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Introduction

According to the humanist concept, the true essence of a person is the freedom to shape and reshape one's life and identity. Personality is in a continuous process of change and development. People are "open systems" continuously interacting with environment, perceiving facts, developing and changing as the creative processing of an endless stream of information.

The most appropriate metaphor for defining a person in humanistic approaches is the image of a river. Her essence at any given moment is affected by where she has been, where she is going, where she is and what has happened or will happen to her at any period of the past or future.

Humanists believe that if events early childhood continue to influence an already adult person, this happens because the person himself, as the author of his own destiny, still (often unconsciously) allows them to influence him. Personality is mainly what is created within us through experience, and also what a person actively maintains through choice. The emphasis on development, change, and choice means that humanistic approaches focus on creativity and the achievement of the individual's full potential. Closely related to the humanistic therapeutic approach are the existential approach, client-centered and gestalt therapy. In spite of general approaches, each of them has its own goals and mechanisms of therapy.

1. Gestalt therapy

Gestalt therapy is an existential, experiential (experiential) and experimental approach in psychotherapy and counseling, which aims to expand a person's awareness and through this achieve greater intrapersonal integrity, fullness and meaningfulness of life, improve contact with the outside world in general, and with people around.

In psychology, gestalt is understood as a specific organization of parts that makes up a certain whole. The experiments of Gestalt psychologists (Gestalt psychology is a direction of psychological thought that arose at the beginning of the 20th century and proceeded from the fact that the analysis of parts cannot provide an understanding of the whole) showed that human perception is not determined by the mechanical summation of external stimuli, but has its own organization. In its perception, the body chooses what is important and interesting to it. Gestalpsychologist Kurt Lewin developed the theory of the psychological field. Its essence is that behavior is determined by the integral configuration of a person's living space, the balance between the needs of the organism and objects of the external environment.

The theoretical discoveries of Gestalt psychology were applied to the practice of psychotherapy by Fritz (Frederick Solomon) Perls (1893-1970). In the 40s of the XX century. psychoanalyst Frederick Perls thought about creating own system psychotherapy. At that time, he was not satisfied with many provisions of contemporary psychoanalysis, in particular, the predominantly intellectual nature of processing the patient's problems, orientation to the past, the patient's passive position in the process. psychoanalytic treatment. The result of his joint reflections with colleagues, which included his wife Laura Perls, Isidore Frome, Paul Goodman, was the book Gestalt Therapy. To explain human behavior, Perls and his colleagues used the ideas of Gestalt psychology, such as the concept of figure and ground dynamics, concepts of integrity human body and that the organism and its environment are a single field. Perls also used some philosophical ideas - the ideas of phenomenology, a philosophical trend that arose at the beginning of the 20th century. and insisting on the need to explore things as they are presented in consciousness, and the ideas of existentialism about the freedom and responsibility of man, the existential meeting I - You.

In general, the theory of Gestalt therapy is based on the following provisions: A person is a holistic sociobiopsychological being. Any division of it into its component parts, such as mind and body, is artificial. A person and his environment are a single gestalt, a structural whole, which is called the organism/environment field. The environment influences the organism, and the organism transforms its environment. With regard to the psychology of interpersonal relationships, this means that, on the one hand, we are influenced by the behavior of the people around us, on the other hand, if we change our behavior, then those around us are forced to change. Human behavior according to the theory of gestalt therapy is subject to the principle of formation and destruction of gestalts. A healthy body functions on the basis of self-regulation. An urgent need arises and begins to occupy the dominant attention of the organism - the figure appears from the background. Further, the organism searches in the external environment for an object that is able to satisfy this dominant need. Rapprochement and adequate interaction with the object leads to the satisfaction of the need - the gestalt is completed and destroyed. Contact is the basic concept of Gestalt therapy. An organism cannot exist in an airless space, as well as in a space devoid of water, plants and living beings. A human being cannot develop in an environment devoid of other people. All basic needs can only be met in contact with the environment. The place where the organism meets its environment is called the boundary of contact in Gestalt therapy. The extent to which a person is able to satisfy his needs depends on how flexible he can regulate the contact boundary. Gestalt therapy describes typical violations of the contact boundary, which make interaction with the environment, including interpersonal, ineffective. Awareness - awareness of what is happening inside the body and in its environment. Awareness is not identical to intellectual knowledge about oneself and the world around. It includes both the experience of perception of stimuli of the external world, and internal organismic processes - sensations, emotions, as well as mental activity - ideas, images, memories and anticipations, i.e. covers many levels. It is awareness, as opposed to rational knowledge, that provides real information about the needs of the organism and about the environment. The main goal of practicing Gestalt therapy is to expand awareness. Gestalt therapy proceeds from the fact that if people achieve a clear awareness of the internal and external reality, then they are able to solve all their problems on their own. Therefore, therapy does not aim to change behavior, behavior changes itself as awareness grows. Responsibility - the ability to respond to what is happening and choose your reactions. Real responsibility is connected with awareness. The more a person is aware of reality, the more he is able to be responsible for his life - for his desires, actions. The phenomenological approach in Gestalt therapy is realized through the fact that the therapist respects both the subjective experience of the client and his own personal subjective experience. The Gestalt therapist does not attach any specific meaning to the client's experiences and behavior; in the process of awareness, the client himself discovers their meaning.

