Individually based theory and therapy models

Gestalt Therapy

Techniques

■ The experiment in Gestalt therapy
        o To assist clients self awareness of what they are doing and how they are doing it
        o Expanding awareness of client
        o Opportunity to “Try on” new behavior
        o Experiments bring struggles to life, inviting client to enact them in the present
        o Major emphasis on preparing clients for experiments though trusting relationship

■ Confrontation
        o Imposing stance
                ● Therapist meets own agenda for the client
                ● Acts as expert, power and control in therapist
        o Competing stance
                ● Therapist promotes rugged individualism with lots of negotiation compromise and                 confidence
        o Confirming stance
                ● Acknowledging the whole being of client
                ● Client’s needs and experience center of relationship
                ● Ideal type of confrontation
                ● Invites client to look at incongruities in verbal and nonverbal language, in words
                versus action.

■ Internal Dialogue        o Identifies the struggle for control in a person, fragmented between controller and controlled, through Introjection of aspects of others
        o Between top dog and underdog
        o Between critical parent should and oughts and passive recipient without responsibility and with excuses
        o Empty chair
                ● Shift client into two chairs for dialogue role lay.
                ● Experiences conflict

■ Reversal technique        o Role play the opposite of symptoms and behaviors client suffers
        o Client tries the very thing fraught with anxiety, therefore submerged and denied
        o Help clients to accept personal attributes that they have tried to deny

■ Rehearsal exercise        o Behavioral rehearsal: role play a planned for new behavior with a person or people in client’s environment.
        o Reduce stage fright, anxiety or fear
        o Encourages spontaneity and willingness to experiment with new behaviors

■ Exaggeration Technique        o Exaggerate movement or gesture repeatedly to intensify feelings attached by behavior to make inner meaning clear
        o Trembling hands or feet, slouched posture, bent shoulders, clenched fists, tight frowning etc.

■ Staying with Feelings        o Keep client from escaping fearful stimuli and avoiding unpleasant feelings
        o Encourage to go deeper into feeling or behavior they wish to avoid
        o Facing, confronting, and experiencing feeling makes them able to unblock and make way for new levels of growth
                ● Takes courage and pain.