Gestalt Paradoxical Theory of Change: Counselling Study Resource

COMPREHENSIVE STUDY RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS OF COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
COUNSELLING STUDY RESOURCE
Gestalt Paradoxical
Theory of Change
Introduction to Gestalt Therapy
Definition
Dictionary.com defines ‘gestalt’ (a German word) as ‘a configuration, pattern, or
organized field having specific properties that cannot be derived from the summation of
its component parts; a unified whole’.
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Origins
Psychiatrist Fritz Perls (1893–1970) is widely credited as the creator of gestalt therapy.
Born in Berlin, he was Jewish and his older sister was killed by the Nazis. Perls began
psychoanalysis in the 1920 with Wilhelm Reich (his first analyst), Otto Fenichel and
Karen Horney. Reich’s form of psychotherapy focused on observing clients’ facial
expressions and bodily positions. Fritz Perls was one of the therapists who appeared in
Everett Shostrom’s ‘Gloria’ films.
Fritz Perls’ wife, Laura Perls (nee Lore Posner) (1905–1990), was born to a wealthy
German family. Bright and ambitious, she obtained a doctorate in gestalt psychology
and studied existential psychology with Martin Buber. It was in fact Laura Perls who
introduced Fritz Perls to gestalt psychology, which existed well before gestalt
psychotherapy.
Historical Context
Not long after their marriage, the Perls fled the Nazis with just the clothes they were
wearing and a small amount of money, moving briefly to Amsterdam and then to South
Africa.
Laura Perls gave birth to two daughters. She observed the children’s chewing and eating
behaviours; these acts – plus digesting – became important themes in gestalt theory.
Basis of Gestalt Therapy
Fritz Perls described gestalt therapy as an equation, in which awareness = pleasant time
= reality. Key concepts include inner creation (i.e. phenomenology), awareness, equal
and present time (i.e. the here and now, in which clients are encouraged to stay, rather
than escaping elsewhere), and equal reality.
Gestalt is underpinned by the theory that humans are a sum of their thoughts, emotions
and physical responses: an organised whole. Gestalt therapists (gestaltists) believe that
when humans lose ‘contact’ with this whole, they find life difficult. As humans, we seek
completion. If something is not complete, it feels uncomfortable or unfinished.
Key Concepts
There are a number of key concepts in gestalt therapy, including the following:
• field theory: the impossibility of separating ourselves from the environment,

since we are part of where we exist at any given time
• phenomenology: the quest to make sense of our own experience, rather than
relying on other people’s interpretations
• contact, and resistance to contact: being aware of all our processes and not
denying any aspect of ourselves
• unfinished business: harbouring unexpressed feelings
• avoidance: shying away from that which is unfinished and still in process (which
may be expressed in other ways, such as illness or anxiety).
Contact
In gestalt therapy, the human condition is seen as having ‘contact’ with the emotional,
physical and cognitive parts of self – in other words, being aware of all our senses.
Contact comprises a number of stages, illustrated here in brackets by the example of
having a drink of water:
1. sensation: beginning of awareness (e.g. starting to feel thirsty)

2. awareness: awareness of need (e.g. realising you need to get a glass of water)
3. mobilisation: preparing for action (e.g. getting the water)
4. action: acting to meet the need (e.g. drinking the water)
5. contact: meeting the need (e.g. feeling the water go down your throat)
6. satisfaction: assimilation of needs met (e.g. thinking how good it was to drink)
7. withdrawal: letting go (e.g. putting the glass down).
This forms a cycle – and can also be referred to as ‘homeostasis’.
Interruption to Contact
However, when any of the parts of self is not in awareness, gestaltists term this an
‘interruption to contact’. This disrupts our feeling of being at ease in the world.
In the cycle described above, the stages can be interrupted respectively by the following
processes:
1. desensitisation: disengaging from emotional, cognitive or physical responses