The main goal of Gestalt therapy is to achieve the fullest possible awareness of oneself: one's feelings, needs, desires, bodily processes, one's mental activity, as well as the fullest possible awareness of the outside world, primarily the world of interpersonal relationships. Gestalt Therapy does not seek immediate behavioral change and rapid resolution of symptoms. Removal of symptoms or behavior change achieved without sufficient awareness does not produce lasting results or leads to new problems in place of old ones. As a result of Gestalt therapy, the client acquires the ability to consciously choose his behavior, using various aspects of his personality, to make his life more fulfilling, to get rid of neurotic and other painful symptoms. He becomes resistant to the manipulation of other people and is able to do without manipulation himself, in other words, he learns to stand on his own feet.

From the very beginning of its development, Gestalt therapy has assimilated techniques drawn from different therapeutic systems. So Perls actively used psychodrama techniques, adapting them for his own purposes. Later, Gestalt therapists borrowed the techniques of body therapy, dance therapy, various kinds art therapy (drawing, music therapy). In a Gestalt session, the therapist can use any technique, but the use of techniques is subject to the strategic goals of Gestalt therapy. Gestalt sessions are capable of evoking violent emotional experiences, giving the experience of a new feeling, in general, the therapeutic process is a long, painstaking work that can last from months to years. This is due to the fact that awareness is not always pleasant, but often painful, and we tend to interrupt it. It takes time to work through all the necessary avoidances of awareness. However, certain positive results can also be obtained by participating in short-term therapeutic courses or intensive group trainings.

Gestalt therapy is a universal psychological method that is applicable to a wide range of human problems. Areas of application of modern Gestalt therapy: clinical psychotherapy; family therapy; trainings for people striving for personal growth and improvement of communication; trainings for representatives of various professional groups (for example, teachers, managers); gestalt pedagogy; consulting organizations.

Normal self-regulation involves full awareness. Perls distinguishes three zones of awareness: the external world, the internal world of the body, the world of thoughts and fantasies. The latter should be an intermediary between the external and the bodily world, but in neurosis it is distorted by traumatic experience and rather interferes with self-regulation. Perls distinguishes 5 mechanisms of violation of the process of self-regulation.

1) Confluence - a complete merger, expressed in the erasure of boundaries between the "I" and the environment, conformity and symbiosis.

2) Introjection - passive assimilation of someone else's. The earliest introjects are parental teachings, uncritically learned and indistinguishable from one's own convictions.

3) Projection - attributing one's own to another. At the same time, a person alienates his inherent qualities that do not correspond to his I-concept. The "holes" formed as a result of the projection are filled with projects.

4) Retroflection - "turning on yourself." Occurs during the blockade of needs, with the transformation interpersonal conflict into intrapersonal, which is accompanied by muscle clamps.

5) Deflection - chaotic connections with others with avoidance of real contacts, replacing them with ritual forms of communication, talkativeness, smoothing out conflicts.

These mechanisms in the process of psychotherapy act as resistance. Modern authors additionally describe such types of resistance as proflection, egotism and depreciation. Proflection is a combination of projection and retroflection, while a person does to another what he would like to receive from him for himself, i.e. the request is retroflexed, and the need is projected to the address of the other. Egotism protects a person from intimate contacts with other people, and depreciation helps to relieve oneself of responsibility for the results of one's activities, including positive ones.

As a result of the action of the described mechanisms, the personality is fragmented, divided into simplified dichotomies: male - female, active - passive. Dependence - alienation, rationality - emotionality, selfishness - disinterestedness, etc. In a series of such dichotomies, Perls attaches particular importance to such a game as "Dog on top - Dog below", i.e. attacking and surrendering start. A fragmented personality is diagnosed, in particular, by a mismatch between verbal and non-verbal manifestations. Methods of Gestalt therapy (in recent years - in combination with transactional analysis), are widely used in group therapy of neuroses and psychosomatic disorders, in family therapy, and for personal development. The goal of a Gestalt group is to teach group members to pay attention to current experiences so that they can become aware of and integrate alienated aspects of their personality. The tasks of the Gestalt group consist in the assimilation of introjects, the replacement of projections with direct self-expression, the weakening of retroflexive tension, the establishment of purposeful equal ties with others.

There are five main functions of the Gestalt group:

1) a means of psychological support for participants;

2) the basis for participants to experience the "here and now";

3) the conditions for the participants to realize the experience they are experiencing "here and now";

4) the group as an active partner individual work each member of the group;

5) a group as a dynamic and actual process of interpersonal relations.

The therapeutic process moves from the surface to the depths, passing through four levels:

1) Cliche where actions are replaced by rituals.

