Personal Growth Experienced Through Gestalt Based Group - Literature review Example

Literature Review on Personal Growth Experienced Through Gestalt Based Group Therapy: Gestalt therapy, an existential and experiential psychotherapywhich stresses on the experience of the person in the present time, establishes that the actual experience of any present situation can be contacted directly, felt and described at the existing moment, rather than being explained and interpreted. It is primary to recognise that the Gestalt therapy concerned with the obvious, with things that can be immediately made available to the awareness of the client or therapist. These factors can be shared and expanded in the actual communication in progress. “The aim of Gestalt therapy,” in the words of Laura Perls, “is the awareness continuum, the freely ongoing gestalt formation where what is of great concern and interest to the organism, the relationship, the group and society become Gestalt, comes into the foreground where it can be fully experienced and coped with so that then it can melt into the background and leave the foreground free for the next relevant gestalt.” (Woldt, et al, 2005, p. xvi). The Gestalt therapy makes use of the relationship between the therapist and the client, the environmental and social contexts of the practice, and the self-regulating adjustments that the individual makes according to the demands of the general situation etc. All these can greatly lead to the personal growth of the clients and the group psychotherapy provides the effective platform for the achievement of personal growth. In this literature review, the personal growth of the clients through the Gestalt based group therapy will be the focus and various aspects that affect this process will be analysed. The Gestalt approach to psychotherapy, developed by Frederick Perls, incorporates the process of discriminating awareness which can help a person in restoring his natural functioning. As it is clear, Gestalt therapy is a type of psychotherapy which focuses on what is immediately present. “The aim of gestalt therapy is to help the client to improve the perceptions of his or her experiences in their totality. It is also considered an existential and phenomenological approach, with the emphasis on awareness in the here and now and immediate experience.” (Rinda, 2006). It is of pertinent realisation that this type of therapy centres on the person’s experiencing and the amalgamation of cognitive, emotional and physiological components which create gestalt. Kim Hender, in one arresting study, establishes the major concern of the therapy as the personal growth of the individual. According to him, the therapy is “concerned with, and focussed on, the present and aims to enhance personal growth, expand self-awareness, accept responsibility for who one is and what one is doing and enable one to make choices… Gestalt therapy views the restriction of unwanted emotions (especially anger) as central to the development of psychopathology. According to this perspective, general emotional intensity and the arousal of these emotions must be activated in order to obtain lasting relief of the symptoms of emotional disorder. (Hender, 2001). There have been significant research evidences which suggest the superiority of the Gestalt therapy, compared to other types of therapies, in assisting the individual to achieve the personal growth. Hender’s study compared Gestalt therapy to the cognitive group therapy, no therapy, attention-placebo treatment, discussions of human behaviour, free group activities, and respiratory autogenic training. The study assessed the outcomes such as emotional arousal, depression, anxiety, self-concept, state of relationships, symptom distress, self-ratings, body image, locus of control, health workers ratings, duration of labour and type of delivery. As the summary of the findings suggest, “Six of the seven studies reported that Gestalt therapy resulted in an increase in some positive outcomes when assessed against comparators. (Hender, 2001). The effectiveness of the Gestalt therapy in the development and growth of the individual is indisputable and the various studies indicate the role of the Gestalt based group therapy in the achievement of the personal growth of an individual. In the achievement of the personal growth of the individual, the Gestalt therapy, like the adventure based activities, has been found effective and there are several similarities between the two. According to Shertzer and Stone (1980), the Gestalt theory hypothesises that it is difficult to disconnect an individual from his environment. They also maintain that the behaviour of an individual cannot be realised as numerous responses to several stimuli. Rather, here the stress is undoubtedly on the ‘wholes.’ To them, Gestaltists perceive behaviour as a “whole response to a whole behaviour. (Shertzer et al). The similarity between the adventure counselling and Gestalt theory is in the fact that they both lay stress on the ‘here-and-now’ direction. Another more important similarity between them, as Gerald T. Moote and John S. Wodarski point out, is that “both adventure counselling and Gestalt therapy often occur in groups, and require a high degree of therapist improvisation. (Moote & John, 1997). In this background, it is of paramount relevance to comprehend that the psychotherapy in a group setting has pertinent role in solving the emotional difficulties and encouraging the personal development of the individual. The group therapy has been recognised as one of the prime contributors to the practice based on Gestalt theory and the Gestalt based group therapy has been effective in dealing with the issues of the individuals who are struggling with problems of intimacy, trust and self-esteem etc. It is mainly because the same relationships they experience in their daily life frequently come out in a group and through the assistance of Gestalt therapy these can be effectively dealt with. The other members of the group challenge an individual in the same way he experiences