Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Essay Example

The process takes place as it is revealed to the therapist by the unfolding of past happenings impacting the present by increasing the horizon of awareness. It helps the client comprehend and adjust to opposing elements by reorganizing their different aspects. The gestalt therapist helps in identifying the client’s dire needs, problems, and interests. By conducting experiments, such figures are highlighted and hurdles to realizations and awareness are explored.  Like other major approaches, the gestalt approach has its strong and weak areas.

Strengths of the Gestalt approach: In the Gestalt approach dialog with the client is held in a lively and creative way to bring out and identify the current life issues. The client gets acquainted with self, others, and the environment. Gestalt therapy centers on genuine relationships and dialog. Stress is laid on awareness, field theory, and phenomenology. The approach focuses on the current, on-the-spot experiences of the client. The client learns through creative and continuous use of active experiments, clearing the path to experiential learning. The holistic approach views each experience of the client with equal concern. Without any set pattern, the approach helps individuals take notice of the threshold between them and their environment. A crucial strength of gestalt therapy is the equal involvement of theory, practice, and research. Empirical research plays a crucial part in helping individuals become aware of their environment. The subjective research helps in process and outcome studies, indicating that the gestalt approach is comparatively better than other approaches for different psychological disorders. It has a positive impact on clients with disturbed personalities, psychosomatic problems, and drug addicts. The Gestalt approach provides long-term after-treatment relief to the client.

Weaknesses of the Gestalt approach: The Gestalt approach devalues the role of a teacher being played by the therapist. It helps the client in mature thought processes, searching convictions, and meaningful experiences, as stress is laid on the client self-realizing, gaining insight into the environment with the role of the teacher played by the therapist. A therapist’s role becomes very challenging to be present in the process without letting personal egos clash with the client’s process. Untrained therapists can be defensive and not revealing; they can create a false impression of themselves on the client. Only a true professional having clinical background and training not only in gestalt theory and practice but also in personality theory, psychopathology, and psychodynamics, can be deemed competent. There is fear of experiments getting boomeranged because of a therapist lacking in important traits like sensitivity, timing, inventiveness, empathy, and respect for the client. The gestalt approach is very demanding on the therapist to remain there with the client till the end, helping the client go through the experience and end the dialog on a positive note; a therapist’s judgment is very crucial, which only an experienced and well-trained gestalt therapist possesses.