2) Role playing with the search for a suitable partner according to the scenario.

3) Deadlock, when a person finds himself without a role and experiences a feeling of emptiness and fear of death (anti-existential level or phobic avoidance level).

4) Internal explosion (of suppressed feelings: grief, anger, joy, orgasm).

gestalt psychological holistic

2. Basic concepts of Gestalt therapy

The main concepts of Gestalt therapy include: figure, background, awareness, focus on the present, polarity, protective functions, maturity, and a number of others.

The relationship between figure and ground. In the process of self-regulation, out of all the information, a person chooses the one that is most important and significant for him at the moment. Actually, this is what makes up the figure. The rest of the information is temporarily relegated to the background and acts as a background. Perls applied this proposition to describing the functioning of personality. Often the figure and background change places, which is the basis of self-regulation of the psyche.

A need, feeling or thought can act as a figure, which at the moment prevails over all the others. As soon as the need is satisfied, its significance is lost and it is relegated to the background.

Sometimes a need cannot be met for some reason. In this case, the gestalt remains incomplete, unreacted and, accordingly, cannot give way to another. An unsatisfied need can cause many unfinished problems, which after a while begin to have a negative impact on current mental processes and even lead to neurotic manifestations. The task of the Gestalt therapist is to help the patient recognize his need, form a clearer gestalt, and ultimately neutralize it.

Awareness and focus on the present. The main condition necessary in order to form and complete a gestalt is the ability of a person to be aware of himself and his dominant need at the moment. Awareness and focus on the need is an important principle, called "here and now". Perls taught: “There is nothing but what is here and now. Now there is the present... The past is no more. The future hasn't arrived yet."

In order to recognize a state of balance or its disturbance, as well as to find what is necessary to restore this balance, a person must first of all be aware of himself. Here the concept of "awareness" is used in a broad sense, covering such semantic categories as "know", "distinguish", "give an account". The integrating flow of information, which forms the basis of self-regulation, begins at the level when the thought is not yet clothed verbally. Considering the organism and the environment as a whole, Perls, at the same time, emphasized that there is a boundary of contact between the individual, his internal and external environment. In a healthy person, this boundary is mobile, which gives him the opportunity to both contact with the environment and move away from it.

Contact is accompanied by the formation of a gestalt, withdrawal, respectively, by its completion. The driving force of the “contact-withdrawal” rhythm is considered to be the dominant need, to limit, complete or neutralize which all the efforts of the body are directed.

It should be noted that in order to satisfy his needs, a person must constantly be in contact with the zones of his inner and outer world. In the neurotic personality, this self-regulating fluidity of boundaries is disrupted as it encounters incompletely formed and unfinished gestalts.

Neuroses arise as a result of the individual's concentration on the middle zone, the fantasy zone, when events occurring in the inner and outer zones are excluded. The fantasy zone carries unfinished gestalts from the past, and since the destructive nature of these gestalts manifests itself in the present, it is quite difficult for a neurotic to live in it. Perls argued that the roots of neurosis lie in the tendency to fantasize and intellectualize where one simply needs to be aware of the present. Self-regulation of the body depends on the degree of awareness of the present and the ability to live here and now. The point of Gestalt therapy is not to explore the past in search of masked, repressed traumas, but to help the patient focus on present awareness and live in the present.

To be aware means to fix attention on the figures constantly appearing and disappearing in one's own imagination. Perls wrote that a person has three zones of awareness: awareness of oneself (inner zone), awareness of the world (outer zone) and awareness of what lies between you and the world (third zone). Perls introduced the concept of "responsibility", behind which is the ability of a person to be responsible for what is happening and choose a strategy of behavior. According to the author, the more clearly a person realizes reality, the more he is able to be responsible for his life, for his desires, actions, in other words, to rely on himself.

Polarities or opposites. Opposites, according to Perls, do not just exist, but are in a state of constant contradiction, struggle among themselves. The struggle of opposites is the inner content, the source of human development and regulation of his behavior.

Each of us can both love and hate at the same time, experience a sense of joy and grief, that is, experience the ambivalence of our feelings. It is important to understand that these opposites are not unacceptable, but on the contrary, help to form and ultimately complete the gestalt. Only when we are fully aware of the opposite poles of our "I", our aspirations and desires, then we begin to realize ourselves more deeply.

The opposition of the polar sides of our "I", "attacker" and "defender", which should coexist together, is most common in Gestalt therapy. The attacker, like Freud's "super-ego" or consciousness, is characterized by authoritarianism, complacency, and exactingness. The "defender" takes a defensive position, makes excuses, feels his impotence.

In the course of therapy, the struggle between two similar opposites coexisting in the patient is often discussed. This type of group work is called the “self-flagellation game”. When the “attacker” and “defender” wage their struggle within us, we feel guilty, we become passive, depressed, incapable of making decisions.

