awareness : ‘
one becomes what he is; not when he
tries to become what he is not’
(Beisser 1971)
•
Creative Indifference:
originating in Zen, the therapist holds a
position on non-attachment, supporting the client to
creatively (re)adjust, not preferring one outcome over
another
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Gestalt Approach....
•
A person is a whole and is (rather than has) a
body, emotions, thoughts, sensations and
perceptions – all of which function inter-
relatedly.
•
A person is part of their environment and
cannot be understood apart from it.
•
People are proactive rather than reactive.
They determine their own responses to the
world.
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Gestalt Approach....
•
People are capable of being aware of their
sensation, thoughts, emotions and
perceptions.
•
People, through self-awareness, are capable
of choice and therefore responsible for their
behaviour.
•
People possesses the potential and resources
to live effectively and to satisfy their needs.
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Gestalt Approach....
•
People can experience themselves only in the
present.
•
The past and the future can be experienced
only in the now through remembering and
anticipating.
•
People are neither intrinsically good or bad.
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Gestalt Approach
HOW
individuals behave in the present moment is
far more crucial to self understanding than
WHY
they
behave as they do.
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Therapeutic Goals…..
The aim of the Gestalt approach is for a
person to discover, explore and experience
their own shape, pattern and wholeness. The
aim of the Gestalt is the integration of all
different parts. In this way people can let
themselves become totally what they already
are, and what they potentially can become.
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The lived present
holds a past and a
future within its
thickness
(Merleaue-ponty, 1962)
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Self
Vs
Selfing
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Perls et al. (1951, p.iv)
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Phenomenology
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Phenomenology
•
Trying to stay as close to the client’s
experience as possible,
•
To stay in the here-and-now moment
•
And rather than interpreting the client’s
behaviour to help him explore and become
aware of how to make sense of the world
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Phenomenological Method
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Husserl (1859-1938)
Phenomenological method -
Bracketing
•
This is an attempt to
identify and acknowledge
the preconceptions, judgements and attitudes
that the counsellor inevitably carries into the
therapeutic relationship.
•
It helps to start from a deliberate attitude, that
your opinions and judgements are suspect and
that you need to wait before you reach any
conclusion.
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Phenomenological method -
Bracketing
•
Allow the meaning of the situation
emerge….”How do you feel about that?” or
“What does that mean for you”…”What sense
do you make of that?”….”How did that
happen?”
•
You are allowing the meaning of the situation
to emerge.
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Spinelli (2005) – An Interpreted World
•
To set aside or to bracket any biases
, judgements,
prejudices, assumptions and expectations in
order to focus on the primary and immediate
data of our experiences (Spinelli, 2005).
•
It is
not humanly feasible to bracket all our biases
or assumptions, however, we are certainly
capable of bracketing to a great extent as well as
acknowledging our biases reducing their impact
on our immediate experiences.
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Example (Joyce & Sills)
•
James:
I’ve just found out my partner is pregnant and she
is so pleased.
•
[Couns reaction - Feels an immediately positive response but hesitates]
•
Couns response:
How is that for you? (
Brackets her own values and
reactions
)
•
James:
I don’t know really. I’m pleased of course.
•
[Couns reaction – starts to sense some emotion other than pleasure –
concern or worry perhaps?]
•
Couns response:
Is there some other feeling or concern about
having a baby? (
Brackets her emerging judgement
and investigates what may be unspoken
. )
•
James:
It’s fine. But I’m worried about bringing a child up
in such difficult times.
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Phenomenological method -
Description
•
This involves staying with the awareness
of
what is immediately obvious
and
describing what you see.
•
While the counsellor is bracketing off her
assumptions and values, she confines
herself to describing what she notices
(sees, hears, senses, etc.)
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Phenomenological method -
Description
Description
Typical interventions:
•
I’m noticing that ….(your breathing has speeded
up)
•
You seem to be saying …..(that this is very
important to you)
•
You look….(distressed)
•
I’m aware that you’ve….(arrived 10 minutes late)
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Description (Spinelli, 2005)
•
To
suspend our desires
to explain the other.
•
To avoid limiting our experience of the other
by
instantly attempting to make sense
or
explain ‘it’ on the basis of our hypothesis.
