Gestalt Therapy

Frederick "Fritz" and Laura Perls

Our dependency makes slaves out of us, especially if this dependency is a dependency of our self-esteem. If you need encouragement, praise, pats on the back from everybody, then you make everybody your judge.
- Frederick "Fritz" Perls

Frederick "Fritz" Perls and Laura Perls are the founders of Gestalt Therapy. His outlook on therapy, and the quotes I found during research, hit such a chord with me. I sat and read his quotes for about 20 minutes thinking...wow, I wish he were around to counsel me!

The goals of Gestalt Therapy are to help the client focus on the moment instead of focusing on the past. Therapy helps the client learn how to make choices and also to enhance their sense of self abd self esteem.

The key concepts of this therapy method are holism, figure-formation process, awareness, unfinished business and avoidance, contact, and energy. The client is urged through these methods to experience the here and now of life and accept all the parts that make them who they are.

Sincere apologies for Abe Lincoln giving you the finger...but the video is great and helped me to connect how Gestalt Therapy can be seen in different ways. A client is asked to look at themselves as a whole, all aspects of themselves. It is the same with many of the images and pictures in this clip. Most, when looking at just a piece of the picture, you can not see what the whole picture reveals. But when you step back and look at the entire picture, you can see images that can not be seen otherwise. It is the same with an individual, if you look at just one aspect of a person, you do not get a full understanding of who that person is. Perl was looking to show clients that they need to look at all sides of themselves and appreciate their self worth for the whole person that they are.

The techniques of this therapy are formed through the relationship between the therapist and the client. In counseling, situations that come up will help to give both the client and the therapist ideas on exercises and experiments that will advance the sessions and assist the client in their self awareness.

Reference

Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Belmont, C.: Brooks/Cole,

Cengage Learning.

Person-Centered Therapy

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then i can change.

-Carl Rogers

Person-centered therapy, founded by Carl Rogers, is close to existential therapy. Rogers is a revolutionary figure in modern day therapy techniques, as many current methods are shaped by his theories for this form of therapy.

 

The goals of therapy are to give the client the safety and freedom to discover themselves by finding what blocks them, what images of self are real and which are distorted, and to help the client progress to a higher level of openness, trust, and self-direction. Clients are guided toward enjoying life to the fullest and having a great ability of spontaneity.

 

The Person-centered therapy key concepts include clients being aware of their ability to solve their own problems through self-direction. Identifying ideal self vs. real self, and what you want to be as opposed to what you are.

 

 

 

In therapy, the technique used is basicly listening, being there for the client, focusing on their experiences, and asking them their feelings. There is no probing, testing, or diagnosis with this therapy and the therapist is there to pay attention to the client.

 

 

Existential Therapy

Man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him.
-Soren Kierkegaard

There are many men who shaped the philosopy of and the therapy of Existentialism. The forefathers of the philosphy include such men as Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Martin Buber, Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss, and Jean-Paul Satre. The Key figures of the modern concepts of Existential Psychotherapy are Viktor Frankl, Rollo may, Irvin Yalom, and James Bugental.

Viktor Frankl

Rollo May

Irvin Yalom

James Bugental 

The goals of therapy are to teach clients to see that they are free to take charge of their lives, that they are responsible for what happens to them, and to see what is blocking them from being free.

The key concepts of Existential therapy are to get people to look within themselves and see that they are the masters of their own fate and their life circumstances. Therapy helps people look for the mean, learn about being alone and with others, and coping with life and death.

There are really no specific techniques to this therapy, since it is more about self discovery and understanding before technique. Clients are guided to address the ying and the yang of core life concepts, such as freedom and responsibility, life and death, meaning and meaninglessness, and being alone and being in relationship with others. Testing and diagnosis are not important.

Reference

Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Belmont, C.: Brooks/Cole,

Cengage Learning.

Alderian Therapy

It is always easier to fight for one's principles then to live up to them.

- Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler's story is an interesting one to me. In my studies so far, I always believed that nature far succeed nurture in the human psyche. Adler is just one of the many stories that I have heard that prove this. He was not nurtured to be what he was. In fact, he was told repeatedly that he would not amount to much either as a healthy individual or an intellect. He used his own inner strength to achieve his future and succeed what was expected of him. This is the part of a human psyche that I am most intrigued by.

 

The Alderian Therapy method is one that is very different from Freud's psychotherapy technique. He focused on consciousness, personal experience, choices, responsibilities, and personal struggles.

The key conceps of this theory are things like taking responsibility for your life and your actions, creating your own future by choices you make, and working on personal goals to find meaning in life.

 

The techniques of this theory are based on various types of group and individual counseling, where the counselor and the client discuss issues with the persons lifestyle and work to discover goals and how to reach those goals for a better lifestyle through personal choice.

Reference

Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Belmont, C.: Brooks/Cole,

Cengage Learning.



A Psychoanalytical Approach

"Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy"

- Sigmund Freud

The psychoanalytic approach to therapy is based on childhood development, unconscious thought, and repressed problems. Sigmund Freud was the founder of this theory and therapy methods. Although highly controversial, his theories and practice paved the way for many modern day versions of psychotherapy and personality development.

Those who don't know Freud's Psychoanalitical approach to counseling in depth will remember it for the constant references to sex. Concepts such as libido, unconscious sexual love between children and their parents, and oral fixations based on breast feeding are ideas that are only a part of what freud conjured through his thoughts, studies, and writings. His ideas on personality structure may be one of the most well known, and to me the most insightful, aspects of Freuds theories.

The ID: This is the side of our personality that is out of control. It see's what it wants and doesn't care how it gets it. The ID part of our personality is controlled by pleasure, or as Freud put it "the pleasure principle". This pleasure principle is "illogical, amoral, and driven to satisfy instinctual needs" (Corey,2013, pg 65).

The EGO: This is the rational, conscious side of a persons personality. It is controlled by the "reality principle" which "does realistic and logical thinking and formulates plans of action for satisfying needs" (Corey, 2013, pg 65).

The SUPEREGO: This part of the personality is kind of a middle ground for the ID and the EGO. Morality and consequences rule the superego. It goes off of societal standards and life lessons to make decisions basid on morals, attempting to trump the reality and peasure principles of the ID and EGO.

I focus on the ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO mainly because I really think it makes sense. Though Freuds contribution to psychotherapy was far greater, entering into conscious and unconscious thought on a level as never before. Azalyzing dreams, slips of the tongue, techniques that use free association, and projection. All of these ideas have brought forth a way to analyze the human inner psyche.

Psychosocial stages is another part of the psychoanalytical approach that was loosly established by Freud, but elaborated on by Erik Erikson. This theory states that the personality needs to go through stages in life, and each stage needs to be masterd before the next stage can effectively start. If a stage is not successfully completed, the personality disorders in adulthood would ensue.

Carl Jung was also another name in Psychoanayltical approach, and was a favorite of Frued' suntil he went in another direction from Frued's theories on Personality development. He tended toward outside influence of society making a marked inpression on personality development, which brought a whole new outlook and aspect to the approach. He took many of Freud's ideas, but looked at them on a conscious and unconscious level, giving something like dream analysis a whole new outlook.

Though Psychoanalysis can get a bad rap because it focuses , it does benefit on many levels. The stages of development can help a therapist look at the different stages of life and see where something may have gone wrong to see where to start therapy for healing. It also requires therapists to go through intensive training and psychoanalysis, because in this type of therapy the problems of thetherapist can be transfered to the patient unconsciously, so any bias's or issues the therapist have may be transfered into the patients therapy.

Reference

Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Belmont, C.: Brooks/Cole,

                Cengage Learning.