© love publishing: cheung & leung1 gestalt & strategic theories meeting 7 © cheung, m.,...

© Love Publishing: Cheung & Leung 1

Gestalt & Strategic TheoriesMeeting 7

© Cheung, M., & Leung, P. (2008). Multicultural practice and evaluation: A case approach to evidence-based practice. Denver, CO: Love.

Instructors who adopt this book may use this PowerPoint to teach your course without prior permission. Please address questions and comments to [email protected].


Your Inner Strength

Get a piece of paper and position your pen. When the light is dimmed, concentrate on

your inner strength or some quality about you that makes you happy or feel proud.

As you are thinking, draw circles continuously on the paper without stopping until time is up.


The NOW feeling

Interview your classmate and ask: Look at your drawing What do you see now? What feeling do you have now?


Gestalt

As a clinical skill, this approach uses tools and techniques to catch clients’ attention, heighten their anxiety, focus on their direct experience, and encourage them to think about their issues and solutions.


Gestalt-Oriented Family Therapy Gestalt = the organized or unified whole of an

individual

Key: direct knowledge of the SELF is the key to good mental health


Gestalt Focus

Wholeness: Tell me how you feel about yourself in relation to your

family.

Perception Who in your family knows about this issue? How much

does he or she know?

Here and Now What are you experiencing now?


Gestalt Goals

Help individuals within a family structure to develop better boundaries between themselves and other family members

Help individuals become more self-aware in order to complete unfinished business and change old, familiar patterns


Gestalt Goals Balance the individual intrapsychic problems

with better interpersonal relationships that show up in family interactions

Help the family to shift its focus between individual and family issues Individual: intrapersonal and boundary issues Family: interpersonal and transactional issues


Gestalt

5 Layers of Self: Phony Phobic Impasse Implosive Explosive


Gestalt

5 Layers of Self: Phony (react to others in stereotypical ways) Phobic (avoid pain associated with self) Impasse (get stuck in own maturation) Implosive (experience our deadness and not

deny it) Explosive (let go of all pretenses and release

energy to enjoy life)


Theoretical Constructs of Gestalt Theory of Cause

Theory of Change


Theory of Cause

Human beings have a natural desire to cooperate and please others

When the emotion is unexpressed, the causes of these blocked experiences are often forgotten but are present in the here-and-now behavior of the person

Therefore, The goal is to bring these experiences back to life

NOW to see what was causing the problem and complete it in the present


Theory of Change

4 stages of the Gestalt Experience Cycle Sensations and Perceptions Awareness Contact Ability to Let Go (Withdrawal)


Theory of ChangeStage 1: Sensations & Perceptions Learned in childhood

Should’s + stimuli = sensitive to stimuli (Sensation)


Theory of ChangeStage 2: Awareness Pay attention to a sensation (e.g.,

pain) + Develop appropriate way to act

out the conflict


Theory of ChangeStage 3: Contact Learn new ways to make genuine contact

with family members + Aware that we resisted contact through

Projection Introjection Retroflection Confluence Deflection


Aware that we resisted contact through: Projection

Making contact with disowned parts of the self rather than other people

Introjection Incorporating aspect of the other into self

Retroflection Turning against oneself

Confluence The boundaries of self and other are confused

Deflection A wall is erected to avoid conflict


Theory of ChangeStage 4: Ability to Let Go An inability to withdraw and let go of

an experience usually results in unfinished business in relationship


Main Therapeutic Techniques (C&L, pp. 219–228) Exaggeration & body language work

Rehearsal with empty chair I have a secret Dialogue exercise Dream work “I’ll take responsibility for it” Staying with the feeling Reversal technique Making the rounds Playing the projection


Empty Chairs

Introduce the chair & purpose Look at the chair (use direct conversations) Create a dialogue

Alternatives (if not comfortable): Role play Role reversal

Practice with a classmate


The Case Approach: Practice with Joe and Mary’s Family (Gestalt) Read Issue: Privacy and Boundary Setting

(pp. 215–216)

Discuss: What did you learn in this role play? What techniques would a social worker feel

comfortable to use? How do you modify this technique in your practice?


Limitations of Gestalt

It assumes that individuals have personal control over environmental influences.

It assumes all clients are well functioning to understand the importance of wholeness

It does not help the individuals to share if they feel that the therapist is making provocative comments.


Memory Recall

In pairs, Try to remember and identify major

components in the picture


Memorize this (in your mind only)


Memory Recall

In pairs, Try to remember and identify major

components in the picture Draw it out (in one minute’s time) Discuss what strategies you used in the

memorization or recall process


Strategies You Used

Contents Order Number Words Characters Positions Gesture Uniqueness Similarities

Meanings Symbols Interactions Relationships Structure Unexpected Personalities


How much did you get it?


STRATEGIC APPROACH

The attempt to determine cause and effect A symptom is a strategy for controlling a

relationship (because of desire to love and control) “You started it.” (I’m only reacting to what you

did.) “No, you started it first.” (because of what you said

or did.)


Paradoxical Interventions

Ask the family members to do things that are in apparent opposition to the goals of therapy and express their feelings after observing the opposite in action.


Pretend Technique

To desensitize a person with repeated acts of a behavior and to train something they wouldn't ordinarily do unless it is framed as play or pretend.


Ordeal Therapy

If one makes it more difficult for a person to have a symptom than to give it up, the person will give up the symptom.


Positive Connotation

Reframe the symptom as a means to preserve the family's homeostasis.


Rituals

Engage the whole family in a series of actions which run counter to, or exaggerate, rigid family rules and myths.


Finding the Differences

Different perception of relationships "Who is closer to their father, your daughter or

your son?" Differences of degree

"On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad do you think the fighting was during this past week?"


More Differences…

Now/then differences "Did she start losing weight before or after her

sister went off to college?" Hypothetical or future differences

“Think about three situations: If she had not been born, was born five years earlier, or was born just now), how would your marriage be different today?"


Circular Questioning An interviewing technique aimed at

eliciting family members' opinions regarding differences

A technique to solicit answers directly from the client


Practice with Strategic Approach Be sure to read case approach in textbook Practice the skills with a partner


Daily Affirmation

Today I choose to do things for me that make me feel good about myself. Today is a perfect day to do something that I have been putting off.


References

Cheung, M., & Leung, P. (2008). Multicultural practice and evaluation: A case approach to evidence-based practice. Denver, CO: Love.

Perls, F. (1973). The gestalt approach & eye witness to therapy. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books.

© love publishing: cheung & leung1 gestalt & strategic theories meeting 7 © cheung, m.,...

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