The concept of opposites can be applied to the functioning of the personality. Personality is considered as a kind of holistic formation, consisting of two components - "I" and "It". When an individual acts on impulses from the realm of the "I", he is able to differentiate himself and others. A similar rigid barrier in our experience, the border of the "I", arises so that we can feel our uniqueness, non-identity with the rest of the world. When an individual acts on impulses from the id area, he becomes closely connected with his environment, the boundary of the 'I' becomes vague and flexible, and a sense of identity with the outside world may even appear. These mutually complementary aspects of the functioning of the personality are precisely responsible for the formation and completion of gestalts. Aspirations from the "I" area allow you to more clearly distinguish the figure from the background, to form it; in turn, aspirations from the “It” area complete the gestalt and return the figure to the background environment.

Maturity. Perls defines maturity as mental health, as the ability to move from external environment to self-reliance. In order to achieve health, the individual must overcome his desire to receive support from the outside world and find any sources of support in himself. The main condition for self-reliance is a state of balance. The condition for achieving balance is awareness of the hierarchy of needs. The self-regulation of the self-reliant individual is characterized by free, flowing and distinct formation of gestalts. This, according to Perls, is the path to maturity and health. If the individual has not reached maturity, then he, instead of trying to satisfy his own needs and take responsibility for his failures, is more inclined to manipulate his environment.

Maturity occurs when the individual mobilizes his internal resources to overcome frustration and fear arising from the lack of support from others. A situation in which a person cannot take advantage of the support of others and rely on himself is called a dead end. Maturity lies in the ability to take risks in order to get out of a life or situational impasse. Some people who are not able, and often unwilling, to take risks, thereby taking responsibility for the final result, take on the protective role of the “helpless” for a long time.

3. Basic principles of Gestalt therapy

To understand the essence of Gestalt therapy, consider the basic principles, which, unlike other principles of this kind, do not represent a collection of rigid, directive instructions. They only provide preliminary directions for behavior and conditions that favor or not the expansion of awareness of the situation and the most complete contact with the environment and oneself.

The principle of "now" or "here and now." The principle of "now", or concentration on the present moment, is perhaps the most important principle of Gestalt therapy. It originates in the traditions of Zen Buddhism and a number of other Eastern practices, which, with the thoroughness and thoroughness inherent in Perls, were studied by him. The essence of this principle is that during the session, the therapist often asks to determine what the patient is currently doing, feels what is happening to him and around him at this moment. In the event that material appears in the course of work related to any important aspects of the personality, efforts are made by the therapist to transfer this material to the present.

The principle of "me and you" reflects the desire for open and direct contact between people. Patients very often send their statements regarding others to the wrong address, thereby revealing their fears and unwillingness to speak directly and unambiguously.

Fear of contact, its avoidance, superficial or distorted communication with others support the patient's sense of isolation and loneliness. Therefore, during the session, the therapist encourages participants to make attempts at direct contact and communication, insisting on addressing specific statements to specific individuals whom they concern already in the first phase of work. At the same time, immediate situations are organized aimed at establishing contact between individuals through a series of short verbal and non-verbal exercises in pairs and triplets.

The principle of subjectivization of statements. This principle is associated with the responsibility and involvement of the patient in what is happening. Quite often people talk about own body, feelings, thoughts and behavior from a certain distance, being, as it were, on the sidelines. That is, a patient's conflict is artificially created with the problems that are essential for him to avoid responsibility for his own decision, and ultimately for himself. Paying attention to the form of the utterance can help the patient to see himself as a subject, and not as an object alienated from himself, with which various things that are not related to him are “done” or “happened”.

Continuity of awareness. Awareness as the basis of therapeutic work means deliberate concentration on the spontaneous flow of the content of experiences, complete control of what is happening at the moment. This method leads the individual to own experience and the rejection of endless verbalizations, clarifications and interpretations of the situation. Awareness of feelings, bodily sensations and observations represent the most definite part of our knowledge, which creates the basis for the orientation of a person in his inner world and in the connections of the "I" with the environment. Using awareness helps shift the focus from the question of "why" to the question of "what" and "how" happens. Since each action can have many causes, the clarification of all these causes leads further and further away from understanding the essence of the action itself.

4. Gestalt therapy methods

In Gestalt therapy, there are general principles for constructing a psychotherapeutic process. They concern, first of all, certain speech constructions.

1. The use of the pronoun "I" instead of "we", "he", "they".

2. Replacing the verb “I can’t” with “I don’t want”, “I must” with “I prefer”.

3. Finding out what is behind the word "it".

4. Using direct address instead of describing someone in the third person.

5. Replacing the question "why" with the question "how", which does not allow you to go into reasoning, but turns to feelings.