•
To focus on
description instead of theoretical
reasoning
in order to achieve concretely based
descriptive investigation of our intentional
biases which make up our experience.
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Phenomenological method -
Horizontalisation
•
Everything that happens is potentially as
important (horizontal) or equal as anything
else.
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Phenomenological method -
Horizontalisation
•
To avoid assigning ‘any initial hierarchies of
importance upon the items of our descriptions,
and instead to treat each initially as having equal
value or significance’ (Spinelli, 2005, p.21).
•
‘We set aside our preconceptions about what
kinds of data are more significant than other
kinds, thus remaining open to the possibility that
some factors will prove – upon examination – to
be more significant than we might formerly have
thought’ (Crocker, 2009, p.22).
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Therapy of the Situation –
Field perspective
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Trees can not be
independent of the
ground of
environmental
influences in which
they are rooted.
Wertheimer
believed that the
individual is an
outgrowth of his
situational
conditions.
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Person
World
Person
World
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Gestalt Therapy
Figure and Ground perception
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Gestalt
Therapy
Theory
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Field theory /
Therapy of the
Situation
A Gestalt therapist must
have a relational
awareness of the total
situation (Perls, 1973).
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Therapy of the
Situation
•
Dynamic interplay of the human
being and his phenomenal
environment, the
dynamic person-
world interaction
.
•
Person – part of a larger whole.
•
Gestalt therapist defines personal
problems in terms of the
interactional whole consisting of
the person and his world.
Wollants (2012)
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Therapy of the Situation
•
Psychological distress = unsupportive field /
disturbed person-world interaction.
•
The person is not a disturbed body, nor a
disturbed soul; it’s the disturbed interplay of
person and his environment.
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Developmental concepts
•
Self-support is impossible without
environmental
support
.
•
Regression – contrasting view: an adaption that is
needed in order to make the world smaller so
that it can accommodate diminishing abilities.
Regression can be Progression
!
•
The parents themselves have to develop in order
to cope with the process that is unfolding
between them and their child. (Wheeler, 2002)
•
Support
is what enables the next step to be
taken. (Laura Perls, 1992)
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‘Mental disorders’ are coping
mechanism.
•
Shifting from a monopersonal paradigm to a
situational, relational paradigm, a Gestalt-theoretical
approach also shifts from a paradigm of pathology
based on intrapsychic conflict and defence to an
interactive conception
of psychotherapy.
•
Both ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ reactions are ways of
dealing with the situation. They are simply poles of
continuum, a way of coping with a difficult and
frightening situation.
•
Diagnosis of the situation – A Gestalt-therapeutic
diagnosis is a field diagnosis.
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•
I am always a part of the situation.
•
My environment and I constitute a whole.
•
My development as a person and my concrete behaviour can be
understood properly only as a function of the total situation.
•
I am not the only part of a situation; I am always part of a situation
together with other people.
•
As regards the creation of a balance between forces arising from the
person and other forces arising from the experienced environment, the
others and I depend on one another.
•
When this interactional dynamic balance is hindered, difficult or
impossible, the situation becomes disordered for the parts involved.
Mental disorders are related to a disturbance of the creative
adjustment of the ‘between’
Summary
Wollants, 2012, Pp.15-16
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49
Experiential exercise –
My field conditions
Me
•
People, objects and
experiences that impact my
present moment / my contact
with others
•
Closer to the centre =
stronger influence
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Dialogic Relationship
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Martin Buber (1878-1965)
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Dialogue
•
The dialogical principle is based on the I-Thou
philosophic anthropology of Martin Buber. It
assumes that individuals are made fully into
people through the meeting between them
(Buber, 1970).
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The dialogic relationship
The human heart yearns for contact – above all
it yearns for genuine dialogue… Each of us
secretly and desperately yearns to be ‘met’ – to
be recognized in our uniqueness, our fullness
and our vulnerability. (Hycner & Jacobs, 1995,
p.9)
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The dialogic relationship
•
…an attitude of genuinely feeling / sensing /
experiencing the other person as
a person
(not an object or part-object), and a
willingness to deeply ‘hear’ the other person’s
experience without prejudgement.