in the real life situation and therefore the benefit of a group therapy is that it helps one to identify, obtain feedback and modify those elements which damage one’s relationships and personal growth. That is to say, one works through the personal issues in a “here and now” situation which is comparable to actuality and there is prospect to discover and mend one’s issues in the safest environment of the therapy. In the practice of the Gestalt group therapy, the entire participants as well as facilitators encounter their recognisable contact styles and habits that may be experimented. Awareness is the basis of their practice and it is different from the awareness individual therapy in that it includes awareness of the functioning and satisfaction of the group member to the group boundary, along with the self awareness as well as awareness of the relation between the therapist and the client. Similarly, the focus of the practice is on the factors that are present in ‘here and now’ and it is the opportunity for the awareness of the group members. To summarise, the contemporary Gestalt group therapist integrates the systems theory, group dynamics theory, and the Gestalt theory. “The overall goal of awareness includes individual recognition, description and all other functions of the self. Within Gestalt group work, the awareness goal also includes recognition, description and ownership of different dynamic processes occurring within the group’s subsystems and the group as a whole.” (Woldt & Toman, 2005). Therefore, the ultimate goal of every Gestalt based group therapy is the personal growth of the individual. More particularly, Gestalt group psychotherapy provides the following: An opportunity to work on personal issues with other members serving as witness and providing support and feedback A place to learn about yourself from observing and participating in others work A laboratory for developing awareness, creating solutions and trying new behaviours An opportunity to do Gestalt work in a group setting An economical way to experience psychotherapy An opportunity to discover and heal relationship issues as they emerge in the group (Psychotherapy). The focus of the Gestalt therapy is obviously the individual and the personal growth of the individual is achieved through the relation between the therapist and the patient. In a Gestalt based group therapy, there is ample scope for this relationship to grow high. It is pertinent to realise the relationship between the therapist and the client as horizontal and they speak the same language, the language of present centeredness, highlighting direct experience of both participants. Gestalt therapy, from its commencement, has focused on the patient’s experience as well as the therapist’s surveillance of things not present in the awareness of the patient. The question of responsibility is of primary relevance and “Gestalt therapy emphasizes that both the therapist and the patient are self-responsible... Therapists are responsible for the quality and quantity of their presence, for knowledge about themselves and the patient, for maintaining a non-defensive posture, and for keeping their awareness and contact processes clear and matched to the patient.” One of the pitfalls of the current Gestalt therapy has been the unavailability of the competent therapists. Among the Gestalt group therapy practices, one-on-one therapy in the group setting as well as the ‘hot seat’ structure has been recognised as efficient. In the 1960s Perls maintained that he would integrate individual and group work in his practice. There is a view that the Gestalt therapist’s style of group work can be understood as doing individual therapy in a group setting. The Gestalt methodology and the therapy make a greater use of the group practice. “This includes greater involvement of group members when an individual is doing one-on-one work, working on individual themes by everyone in the group, emphasis on interrelationships (contact) in the group, and working with group processes per se. The varied degree and type of structure provided by the leader include structured group exercises or no structured group exercises, observing the groups evolving to its own structure, encouraging one-on-one work, and so on. (Yontef). The effectiveness of the Gestalt based group therapy in the personal growth of the individual is often maintained. However, there is undoubtedly a scarcity of relevant research materials on the outcomes of the practice. Though it is the case with many of the different types of counselling and therapy where results of the study are not fixed or guaranteed. This mainly happens due to the lack of sufficient training for the therapists in the group dynamics as well as contaminated environment, uncooperative groups, the anti-group theme etc. All these factors suggest the need for further researches on the effectiveness of the Gestalt based group therapy in the personal growth focusing on the practice outcomes. Reference Woldt, Ansel L., Toman, Sarah M., & Perls, Laura. (2005). pp 221-2,. Comments on the New Directions. Gestalt Therapy. SAGE. Blom, Rinda. (2006). The handbook of gestalt play therapy: Practical guidelines for child therapists. Jessica Kingsley, p.18. Hender, Kim. (2001). Is gestalt therapy more effective than other therapeutic approaches? Centre for Clinical Effectiveness. Retrieved August 02, 2008, from http://www.gestaltbodymind.co.uk/Gestalt%20therapy%20effeectiveness%20comparisons.pdf Shertzer, B. et al. Fundamentals of Counselling (3rd ed.). Moote, Gerald T., & John S, Wodarski. (1997). The acquisition of life skills through adventure-based activities and programs: A review of the literature. Adolescence, 32(125), 143. Woldt, Ansel L., & Toman, Sarah M. (2005). Gestalt therapy. SAGE. Psychotherapy. The PennsyIvania Gestalt Centre. Retrieved August 02, 2008, from http://www.gestaltcenter.com/Offerings/Gestalt_Psychotherapy.htm Yontef, Gary. gestalt therapy: An introduction. The Gestalt Therapy Network. Retrieved August 02, 2008, from http://www.gestalt.org/yontef.htm Read More