6. Replacing a question with a statement.

Such constructions are based on the basic idea of ​​Gestal therapy that language creates a gap between thoughts and feelings, person and environment. The language fixes human experience, but at the same time it makes it possible to transmit introjects. In the process of interaction with society, a person is increasingly moving away from his feelings. The verbal construction “should” is of particular interest for the work. Moreover, what a person "should" is assessed as good, and what he wants, respectively, as bad. Thus, people learn to act in accordance with the norms, to evaluate their experiences on the basis of standards, some taboos that have been established in society. One such technique for working with speech is called "The Power of Speech". Expressions like “I have to…”, “I can't…”, “I don't need…” and “I'm afraid…” deprive you of strength, ability to act and responsibility. There are many opportunities to live full life, and only your confidence in your inability to live as you want prevents this. By changing the way you speak, you will take an important step towards increasing your responsibility for your own thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Another language construct used in Gestalt therapy is finding cause and effect relationships to justify oneself. “I lived in the wilderness as a child, didn’t play with children, so it’s difficult for me to make contact and get to know people,” says the client. He has created a certain law for himself and unconsciously strives to follow it in every situation. All other aspects of the situation, especially feelings, desires, sensations, are simply ignored by him.

In Gestalt therapy, the so-called shuttle technique is very popular. In response to the client's story, the therapist says, "Are you aware of this sentence?" Thus the client moves from speaking to listening, from description to feeling, from past experience to present, from vague feelings to real, present emotion. Providing successive translations, the psychotherapist directs attention to current feelings, creates conditions for improving contact with reality. The technique of "Walking in a circle" "rondo" creates a condition for expressing a certain attitude or feeling directly to each participant in the process, which often allows you to more differentiatedly determine your own experiences and connections with others. Repeating a phrase that expresses a deeply rooted belief over and over can change its meaning and content for the patient. The performance of such “rounds” in a group may also include non-verbal actions (facial expressions, gestures, locomotion).

“Unfinished business” is usually applied at the very beginning of working with a client. It is intended to complete all sorts of situations and actions started in the past. Most people have many of these unfinished questions related to interpersonal relationships with parents, relatives, friends, colleagues, etc. According to Perls, the most common types of unfinished relationship questions are complaints and grievances that have never been voiced. Such unfinished business requires concentration and unproductively consumes the patient's energy, as he constantly returns to them. In this game, the patient is asked to complete a task that was previously unfinished.

"I have a secret." In this game, an exploration of guilt and shame is undertaken. Each participant is asked to think of some important and well-kept personal secret. The therapist asks participants not to share these secrets, but to imagine how others might react if these secrets became known to them. The next step might be to give each participant an opportunity to brag to others about "what a terrible secret he is keeping within himself." Quite often it turns out that many unconsciously are very attached to their secrets as something meaningful to them.

"Rehearsal". Often the lack of success in actions in specific life situations is determined by how this person in the imagination prepares to meet these situations. Such training in thought and imagination often takes place in accordance with rigid and ineffective stereotypes, which are a source of constant anxiety and even destructive behavior. Rehearsing behavior aloud in a psychotherapy group with the involvement of other participants allows you to better understand your own stereotypes, as well as use new ideas and ways to effectively solve them.

"Checking the Ready Opinion". Sometimes, some vague, vague message, some kind of understatement, is caught in the words. Then you can use the following formula: “Listening to you, I have one opinion. I want to invite you to repeat it out loud and check how it sounds in your mouth, how it suits you. If you agree to try, repeat this opinion to several members of the group. This exercise contains the factor of interpretation of the hidden meaning of the patient's behavior, but the therapist does not try to communicate his interpretation to the patient, he only provides him with the opportunity to explore the experiences associated with testing the working hypothesis. If the hypothesis proves fruitful, the patient can develop it in the context of his own activities and experiences.

"Direction of Behavior". In a number of situations, through instructions and indications of what can be done at the moment, the patient is invited to perform certain actions. Such instructions, of course, do not determine how the patient should act in life, they only indicate the direction of specific behavior during therapeutic work. Such an experiment causes certain experiences that can change the patient's point of view on his previous behavior, experiences, relationships with people.

"Homework". The actions of the patient and the therapist during the next sessions do not create the full conditions necessary for deep therapeutic changes. They are a source of important experiences that mobilize the process of change. However, they require continuation and development in conditions Everyday life. Therefore, the Gestalt therapist continues to cooperate with the patient outside the therapy room. The patient's homework should be aimed at solving his problem.

The technical procedures of therapy are called games and represent experiments with different roles, identifications with significant feelings, alienated subpersonalities and introjects. The goal of games is to close gestalts; the criterion for achieving the goal is "aha-experience" (cf. insight). Some exercises are performed in pairs, subgroups or the whole group.

To expand the boundaries of contacts, apply special exercises: prolonged chewing, repeated opening and closing of the eyes, focusing the gaze, looking around, listening to the sound of speech, repeating what was said, feeling one's own movements (for example, rotation of the eyes, head, pelvis). At the same time, trust in another person is increased by joint exercise: touches, mutual pushes, etc. Relaxation, breathing exercises, body therapy techniques, psycho-gymnastics, and dance therapy are also used.

