Gestalt Therapy Analysis

545 Words2 Pages

Gestalt therapy emphasizes awareness of self and others in relationships (Sharf, 2012, 245). It also focuses on one’s current situation and ability to take responsibility for it (Sharf, 2012, 252). I really liked learning about this therapy, because I feel like it can be utilized at my workplace, a prison setting. Inmate patients we receive have a very hard time accepting responsibility for how they got to us, and in jail, in the first place. They also struggle immensely with building relationships and maintaining relationships both in prison and outside of it.
The video with Dr. Ed Neukrug and Jill showed the Empty Chair Technique in action, which is finally a technique that I feel, would be incredibly powerful to use in the prison setting. An “empty chair” is used to help engage a patient’s thoughts and feelings in hopes to bring about awareness and comfort to the patient (Sharf, 2012, 271). This technique gives the patient the ability to imagine and dialogue with themselves or someone else, that they may be having resentment or misunderstanding towards (Neukrug, 2011). In the ...

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