Therapy And Gestalt Therapy

As noted in the text Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (Corey, 2017), the therapeutic goal of psychoanalytic therapy is to understand unconscious motives. During treatment an individual will explore repressed experiences in childhood that may cause restrictions in their current life. In treatment the therapist or ‘analyst’ works with the client in a ‘blank-screen’ approach. This approach presents the analyst with neutrality as they do not participate in self-disclosure. Having a ‘blank-screen’ experience allows the client to explore their unconscious without hesitation or restriction.
The objective for the analysis is to help clients gain freedom from their past which will allow them to love and live in the present moment.
As noted by from the book Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (Corey, 2017), gestalt does not claim to be goal-oriented. Instead, the aim is to create awareness in the environment, and oneself through contact. When a client becomes aware they form the ability to understand what they were denying. By understanding denied experiences, or emotions (such as happiness) the client can produce a ‘whole’ version of themselves. Through active partnership the client explores the following concepts of gestalt therapy: awareness of self and their senses; ownership of one’s experience and responsibility for their actions; clients gain the ability to ask for help and give help to others; and lastly, develop skills that will help satisfy their needs without violating
According to the book Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (Corey, 2017), contemporary gestalt therapist believe clients are the experts on their experience and in turn focus on the client's own self-discovery. In order to achieve this, a gestalt therapist works as a guide or leader through various experiments. A focus is placed on the here and now concept and, like psychoanalytical theory an importance is placed on pauses or hesitations in spoken or unspoken language. However, unlike psychoanalytical therapy, gestalt broadens the language to include body language. Your physical body becomes an important tool in the therapeutic process as one may ask, “what do your eyes say?” Questions such as these contribute to a greater awareness of oneself. Other activities surround language include: replacing I with it; replacing you with I; changing questions into statements; removing statements that do not provide personal power (maybe, perhaps, possibly); proposing metaphors as a reality (e.g. I feel blue. How does blue feel?); and lastly, listening for language that uncovers a