Metaphors are widely used in Gestalt therapy. An example is the integration metaphor. The shuttle method reveals the conflicting subpersonalities of the participant. At the same time, the participant alternately sits either on the “hot” chair, reproducing his dominant part, or on the “empty chair”, where he speaks on behalf of the repressed part. After that, at the same distance from the "hot" and "empty" chair, a third chair is placed, on which the participant sits. He takes everything good (qualities, skills) from the first chair with his left hand, then everything good from the second right hand. After that, the hands join, the integration of subpersonalities begins. The same metaphor can be visual: imagine a bag that contains everything necessary for the cooperation of both parts.

The following metaphors are most often used in Gestalt groups: - A group as a building in which each participant acts as a part of it. - A group on a world tour changes vehicles. - A group is like a kindergarten, a school, a company, a prison. - The group is like a communal apartment. - The group enacts a funeral ritual for a member who is concerned about his own mortality. - The group is like a zoo and homeless animals. - The group participates in the carnival. - A group as a human or animal organism. - The group acts out the process of conception of a child, development of the embryo and birth. - The group depicts human development at different ages.

Much attention is paid to fantasies and dreams, which are transferred to real ground, at the present time, with the return of the personality of those fragments that were projected onto fictional images. The main goals of fantasizing are contact with unacceptable events, feelings or personal qualities, contact with an absent person or unfinished situation, exploration of the unknown, exploration of new or unknown aspects of the personality. Dreams are considered as a projection, as an opportunity to realize actual relationships with others and the therapist in order to understand the existential position of the individual. Transference analysis is replaced by a focus on contact: with one's own functions, with the therapist, with group members. Working with a contact goes through a number of stages: identifying needs; an attempt to satisfy a need; mobilization of internal struggle; approval of the theme (combining need and resistance); impasse (crisis); catharsis; insight; recognition (pleasure from a new perception of oneself and the environment).

Bibliography

1. Akhmedov T. Introduction to general psychotherapy: Tutorial. - M.: AST, 2005. - 414 p.

2. Perls F. Gestalt Approach and Witness Therapy. - M.: Libris, 1996. - 240s.

3. Psychological Dictionary/ Ed. V. Davydova and others - M ..: Pedagogy, 1983. - 448s.

4. Todd J, Bogart A.K. Fundamentals of clinical and advisory psychology. - M .: Eksmo-Press, 2001. - 761s.

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summary of the work, added 01/05/2008


The origins of the creation and prerequisites for the emergence of Gestalt therapy. Basic concepts of Gestalt psychology and their influence on the ideas of Gestalt therapy. Frederick and Laura Perls are the founders of Gestalt Therapy. Influence of P. Goodman and I. Frome on the theory of Gestalt therapy.

term paper, added 12/29/2014


Characteristics of Gestalt psychotherapy, its main tasks, mechanisms of the therapeutic process and the main techniques used. Basic concepts of the theory of Gestalt psychology and its main goals. Mechanisms of the therapeutic process in Gestalt therapy.

abstract, added 03/22/2009


Practical provision of effective psychological assistance with advice and recommendations to people. Objective presence of psychological problems. Psychological counseling within the framework of Gestalt psychology. The concept of incomplete actions in gestalt therapy.

abstract, added 20.02.2012


The basic concept and general provisions of Gestalt psychology, its the main objective and forms of conduct. The ability of a person to be aware of himself and his dominant need is the main condition necessary in order to form and complete the gestalt.

abstract, added 05/28/2009


Passive adaptation and creative adaptation as types of contact with the environment. The potential of the relationship between the therapist and the client, the patient's awareness of his personality. The concept of resistance in Gestalt therapy and a description of the mechanisms for interrupting contact.

control work, added 12/13/2012


Study of the problems of modern human knowledge. Comprehensive study of man and psychological diagnostics. Classification of psychological methods according to B.G. Ananiev. Gestalt therapy as the creation and strengthening by a person of a holistic image of his personality.

Modern existential psychotherapy has many directions, one of which is Gestalt therapy.

The purpose of this therapy is the awareness of the individual in an effort to increase self-esteem, fullness and meaningfulness of life, increase actions that are aimed at improving communication and interaction with other people.

life situations

To understand the essence of this concept, we can take as an example life situations that can occur in every person:

• A woman spends all her time at work, and even at home, all conversations are related to her activities. The husband is offended by this situation.
• A mother who is constantly busy with the problems of her children, distracted by extraneous thoughts, made a mistake in the working documentation.
• While walking down the street, your head is busy thinking about broken feelings or a missed romance, without noticing a traffic light, you go to a red light.

Thus, a person, living in the inner world, thinking about what is unnecessary for him, lives an extraneous life. His memories and thoughts do not allow him to be in real time, to live real emotions.

Or, on the contrary, everyday fuss moves a person away from his dream or goal. Instead of focusing on this, we do unnecessary, vain things.

We live either in memories that sometimes bring us suffering, or we are chasing a phantom - a dream that is unlikely to come true. As a result, this leads to divorces, heart attacks, diseases, ulcers, or dismissal from work. Having mastered the technique of Gestalt therapy, you will be able to filter situations that are unnecessary for you.

