Description

ayers of the personality: When the natural self-regulatory processes are disrupted, interruptions to awareness occur. Parts of the self are disowned, andincomplete gestalts become abundant. Each complete style represents an unfinished situation, which interferes with the formation of any novel gestalts. Instead of growth, a person lives life with inauthentic layers of the personality. Interruptions Interruptions to awareness and contact also known as boundarydisturbances, refer to a dysfunctional process developed early in life, that mostpeople employed in an attempt to meet their needs. Gestalt therapists bring awareness to these interruptions to try and reduce them and restore self- regularization. Examples: • Introjection: To uncritically accept others’ beliefs and standards without discriminating and assimilating what belongs to self and eliminating whatdoes not. ******************************************************************* Final p301-312 Humanistic-Existential Therapy Psychotherapeutic Interventions: Psychotherapy Techniques-as change occur, Gestalt therapists are concerned with what is currently changing to bring the past, present, and future together to this point. They focus on organismic self-regulation process and interruptions. Twocritical therapeutic skills are I-Thou relationships and creative experimentation. I. Thou Relationship-authentic, nonjudgmental, dialogic relationship carefully nurtured betweenpatient and therapist. First discussed by existential philosopher Martin Buber (1937), major component of Gestalt therapy and is necessary for change. Both persons are “subjects” and the patient is “communicating with” a therapist who is aware, vulnerable, authentic, and human. Suspends preconceptions and brackets anything interfering with an ability to attend an immediateexperience. Therapist creates a safe environment where the client feels understood. Creative Experimentation- Designing and implementing creative experiments is the cornerstone of Gestalt therapy interventions. Experiments heighten awareness, promote the expression of emotionally laden material, support contact, and guide attentional focus to stimulate novel experiences. Creative experiences require the therapist to be aware and attentive to the verbal and nonverbal content of the patient’s narratives in order to understand and focus and what is alive and immediate for the patient. Gestalt therapists work is uniquely different. One