Gestalt Therapy Essay

844 Words4 Pages
Gestalt Therapy-Perls Gestalt in: German means a complete and meaningful whole. English, no precise definition, but words like form, structure, essence, whole, patterns, and flow describe gestalt process. Gestalt Ideas and stages of development. Ideas: A.People develop in relation to their environment. B.What human beings need is wholeness and completeness in life. C.We seek psychological homeostasis as we go through process. D.A vital part of the process is awareness, which gives us a sense of direction and motivation to become more fully who we are. 1st Social Stage: awareness of others but little awareness of self. Ex. (Infants) dependence on others for everything 2nd Psychophysical: stage-more aware of what is self and non-self. Self and self-image develop through process of adaptation, acknowledgement and support. 3rd Spiritual Stage: awareness moves from sensing to extrasensory sensing. Very few reach this stage. Review the moral Precepts of Gestalt therapy 10.1 P 207 Gestalt Therapists believe: We can only truly experience ourselves in the present, not in the past or the future. 1.Psychological problems develop in several ways: 2.Losing contact with the environment and the resources in it. 3.Become so overinvolved in the environment they lose their sense of self. 4.Inner conflict between TOP DOG= (what one thinks one should do versus underdog= (what one wants to do) 5.The dichotomies of life become overwhelming. Ex. Love/hate, Pleasure/Pain 5 layers of neurosis: prevents us from connection to our real self. 1. Phony Layer- pretending to be something your not. (Game playing) 2. Phobic layer- denying aspects of self for fear of rejection 3. Impasse layer- Loss of direction, feeling adrift and incompetent. 4. Implosive and 5. Explosive grouped together. These are deepest layers and when peeled back reveal true feelings that
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