(which can sometimes be necessary, e.g. to push through the pain barrier of
extreme exercise or to disengage from a traumatic event, but Perls believed that
those in Western societies have learnt to block physical experience to their
disadvantage)
2. deflection: using energy randomly with no focus (e.g. when a police officer
postpones experiencing the horror of an incident until a time when they are free
to cry about this; this again is necessary but becomes a problem if it is fixed –
that is, postponed indefinitely)
3. introjection: passively accepting what others say (the things we have taken on as
children as ‘shoulds’, without questioning the rationale or origin – known as
‘introjected values’ in person-centred therapy)
4. projection: seeing in others what we don’t acknowledge in ourselves
5. retroflection: not separating self from others (turning our energy onto ourselves
rather than onto the person we want to confront, perhaps because showing our
feelings may seem risky)
6. confluence: permitting events to control us, so that we and the environment are
not differentiated from each other (e.g. people without boundaries, couples who
do everything together, and people who always use ‘we’ rather than ‘I’)
7. egotism: separation from our real selves (rather like watching a character in a
play or film; people who do this may talk about themselves in the third person,
and lack spontaneity).
Goals of Therapy
Gestalt therapy aims to:
• encourage the client to describe rather than to explain

• attend to moment-to-moment awareness of elements of the field
• emphasise the subjective rather than the objective
• be fully present
• convey that the therapist comprehends and accepts the client’s experience
• vigilantly attend to the impact of each intervention made
• restore awareness
• integrate conflicting
Important Features of Gestalt Therapy
Questions are important in gestalt; examples might be as follows:
• What does your dizziness seem to tell you?

• Can you give a shape, form and colour to your headache?
• If a conversation could go on between your right leg and left leg, what would they
say to each other?
• If you were to address your dead father, what would you say to him?
• Supposing you were free from problems, how would you have talked to yourself?
The gestaltist pays special attention to gait, posture, words, language patterns, nuances,
restoration of awareness, feelings, thoughts, attitudes, voice, pitch, tone, facial
expressions, eye movements, gestures, body language and non-verbal expression.
Neuro-linguistic programming has its base in gestalt therapy.
Gestalt therapy also uses experiments, such as dialogue, making the rounds, owning up,
playing the projection, role reversal, exaggerating, staying with the feeling, integration
of dreams, and psycho-drama.
Perhaps the best-known gestalt technique is the empty chair, in which the client is
encouraged to visualise in a third chair the person (or part of themselves) that they are
having difficulty with.
The client than addresses the person/part of self as if they were there and tells them
what is on their mind and how they feel, without any censoring of emotions.
This can be useful in bereavement work when there is ‘unfinished business’ with the
person who has died.
Similarities and Differences between Gestalt and Person-Centred Therapy
Both these talking therapies work with ‘here-and-now’ material, and take a
phenomenological approach. The quality of the relationship is also key in both.
However, there are important differences:
• Gestalt therapy sees humans as a sum of their thoughts, emotions and feelings –
and person-centred therapy sees them as integrated wholes – the organismic
• Gestalt therapy uses challenge (e.g. pointing out bodily behaviours) while person-
centred therapy facilitates the actualising tendency through providing the core
• In terms of relationship, the gestaltist uses self as an observer and narrator of the
client’s process, whereas the person-centred therapist uses self to build a
therapeutic
• Gestalt therapy is active-directive (e.g. using experiments), while person-centred
therapy is non-directive.

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What are the origins of Gestalt therapy?

What are the origins of Gestalt therapy?

What are some key concepts in Gestalt therapy?

What are some key concepts in Gestalt therapy?

COMPREHENSIVE STUDY RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS OF COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY

COUNSELLING STUDY RESOURCE

Introduction to Gestalt Therapy

Did you know that this resource is available

Basis of Gestalt Therapy

• field theory: the impossibility of separating ourselves from the environment,

1. sensation: beginning of awareness (e.g. starting to feel thirsty)

This forms a cycle – and can also be referred to as ‘homeostasis’.

1. desensitisation: disengaging from emotional, cognitive or physical responses

Gestalt therapy aims to:

• encourage the client to describe rather than to explain

Important Features of Gestalt Therapy

Questions are important in gestalt; examples might be as follows:

• What does your dizziness seem to tell you?

Similarities and Differences between Gestalt and Person-Centred Therapy

However, there are important differences:

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