Furthermore, it is the willingness to ‘hear’
what is not being spoken, and to ‘see’ what is
not visible. (Hycner & Jacobs, 1995, p.xi)
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The dialogic relationship
A dialogic relationship is composed of 4
elements:
1.
Presence
2.
Confirmation
3.
Inclusion
4.
Willingness for open communication
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Presence (Joyce and Sills, 2014)
•
Therapist is fully present to the client.
•
She brings all of herself and willingness to
meet the client honestly and authentically.
•
She allows herself to be touched and moved
by the impact of the client – to be affected.
•
Includes sharing her response
in the service of
the relationship.
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Presence (Joyce and Sills, 2014)
•
Therapist has the subtle task of being present
to herself, the client and the relationship.
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Confirmation
•
Our deepest, most profound stirrings of self-
appreciation, self-love and self-knowledge
surface in the presence of the person whom
we experience as totally accepting. (Zinker,
1975, p.60)
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Confirmation (Joyce and Sills, 2014)
•
Listening, attending and understanding
•
‘Being fully received’ by another human being.
•
Unconditionally accepted
•
Its not – agreeing / condoning everything
client tells you
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Confirmation (Joyce and Sills, 2014)
•
Not only to accept what is figural – but also
what is alienated, deflected or out of
awareness.
•
Confirmation is more inclusive than
‘acceptance’
•
Remember – clients are vulnerable humans
like us – struggling to do the best they can in
difficult circumstances.
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Inclusion (Joyce and Sills, 2014)
•
Being receptive to an embodied, ‘felt sense’ of
the client in the moment, without losing sense
of your own subjective experience.
•
… a cognitive, emotional and implicit somatic
resonance, that allows the therapist to fully
experience the intersubjective field in the here
and now moment.
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Inclusion (Joyce and Sills, 2014)
Communicating inclusion:
•
Can often be conveyed without expressing it
directly to the client.
•
Communicated through attitude, tone of
voice, non-verbal contact
•
Being inclusive can have a profound healing
effect – deepens the working alliance,
promote trust, validate the experience.
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Inclusion (Joyce and Sills, 2014)
Communicating inclusion:
•
Communicating your understanding verbally –
more deeper and powerful
•
For example..
–
I wonder if….
–
I’m imagining…
–
As I listen, my own body is…
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Willingness for open communication
•
Open communication both ways –
–
client – therapist
–
in the spirit of authentic meeting
•
What do we share about us – golden rule…
–
Is it in the best interest of my client ?
•
Not therapeutic to share every reaction or
response
•
An attempt to interpret or ‘understand’ too soon
– could interrupt the process
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Willingness for open communication
•
The skill is knowing
what, when, how
and
how
much
to disclose.
•
Remember – we cannot avoid self-disclosing.
–
Our presence, how we dress and our gestures all
reveal ourselves.
–
What other ways you reveal to your clients?
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Some guidelines for self-disclosure
•
Describe your feelings, thoughts, images
•
Avoid interpretations/judgements
•
Stay in the here-and-now
For example;
I’m aware that I’m feeling sad/angry/pleased as
I listen to you.
I feel disturbed as I listen to how you were
abused.
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Some guidelines for self-disclosure
•
Instead of…
That was a bad thing to happen.
He shouldn’t have treated you like that
Look at page 50 – Joyce & Sill (2014)
Joyce, P & Sill, C. (2014). Skills in Gestalt Counselling
and Psychotherapy (3
rd
Ed). London. Sage
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I – thou
Vs
I – it
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Contact
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PHG
Contact
•
“Contact as such is possible without
awareness, but for awareness contact is
indispensable. The crucial question is: with
what is one in contact? ” (viii)
•
“Every healthy contact involves awareness
(perceptual figure/ground) and excitement
(increased energy mobilization)” (118)
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Contact
•
Adjusting to each new situation
•
Finding the best way of relating at any
moment.
•
This process is always ‘co-created’
•
We are always responding and being
influenced by each unique situation in a co-
created dance of mutual influence.
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•
Interruptions to contact
•
Modifications to contact
•
Creative adjustments
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Modifications to contact
•
The concept of modifications to contact
rests on the gestalt concept of contact.
•
In GTT contact is a complex term.
•
Simply understood as relating to
other/environment where we influence and
are influenced by.