History reference

This teaching was developed by Fritz Perls (1893-1970). He was a psychiatrist with great experience, he developed a method for treating people with mental illness. But already during the lifetime of the scientist and to the present, Gestalt therapy has grown from a psychotherapeutic teaching into something more. Now this therapy is used in all spheres of life, as it helps to resolve difficult situations in life.

Fritz Perls himself argued that a person is a holistic creature, and not its assembled parts. Physical, spiritual and social aspects must merge into a single person.

Each problem must be solved not from the cause, but from its awareness. It is worth asking a question about how a person feels at the moment and how this can be changed, and not looking for the guilty and not wondering why this happened. Perls therapy aims to be aware of life in the moment, here and now, to live fully in the present moment, not in the past or the future.

In 1951, Fritz Perls, with his two colleagues Paul Gooden and Ralph Hefferlin, wrote his work Gestalt Therapy, Arousal and the Growth of the Human Personality. In 1952, the Gestalt Institute was established in the US city of New York. Back in 1913, the scientist began to study medicine from a philosophical point of view. Fritz Perls' reference book was Freud's Psychoalnaliz.

What is Gestalt Therapy?

The gestalt therapist does it. Through suggestion, he focuses the patient on the state of "here and now", turning him into every moment of the present. A person begins to realize himself in real time, he has a sense of responsibility, he begins to experience feelings and emotions now and here.

The main methods of Gestalt therapy when working with clients:

• Focusing energy.
• Awareness of responsibility.
• Art therapy. Application of creativity and art in this treatment.
• Monodrama. It uses role-playing games, performances, which allows a person to live dramatic situations in a new way.
• Intersection of work with other types of psychotherapy, such as the "hot chair" technique.
• Gestalt prayer, etc.
• Body Oriented Therapy. It allows you to know your body and understand that the soul and body are one.

There are other ways to work with patients, but the main methods of the Gestalt therapy technique have been presented above.

Principles of this technique

basis this doctrine made the following concepts and principles:

• Integrity. It should be understood that a person is a holistic creature. Dividing it into the psyche, soul and body is not able to help him in understanding his inner world.

• The principle of creation and destruction of Gestalt therapy structures. It is based on the needs and desires of the individual. When the goal is achieved, the destruction of the gestalt occurs.
• The meaning of the pumped-up gestalt, methods and techniques of therapy. There are in people's lives and unfinished life situations that negatively affect their psyche. In Gestalt sessions, the therapist helps the patient to become aware of his unfinished business, mentally complete it or bring it closer to completion. A person transfers this experience to everyday life, which allows him to cope with many negative situations.
• Contact and its boundary. A person is constantly in contact with visible things - the environment, people, animals, etc. There are also invisible contacts - energy, bioenergy, psychological fields, the presence of various information in life. The place of contact of a person with all these species is called the contact boundary. The task of the existing therapy is to create favorable conditions precisely at the border of such contacts.
• Awareness of reality. What is meant here is not that man knows his nature and the world. And the realization that he is here and now. Realize it not with the mind, but with the feelings. Live not with a mechanical consciousness, when all situations and emotions occur unconsciously, but move based on your inner content.
• Finding here and now. Understand that all the important moments in life are happening right now. By focusing our minds on the past or the future, we miss the present moment. The past is already far away, and the future has not yet come, so a person is in illusions, forgetting about the present.
• The concept of responsibility. This is an important quality of the individual, which comes from his awareness. If people begin to realize the real reality, then their sense of responsibility will be developed. It is very important to take responsibility for yourself, and not blame it on others.

In Gestalt therapy, there are general principles for constructing a psychotherapeutic process. They concern, first of all, certain speech constructions. Some of them are listed below.
1. The use of the pronoun "I" instead of "we", "he", "they".
2. Replacing the verb “I can’t” with “I don’t want”, “I must” with “I prefer”.
3. Finding out what is behind the word "it".
4. Using direct address instead of describing someone in the third person.
5. Replacing the question "why" with the question "how", which does not allow you to go into reasoning, but turns to feelings.
6. Replacing a question with a statement.

Such constructions are based on the basic idea of ​​Gestal therapy that language creates a gap between thoughts and feelings, person and environment. The language fixes human experience, but at the same time it makes it possible to transmit introjects. In the process of interaction with society, a person is increasingly moving away from his feelings. The verbal construction “should” is of particular interest for the work. Moreover, what a person "should" is assessed as good, and what he wants, respectively, as bad. Thus, people learn to act in accordance with the norms, to evaluate their experiences on the basis of standards, some taboos that have been established in society.

As an example, we give one of the techniques for working with speech, which is called "The Power of Speech". Sit face to face with a partner, and, looking into his eyes, address him with three statements beginning with the words "I must ...". Now return to the original statements beginning with “I have to…” and replacing them with “I decided…” leaving the second part of each sentence the same. Pay attention to your feelings as you say these phrases. Now listen to your partner pronounce these phrases, beginning with "I've decided...". Give time to share experiences.

