Rogers Gestalt Therapy - Essay Example

Humanistic psychology gave human development a very positive push or motivation, and Client Centered as well as Gestalt Therapy is one of its major components. The practitioners of this genre of psychology felt that as human beings the reason we do anything, that we strive for any goal is that it is in our natures to seek the good and to be the best we can be. During the development of the personality, the primary caregiver must connect with positive regard to the child in order for his or her personality to develop correctly. This becomes the basis for congruence and the personality is more directly connected between the real self and the perceived self. This Rogers perceives as a required psychological adjustment, “.which is characterized by an openness to experience without defensiveness, congruence between self and experience, and living by an internal locus of evaluation rather than by externally determined conditions of worth." (Demorest 144) As human beings we have an "idea" or concept of who we are and what we really should be, hence we create an Ideal Self that we constantly strive for, often in vain. If the perceived self, our own self-image, is not aligned with the actual self, how we really are, there will always be personality problems and dysfunction as one relates to one's self and the rest of the world.

(Kail & Wicks). In some sense, if a human being grows in a very healthy and psychologically and socially secure and protected environment, congruence should naturally be achieved. If he or she has felt the unconditional positive reinforcement that Rogers advocates, then congruence, should be an outcome of certainty. (Vander Zanden) The human being's ability to adapt and change is one of the species' greatest strengths but may also keep total congruence just a little out of reach. Gestalt therapy is an active, fluid process that emphasizes the present, not the past, and the interaction between client and counselor is of paramount importance.

However, the customary phases of therapy such as, defining the problem, exploring the problem, experimenting with change, termination, etc., also appear to apply to Gestalt therapy as well. (Fall, Holder, and Marquis) Carl Rogers felt that the self is…the organized, consistent, conceptual gestalt composed of perceptions of the characteristics of the "I" or "me" and the perceptions of the relationships of the "I" or "me" to others and to various aspects of life, together with the values attached to these perceptions.

(Rogers 200) For Rogers, Gestalt Therapy points out the possibility of change through the therapist’s interaction with the client by holding up a mirror, and since the self is also, “…a configuration in which the alteration of one minor aspect could possibly alter the whole picture" (201), this interaction must be finely tuned so as not to be overbearing but very slight in nature. The example from Rogers’ famous session with “Gloria” is an example of that: Something happened in those few short minutes which has stayed with me ever since.

He simply helped me to recognize my own potential--my value as a human being. All the words couldn’t possibly express the importance of that for me. (Dolliver, Williams, & Gold, 1980, p. 141) Both therapies’ utility lies in the fact that they are centered on the self and the actualization that can be achieved through the smallest of interventions. Their weaknesses lie in the fact that while these “gestalts” may be an immediate “aha!” experience, their effect may not be long-lasting and more sessions may be necessary to ferret out the real issues at hand. Since the therapist in both cases needs to be a reflection of the client, it is hoped that they are quite multicultural and adaptable and the population addressed wide-ranging.