•
It’s the ‘between’
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Modifications to contact
•
All contact is creative and dynamic and, as
such, each experience unfolds as a creative
adjustment of the organism in the
environment (Perls, Hefferline & Goodman,
1951).
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Modifications to contact
•
We consider modifications to contact are
creative adjustments which become fixed or
habitual.
•
Consider these as the best solution for a
client, the best they could do.
•
What was once helpful may no longer be
appropriate.
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Modifications to contact
•
Retroflection
•
Deflection
•
Confluence
•
Projection
•
Introjection
•
Do not view them in isolation, they often
support each other in a complex way.
77
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Fixed Gestalts
Repetitive pattern of relating
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Confluence
•
Confluence or merger
•
A person who fears that closeness to another
person is in some way threatening solves the
problem by either merging with the other or
psychologically withdrawing.
•
Inability to distinguish the interpersonal
boundary.
•
E.g. a client over-adapting or agreeing with you
excessively or expecting you to understand them
without his having to explain.
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Confluence – interventions
•
Encourage ‘I’ statements instead of ‘it’ or ‘we’.
•
Model the process
–
I feel sad when I listen to you; how do you feel?
–
I am sitting in this chair, you are sitting opposite,
do you have any sense of what you want from me
right now?
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Introjecting
•
Swallowing without chewing (PHG, 1951)
•
A process whereby an opinion, an attitude or
an instruction is unquestioningly taken in from
the other – as if it were true.
•
The process of introjecting leads to holding
beliefs that were not accepted choicefully –
called introjects.
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Introjecting - interventions
•
Encourage to stop and reflect before they agree.
Invite them to take their time, to go inside and
feel their feelings about what you have said.
•
Remember – a client may actually need to
introject or be confluent at the start of the
relationship, in order to feel safe enough to do
the work. It is important for therapists to be
sensitive to this possibility.
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Projecting
•
Projecting (out of awareness) your own aspect
onto another person.
•
A process of disowning as aspect of self, which
is then co-created as a relational experience.
•
“I’m not hostile, you are the one who is angry’.
•
Traditional use of this concept – blank screen
•
Relational therapists – co-created aspect
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Projecting – Interventions
•
How does it feel to be with someone whom
you believe is always critical of you?
•
If you were to feel critical of me, what would it
be?
•
Look for the ‘grain of truth’ in your client’s
view.
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Deflecting
•
Ignoring or turning away – from an internal
stimulus (an unwanted thought) or one from the
environment (an unwelcome request for personal
information).
•
Blocking out the stimulus itself / turning away /
going off at a tangent.
•
Deflection from feelings and impulses by
–
Endless talking, laughing instead of taking themselves
seriously, focusing on the needs of the other.
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Deflecting
•
Clients – changes subject repeatedly when a
particular issue is raised, who appear not to
hear or see something, who misunderstand or
redefine what has been said or done.
•
It is an active process of avoiding contact and,
in particular, awareness
–
Client will push away your interventions when
they touch the avoided material.
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Deflecting – interventions
•
Model persistence in keeping to one topic and
offering hypothesis as to what might be
difficult.
–
I guess you might find it hard to talk about ……. it
would be easy to try to avoid even thinking abut
it.
•
Interrupt the defecting process
–
I need to stop you for a moment….
–
I am aware that every time I bring up this subject,
you change the subject. Have you noticed?
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Retroflecting
•
Holding back
•
Turning inward
•
Psychosomatic symptoms
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Retroflecting – interventions
•
Explore what the client believes will be the
consequences of letting their energy move to
action.
•
A retroflection should only be ‘undone’ when
the client and counsellor are both sure that
the client has enough support and
understanding to manage appropriately what
is released.
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Retroflecting – interventions
•
Commonly held in the body – useful to focus
on body process.
•
Invite the client to be aware of where in their
body they feel.
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Desensitizing
•
Similar to deflection – avoid contact with
sensations.
•
Shutting down – losing all awareness around
any response to the issue.
•
A clue for the therapist can often be found in
her own phenomenology.
–
Such as feeling sleepy and heavy
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Self-monitoring
•
Excessive self-criticism that undermines
spontaneous functioning and full contact.
