Gestalt Theory

The objective of Gestalt Therapy is to enable the client to become more fully and creatively alive and to be free from the blocks and unfinished issues. Gestalt therapy falls in the category of humanistic psychotherapies. Gestalt therapy focuses on the here and now, the therapist-client relationship, and personal responsibility. In Gestalt therapy, it is only possible to truly know oneself as we exist in there here and now and in relation to other things. This focus on the experiential present moment, is in contrast to the other therapeutic approaches which look at the past, the unknown, and even the unknowable. 

One therapy intervention that Gestalt therapy uses is THE EMPTY CHAIR TECHNIQUE. When a client goes to a Gestalt therapist, there is commonly an empty chair placed in the room. The chair serves as an important function. When the client expresses a conflict with another person through this technique, the client is directed to talk to the other person who is imagined to be sitting in an empty chair beside or across from the client. This helps the client to understand and express the feeling more thoroughly. By doing this, is stimulates the client's thinking which highlights their emotions and attitudes. For example, If a client has an issue with their father, the therapist would ask the client to imagine their father sitting in the chair and ask them to say what they would like to say if their father was sitting right there in front of them. 

The cognitive goal of this process is to get the client to come to an understanding about how the imaginary person will be thinking about the same issues.

The behavioral goal for the client to to come out with new behaviors in the supportive environment of the therapy and then they expand their awareness. 

Unfinished Business

Feelings about the past are unexpressed. These feelings are associated 

with distinct memories and fantasies. Feelings not fully experienced linger in the background and interfere with effective contact. It is important to pay attention to the bodily experience because if feelings are unexpressed they tend to result in a physical symptom.

Dreamwork in Gestalt therapy can be lively and exciting. We discover meanings and connect with our deeper feelings and energies by "living portions" of our dreams. This dreamwork facilitates personal growth and healing. There are a few steps to approach while analyzing these dreams: 

Step 1: Tell The Dream

Step 2: Notice What Stands Out 

Step 3: "Become" Part Of The Dream

Step 4: Dialogue

Psycho Analytical vs. Adlerian vs. Existential Therapy

The three theories that we have talked about in class are all very different approaches towards the client. Although they all hold different beliefs and approaches, there are also a few comparisons among the three theories. I would like to compare and contrast the three theories. 

A client may go to 3 different therapists and get a completely different kind of therapy and a way of approaching their issues and what they talk about. If someone were to go to a psychoanalytic therapist, the therapist would most likely put off a blank attitude and be very quiet, wanting the client to speak out on their own and talk about issues on their own so that they may analyze how the client thinks and approaches things. The therapist sometimes says things just to see how the client will react so that he can analyze deeper. 

If the same client goes to a therapist which takes on the Adlerian theory, the therapist is more of a guide to helping the client sort out his or her feelings. Therapists are much more engaged with conversation with the client. Adlerians to view the world from the client's subjective frame of reference. They pay attention to the individual  and the ways that people perceive the world. This includes the individual's perceptions, thoughts, feelings, values, beliefs, convictions and conclusions. Objective reality is less important than how we interpret reality and the meanings we attach to what we experience. 

Lastly, if the client were to go to a therapist who took on an Existential approach they would have a different experience. Existential therapy focuses on the here and now and they focus on the client being self-aware. They take a very respectful approach to their clients. The therapists ask the clients if they are willing to make certain changes in their life and daily schedule. The therapist gives the client freedom and responsibility. They are interested in the client's worldview. The therapist gives confrontation, clarification, and interpretation. The Existential therapist lets the client decide what they want to take out of the session.   

"Dreams are the touchstones of our characters." - Henry David Thoreau

Consistent with the psychoanalytic perspective, Sigmund Freud's theory of dreams suggested that dreams are a representation of unconscious desires, thoughts and motivations. According to Freud's psychoanalytic view of personality, people are driven aggressive and sexual instincts that are repressed from conscious awareness. While these thoughts are not consciously expressed, Freud suggested they found our way into our awareness through dreams. 

Freud listed the distorting operations that he claimed were implied to repressed wishes in forming the dream as recollected. It is because of these distortions that the content of the dream differs from the latent dream thought reached through analysis. The four operations include: 

1. Condensation- one dream object stands for several associations and ideas.

2. Displacement- A dream object's emotional significance is separated from it's real object or content and attached to an entirely different one that does not raise the censor's suspicions.

3. Representation- a though is translated to visual images.

4. Symbolism- A symbol replaces an action, person, or idea.

Below is a link to interpreting certain dreams. Certain symbols are common in dreams and psychologists have done research and studies to determine what these symbols can mean for an individual. 

http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/

A very common dream that people have is that there teeth will fall out of their mouth. It may happen in many different ways. One theory of dreaming about your teeth falling out is anxiety about the way you look or how people perceive you. Your teeth help to convey an image of attractiveness and play an important role in the game of flirtation. Such dreams may stem from a fear of rejection. 

Whether we believe it or not, our dreams seem to speak a lot about how we feel about certain life issues or what we may be unconsciously worried about. Our dreams can probably tell us more about what we are thinking than we actually know for ourselves.