After that, together take turns starting phrases with the words "I can't ...". Listen to your partner when he talks about what he can't. Then remember your statements and repeat them, beginning with the words "I don't want to ...", leaving the second part of the phrase unchanged. Listen to your partner as he makes his statements, beginning with "I don't want to...". Share your impressions and see if you have realized your ability to give a decisive refusal, replacing indecision and impotence in situations that require certainty.

After that, say three sentences in turn, beginning with the words "I need ...". Then repeat these phrases, but starting with the words "I want ...". Re-share your experiences and see if replacing “need” with “want” has led to a sense of relief and freedom. Ask yourself if what you were talking about is really necessary for life or without it, although it seems useful, you can do without.

Finally, exchange lines beginning with "I'm afraid..." and replacing them with "I wish...", leaving the second part of each phrase unchanged. Share your experience with a partner.

Expressions like “I have to…”, “I can't…”, “I don't need…” and “I'm afraid…” deprive you of strength, ability to act and responsibility. There are many opportunities to live life to the fullest, and only your belief in your inability to live as you want prevents it. By changing the way you speak, you will take an important step towards increasing your responsibility for your own thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Another language construct used in Gestalt therapy is finding cause and effect relationships to justify oneself. “As a child, I lived in the wilderness, did not play with children, so it is difficult for me to make contact and get to know people,” says the client. He has created a certain law for himself and unconsciously strives to follow it in every situation. All other aspects of the situation, especially feelings, desires, sensations, are simply ignored by him.

In Gestalt therapy, the so-called shuttle technique is very popular. In response to the client's story, the therapist says, "Are you aware of this sentence?" Thus the client moves from speaking to listening, from description to feeling, from past experience to present, from vague feelings to real, present emotion. Providing successive translations, the psychotherapist directs attention to current feelings, creates conditions for improving contact with reality.

Walking in a circle (“rondo” creates a condition for expressing a certain attitude or feeling directly to each participant in the process, which often allows you to more differentiatedly define your own experiences and connections with others. Repeated repetition of a phrase expressing a deeply rooted belief can help change its meaning and content for The performance of such “rounds” in a group may also include non-verbal actions (facial expressions, gestures, locomotion).

“Unfinished business” is usually applied at the very beginning of working with a client. It is intended to complete all sorts of situations and actions started in the past. Most people have many of these unfinished questions related to interpersonal relationships with parents, relatives, friends, colleagues, etc. According to Perls, the most common types of unfinished relationship questions are complaints and grievances that have never been voiced. Such unfinished business requires concentration and unproductively consumes the patient's energy, as he constantly returns to them.

In this game, the patient is asked to complete a task that was previously unfinished. For example, if the heart of the matter is an unexpressed feeling towards a member of the therapeutic group, then the patient is asked to express it directly. If a we are talking about resentment, then a game is offered in which communication is limited to statements beginning with the words: "I am offended ...".

"I have a secret." In this game, an exploration of guilt and shame is undertaken. Each participant is asked to think of some important and well-kept personal secret. The therapist asks participants not to share these secrets, but to imagine how others might react if these secrets became known to them. The next step might be to give each participant an opportunity to brag to others about "what a terrible secret he is keeping within himself." Quite often it turns out that many unconsciously are very attached to their secrets as something meaningful to them.

"Rehearsal". Often the lack of success in actions in specific life situations is determined by how this person in the imagination prepares to meet these situations. Such training in thought and imagination often takes place in accordance with rigid and ineffective stereotypes, which are a source of constant anxiety and even destructive behavior. Rehearsing behavior aloud in a psychotherapy group with the involvement of other participants allows you to better understand your own stereotypes, as well as use new ideas and ways to effectively solve them.

"Checking the Ready Opinion". Sometimes, some vague, vague message, some kind of understatement, is caught in the words. Then you can use the following formula: “Listening to you, I have one opinion. I want to invite you to repeat it out loud and check how it sounds in your mouth, how it suits you. If you agree to try, repeat this opinion to several members of the group.

This exercise contains the factor of interpretation of the hidden meaning of the patient's behavior, but the therapist does not try to communicate his interpretation to the patient, he only provides him with the opportunity to explore the experiences associated with testing the working hypothesis. If the hypothesis proves fruitful, the patient can develop it in the context of his own activities and experiences.

"Direction of Behavior". In a number of situations, through instructions and indications of what can be done at the moment, the patient is invited to perform certain actions. Such instructions, of course, do not determine how the patient should act in life, they only indicate the direction of specific behavior during therapeutic work. Such an experiment causes certain experiences that can change the patient's point of view on his previous behavior, experiences, relationships with people.

Homework. The actions of the patient and the therapist during the next sessions do not create the full conditions necessary for deep therapeutic changes. They are a source of important experiences that mobilize the process of change. However, they require continuation and development in the conditions of everyday life. Therefore, the Gestalt therapist continues to cooperate with the patient outside the therapy room. The patient's homework should be aimed at solving his problem.