•
Notice how the client breaks contact with you
in favour of their inner dialogue. Invite them
back into the here-and-now with you.
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Experimentation
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Experiments…..
Devised to increase clients’ self
awareness of what they are doing
and how they are doing it.
Clients are supported to do their
own seeing, feeling, sensing, and
interpreting, as opposed to
waiting passively for the therapist
to give them insight and answers.
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Experimenting (Joyce and Sills, 2014)
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The sequence of the experiment
(Joyce and Sills, 2014)
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Experiments
•
In gestalt experiments,
the experienced awareness
leads to action
instead of predetermined directions set
by the therapist (Melnick & Nevis, 2005)
•
In the experiment
we know what we are proposing,
but we know neither the process (how each person
will work through it), nor the end result
. What
matters in Gestalt therapy is not the completion of
actions per se, but what interferes with the successful
completion of a task; it is essential for the client to
become aware of how she reacts throughout the
process.
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•
Experimentation
:
Experimentation is where
no specific outcome is expected
and the only
desired effect is ‘
moment-to-moment
heightening of what is real
’
(Frank, 2003,
p.188) and
what is present
.
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References
•
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Contact details
Twitter: 1FaisalMahmood
Email: counsellingzone@yahoo.co.uk
Faisal Mahmood
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Explore the basic concepts of Gestalt therapy theory with Dr. Faisal Mahmood. Delve into phenomenology, field theory, and dialogical relationship. Learn the holistic, process-oriented, and existential approach to human change focused on awareness and personal responsibility.
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Presentation Transcript
Gestalt Therapy Theory Dr Faisal Mahmood Faisal Mahmood 1
Aims To explore the basic concepts of Gestalt therapy theory. To reflect on theory in relation to ourselves. To introduce the key concepts of Gestalt therapy theory: Phenomenology, Field theory and Dialogical relationship Faisal Mahmood 2
Plan Day 1 10:00 10:30 Check in 10:30 11:30 Introduction to GTT 11:30 11:45 Break 11:45 13:00 Phenomenology 13:00 14:00 Lunch 14:00 15:30 Field Theory 15:30 15:45 Break 15:45 17:00 Experiential Group Work Faisal Mahmood 3
Plan Day 2 10:00 10:30 Check in 10:30 11:30 Dialogical Relationship 11:30 11:45 Break 11:45 13:00 Contact + Modification 13:00 14:00 Lunch 14:00 15:30 Experimentation 15:30 15:45 Break 15:45 17:00 Experiential Group Work + Ending Faisal Mahmood 4
About me Individual and Group Psychotherapist UKCP Approved Supervisor UKCP and BACP Accredited Therapist Head of Subject - Counselling & Psychotherapy Newman University, Birmingham Modality Gestalt and Integrative Trainer Researcher Faisal Mahmood 5
Gestalt Approach Key contributors Fritz Perls and Laura Perls Faisal Mahmood 6
Historical Roots Psychoanalysis Gestalt psychology Field theory Phenomenology Existential philosophy Psychodrama Eastern spiritual traditions 8
Gestalt German word Gestalt is not easily translated into a single English term. It embraces such a wide variety of concepts: the shape, the pattern, the whole form, the configuration. Faisal Mahmood 9
Gestalt therapy is a holistic, process-oriented, dialogical, phenomenological, existential, and field theoretical approach to human change with the centrality of contact, awareness, and personal responsiveness and responsibility. The person is never reduced to parts and structural entities but viewed as an integrated whole with innate potential of growth and mature self-expression (Yontef, 1993). Faisal Mahmood 10
Gestalt Approach Robert Resnick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lggz_4oi8r0 From 6.40 Faisal Mahmood 11
The aim of GTT is to raise AWARENESS The three pillars of Gestalt (Yontef, 1993) Phenomenology Dialogue Field Theory 12
Gestalt Approach 3 Pillars Field theory: the person s experience is explored in the context of their situation/field. Phenomenology: the search for understanding through what is obvious and/or revealed, rather than through what is interpreted by the observer. Dialogic Relating: a specific form of contacting (not just talking) that is concerned with the between of the relationship and what emerges in that between. Faisal Mahmood 13
The Whole is More Than the Sum of Its Parts Faisal Mahmood 14
