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Goal: The ultimate goal is to ensure clients regain absolute autonomy over their lives.
Role of the Counselor
In transactional analysis the counsellor and the client work together to establish the specific goals of therapy. In other words, the counselor will use their knowledge to address a concern introduced by the client rather than telling the client what issues they need to focus on.
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The most powerful techniques involve role-playing. For example, the patient talks to an empty chair as they imagine that a person associated with an unresolved issue is sitting in the chair. As the patient talks to the "person" in the chair, the patient imagines that the person responds to the expressed feelings. Although this technique may sound artificial and might make some people feel self-conscious, it can be a powerful way to approach buried feelings and gain new insight into them. Sometimes patients use battacca bats, padded sticks that can be used to hit chairs or sofas. Using a battacca bat can help a patient safely express anger. A patient may also experience a Gestalt therapy marathon, where the participants and one or more facilitators have nonstop group therapy over a weekend. The effects of the intense emotion and the lack of sleep
Key concepts of Gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy works through the interconnection of key concepts. These offer insight into the processes involved in therapy sessions between the therapist and client(s).
• 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 aware.
• Respect - Clients, whether an individual, group or family, are treated with profound respect by a Gestalt therapist. Providing a balance of support and challenge is key to helping those taking part to feel comfortable about opening up and acknowledging areas of resistance.
• Emphasis on experience - The Gestalt approach focuses on experience in terms of an individual's emotions, perceptions, behaviours, body sensations, ideas and memories. 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
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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 therapy.
Goals
In Gestalt therapy, the major goal is self-awareness. Patients work on uncovering and resolving interpersonal issues during therapy. Unresolved issues are unable to fade into the background of consciousness because the needs they represent are never met. In Gestalt therapy, the goal is to discover people connected with a patient's unresolved issues and try to engage those people (or images of those people) in interactions that can lead to a resolution. Gestalt therapy is most useful for patients open to working on self-awareness.
Strengths
Ultimately, Gestalt therapy is considered to help individuals gain a better understanding of how their emotional and physical needs are connected. They will learn that being aware of their internal self is key to understanding why they react and behave in certain ways. This journey of self-discovery makes the approach beneficial for individuals who can be guarded when it comes to their emotions, and finds it difficult to process why they feel and act the way they do. It can also provide support and a safe space for individuals going through times of personal difficulty.
Gestalt therapy is considered particularly valuable for helping to treat a wide range of psychological issues - especially as it can be applied as a long-term therapy or as a brief and focused approach. It has been found effective for managing tension, anxiety, addiction, post-traumatic stress, depression and other psychological problems that can prevent people from living life to the full. Overall, people who participate in gestalt therapy tend to feel more self-confident, calm and at peace with themselves.
Weakness
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Disturbed people with severe mental illness may not be suitable candidates for Gestalt therapy. Facilities that provide Gestalt therapy and train Gestalt therapists vary and there are no set national standards for Gestalt therapy.
Techniques
The most basic technique in working toward awareness is simple observation.
Other techniques used in group counseling with gestalt therapy include awareness experiments, unfinished business, exaggeration, reversals, making the rounds, fantasy approaches, and rehearsal. Gestalt therapy has proven to be effective in time-limited situations. It is applicable to a variety of problems and is used with children, adolescents, and adults. It provides a perspective on growth and enhancement while focusing on current behaviors. Group members are given the opportunity to do their own seeing, feeling, sensing, and interpreting. (NB)
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