The Whole is More Than the Sum of Its Parts A family is made up of separate members, each with individual psychology. One could analyse each of them without seeing the others But the way in which the family operates as a systemic whole is uniquely more than, and different from, the sum total of the individual psychologies of the family members. Faisal Mahmood 15
Key Concepts in Gestalt Therapy Self as process as a verb not a noun. Selfing - takes place in the between of relationship, with self- experienced through contact taking place at the contact boundaries Figure and ground - figures are constantly emerging from the background as we organise the field according to here and now needs. Historic experience can limit/influence figure formation Faisal Mahmood 16
Key Concepts in Gestalt Therapy Creative Adjustment is the process of adaptation to the situation we inhabit in terms of our being in the world via our ability to modify how we behave, think, feel, move towards/away from interest depending on the support/lack of support felt Paradoxical Theory of Change: change is seen as the result of supporting awareness : one becomes what he is; not when he tries to become what he is not (Beisser 1971) Creative Indifference: originating in Zen, the therapist holds a position on non-attachment, supporting the client to creatively (re)adjust, not preferring one outcome over another Faisal Mahmood 17
Gestalt Approach.... A person is a whole and is (rather than has) a body, emotions, thoughts, sensations and perceptions all of which function inter- relatedly. A person is part of their environment and cannot be understood apart from it. People are proactive rather than reactive. They determine their own responses to the world. Faisal Mahmood 18
Gestalt Approach.... People are capable of being aware of their sensation, thoughts, emotions and perceptions. People, through self-awareness, are capable of choice and therefore responsible for their behaviour. People possesses the potential and resources to live effectively and to satisfy their needs. Faisal Mahmood 19
Gestalt Approach.... People can experience themselves only in the present. The past and the future can be experienced only in the now through remembering and anticipating. People are neither intrinsically good or bad. Faisal Mahmood 20
Gestalt Approach HOW individuals behave in the present moment is far more crucial to self understanding than WHY they behave as they do. Faisal Mahmood 21
Therapeutic Goals.. The aim of the Gestalt approach is for a person to discover, explore and experience their own shape, pattern and wholeness. The aim of the Gestalt is the integration of all different parts. In this way people can let themselves become totally what they already are, and what they potentially can become. Faisal Mahmood 22
The lived present holds a past and a future within its thickness (Merleaue-ponty, 1962) Faisal Mahmood 23
Self Vs Selfing Faisal Mahmood 24
Perls et al. (1951, p.iv) Faisal Mahmood 25
Phenomenology Faisal Mahmood 26
Phenomenology Trying to stay as close to the client s experience as possible, To stay in the here-and-now moment And rather than interpreting the client s behaviour to help him explore and become aware of how to make sense of the world Faisal Mahmood 27
Phenomenological Method Husserl (1859-1938) Bracketing Description Horizontalisation Faisal Mahmood 28
Phenomenological method - Bracketing This is an attempt to identify and acknowledge the preconceptions, judgements and attitudes that the counsellor inevitably carries into the therapeutic relationship. It helps to start from a deliberate attitude, that your opinions and judgements are suspect and that you need to wait before you reach any conclusion. Faisal Mahmood 29
Phenomenological method - Bracketing Allow the meaning of the situation emerge . How do you feel about that? or What does that mean for you What sense do you make of that? . How did that happen? You are allowing the meaning of the situation to emerge. Faisal Mahmood 30
Spinelli (2005) An Interpreted World To set aside or to bracket any biases, judgements, prejudices, assumptions and expectations in order to focus on the primary and immediate data of our experiences (Spinelli, 2005). It is not humanly feasible to bracket all our biases or assumptions, however, we are certainly capable of bracketing to a great extent as well as acknowledging our biases reducing their impact on our immediate experiences. Faisal Mahmood 31
Example (Joyce & Sills) James: I ve just found out my partner is pregnant and she is so pleased. [Couns reaction - Feels an immediately positive response but hesitates] Couns response: How is that for you? (Brackets her own values and reactions) James: I don t know really. I m pleased of course. [Couns reaction starts to sense some emotion other than pleasure concern or worry perhaps?] Couns response: Is there some other feeling or concern about having a baby? (Brackets her emerging judgement and investigates what may be unspoken. ) James: It s fine. But I m worried about bringing a child up in such difficult times. Faisal Mahmood 32
Phenomenological method - Description This involves staying with the awareness of what is immediately obvious and describing what you see. While the counsellor is bracketing off her assumptions and values, she confines herself to describing what she notices (sees, hears, senses, etc.) Faisal Mahmood 33
Phenomenological method - Description Description Typical interventions: I m noticing that .(your breathing has speeded up) You seem to be saying ..(that this is very important to you) You look .(distressed) I m aware that you ve .(arrived 10 minutes late) Faisal Mahmood 34
Description (Spinelli, 2005) To suspend our desires to explain the other. To avoid limiting our experience of the other by instantly attempting to make sense or explain it on the basis of our hypothesis. To focus on description instead of theoretical reasoning in order to achieve concretely based descriptive investigation of our intentional biases which make up our experience. Faisal Mahmood 35
Phenomenological method - Horizontalisation Everything that happens is potentially as important (horizontal) or equal as anything else. Faisal Mahmood 36
Phenomenological method - Horizontalisation To avoid assigning any initial hierarchies of importance upon the items of our descriptions, and instead to treat each initially as having equal value or significance (Spinelli, 2005, p.21). We set aside our preconceptions about what kinds of data are more significant than other kinds, thus remaining open to the possibility that some factors will prove upon examination to be more significant than we might formerly have thought (Crocker, 2009, p.22). Faisal Mahmood 37
Therapy of the Situation Field perspective Faisal Mahmood 38
Trees can not be independent of the ground of environmental influences in which they are rooted. Wertheimer believed that the individual is an outgrowth of his situational conditions. Faisal Mahmood 39
World Person World Person Faisal Mahmood 40
Gestalt Therapy Figure and Ground perception Faisal Mahmood 41
Gestalt Therapy Theory Faisal Mahmood 42
A Gestalt therapist must have a relational awareness of the total situation (Perls, 1973). Field theory / Therapy of the Situation Faisal Mahmood 43
Dynamic interplay of the human being and his phenomenal environment, the dynamic person- world interaction. Therapy of the Situation Person part of a larger whole. Gestalt therapist defines personal problems in terms of the interactional whole consisting of the person and his world. Wollants (2012) Faisal Mahmood 44
Therapy of the Situation Psychological distress = unsupportive field / disturbed person-world interaction. The person is not a disturbed body, nor a disturbed soul; it s the disturbed interplay of person and his environment. Faisal Mahmood 45
Developmental concepts Self-support is impossible without environmental support. Regression contrasting view: an adaption that is needed in order to make the world smaller so that it can accommodate diminishing abilities. Regression can be Progression! The parents themselves have to develop in order to cope with the process that is unfolding between them and their child. (Wheeler, 2002) Support is what enables the next step to be taken. (Laura Perls, 1992) Faisal Mahmood 46
Mental disorders are coping mechanism. Shifting from a monopersonal paradigm to a situational, relational paradigm, a Gestalt-theoretical approach also shifts from a paradigm of pathology based on intrapsychic conflict and defence to an interactive conception of psychotherapy. Both normal and abnormal reactions are ways of dealing with the situation. They are simply poles of continuum, a way of coping with a difficult and frightening situation. Diagnosis of the situation A Gestalt-therapeutic diagnosis is a field diagnosis. Faisal Mahmood 47
Summary I am always a part of the situation. My environment and I constitute a whole. My development as a person and my concrete behaviour can be understood properly only as a function of the total situation. I am not the only part of a situation; I am always part of a situation together with other people. As regards the creation of a balance between forces arising from the person and other forces arising from the experienced environment, the others and I depend on one another. When this interactional dynamic balance is hindered, difficult or impossible, the situation becomes disordered for the parts involved. Mental disorders are related to a disturbance of the creative adjustment of the between Wollants, 2012, Pp.15-16 Faisal Mahmood 48
Experiential exercise My field conditions Me People, objects and experiences that impact my present moment / my contact with others Closer to the centre = stronger influence 49
Therapist Client Dialogic relationship A co-created encounter (Incorporating totality of the whole field) Faisal Mahmood 50
