David Forrest: Gestaltuk

Challenge – as an intervention in therapy

I have recently been in discussion with my therapist peers regarding ‘challenging’ interventions in therapy, and what exactly is meant by ‘challenge’ in this context. In consideration of the humanistic positioning of our therapies, Gestalt and Integrative, there are a number of exclusions from the varied meanings found in the Oxford Dictionary of English. What I have done here is filtered the definitions to those that fit a therapeutic intervention for a humanistic, relational, experiential, phenomenological, existential, person and present centre approach.

Comment:

Reference:

Excitements Life Abilities And Risks Of Each Domain

The domain becomes, for us, the experiential realm relative to a certain capability of contact. In other words, the being confluent, introjecting, projecting, etc. cannot be phases of development, but are modalities of contact of which the child is capable and which continue to be developed throughout life. The therapist asks, not to what phase of development the patient’s block refers, but how the patient’s present capabilities of projecting, retroflecting etc. (developed through time) are combined in a Gestalt represented now by the patient’s being-in-therapy. The domains are competences of an intersubjective experience, of modalities of contact that become more evident at a certain point of the child’s development and which are developed throughout the course of life, as autonomous-in-mutual-interaction capabilities.

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Could you just listen

When I ask you to listen to me, and you start giving me advice, you have note done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen to me, and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings.

Comment:

Came across this sometime like 2004.  Have used this in many encounters.  Earliest time I can recall using this was March 2011

Reference:

Panic Attacks

first published by davidforrest on Sat, 27/10/2012 - Based on: Panic Attacks and Postmodernity: Gestalt Therapy Between Clinical and Social Perspectives. Gianni Francesetti (Editor) 2007.

Those suffering panic attacks tend to describe their condition as something unsayable. This unsayability would seem to lie at the very heart of the panic attack experience.

The unsayable is in the very essence of the panic attack; defying the logic of the experience - in every other sense the client 'knows' (mostly) they are not going to stop breathing; not going to have a heart attack; is not going to suffocate.

The unsayable is not a failure or deficit of language, rather is itself in the origin of the panic attack.

The daily life of those who suffer panic attacks is suddenly interrupted, as if they had suffered a severe trauma. In panic attacks, as opposed to a trauma event, there is no phenomenological source for the client's anxiety; a trauma has occurred - its nature, however is unsayable.

As therapists we are dealing with the consequences of a trauma that has not been fully experienced. Our task is to construct a new ground of security. We cannot recreate the previous sense of security; it is no longer here, it is gone; it has past, forever.

Comment:

written by davidforrest on Sat, 27/10/2012

Reference:

Panic Attacks and Postmodernity: Gestalt Therapy Between Clinical and Social Perspectives. Gianni Francesetti (Editor) 2007

Gestalt Contact Cycle Explained

At the point where the self is balanced, between cycles, after completion and prior to the next fore-contact there is either internal or external disturbances will impinge upon the self heralding the start of the figure/background formation process.

The self feels, senses, (a) disturbance, a change of status and so (a) figure forms to the fore front. The person is ready to notice, to be aware

Comment:

This is a very 'early in my training' explanation.  Subsequent writings will show a shifting emphasis

Reference:

Change

The Gestalt therapist rejects the role of "changer," for his strategy is to encourage, even insist, that the patient be where and what he is. He believes change does not take place by "trying," coercion, or persuasion, or by insight, interpretation, or any other such means. Rather, change can occur when the patient abandons, at least for the moment, what he would like to become and attempts to be what he is. 

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Egan Skilled Helper Model

Comment about the book:

Emphasizing the collaborative nature of the therapist-client relationship, THE SKILLED HELPER is internationally recognized for its successful problem-management and opportunity development approach to effective helping, using a practical, three-stage model. In this new ninth edition, Egan continues to build upon the "positive psychology", solution-focused theme by adding insightful new discussions on evidence-based practice, research, and philosophical perspectives.

Comment:

This was used at the time I working with the CPD Department within the Health Faculty of Birmingham City University at Westbourne Road back around 2007-9 

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Change Stability

Resistance - Stability versus Change

The Gestalt therapist rejects the role of "changer," for his strategy is to encourage, even insist, that the patient be where and what he is. He believes change does not take place by "trying," coercion, or persuasion, or by insight, interpretation, or any other such means. Rather, change can occur when the patient abandons, at least for the moment, what he would like to become and attempts to be what he is.

Comment:

All movement engenders resistance. Since experience is in constant flux, it too takes place against an inner resistance. This inner resistance of mine I experience as a reluctance to change my own ways of doing things, of behaving as I typically do in daily life.

Reference:

Ten Things Your Teen Is Reluctant To Tell You

It's hard to be a PG teen in an X-rated world...  When you say "absolutely not," it takes the monkey off my back...  You used to drive my monsters away, but now I have different ones...  I'm not being moody, I don't know how else to respond

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... remember one thing only: that it's you - nobody else - who determine your destiny and decide your fate. Nobody else can be alive for you nor can you be alive for anyone else.

Cummings, E. E., (1971) Six Nonlectures. Antheneum, New York

Reference:

Reece, Colleen L., 1995 Ten Things Your Teen is Reluctant To Tell You. Focus on the Family September 1995

Teenage: Self Harm

The most common reasons given by pupils for deliberate self harm were 'to find relief from a terrible state of mind' or because they had 'wanted to die'. Contrary to popular belief few were 'trying to frighten someone' or simply 'get attention'.

• The majority of those who self-harm cut themselves.

• Girls are nearly four times more likely to self-harm than boys.

• The most common reason given was 'to find relief from a terrible situation,' the least common reason was 'to get my own back.'

• up to half of those who self-harm seek help from friends before acting.

However I would like you to read through this information...

Comment:

This page of mine was first written back in the early 2000s.  So much more supportive information is now available on line

go to MIND/Self Harm

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Teenage Anger

In anger - not rage - the person is expressing more clearly what is happening; what is wanted; what is going wrong; what is not being done; and so on. This does not mean this expression is correct - for the situation - nor that the expression needs to be given in to. When not angry the person may not be saying something that inwardly is waiting to be said. Sometimes only in anger is it safe to say what's inside. Safety is ... emotional safety.

Comment:

... remember one thing only: that it's you - nobody else - who determine your destiny and decide your fate. Nobody else can be alive for you nor can you be alive for anyone else.

Cummings, E. E., (1971) Six Nonlectures. Antheneum, New York

Reference:

Embracing the Adolescent

The Teenager and you,  contact...between child and adult.

The adolescent’s sense of self is not yet so strong that words and thoughts - symbolic representation - are enough to anchor its reality in the world.

The adolescent self is a tentative reality, not yet proved.

In many instances the answer to What is he trying to prove? It’s simple.

He is trying to prove that he is who he takes himself to be.

Comment:

I worked as a therapist within the school environment and as part of an adolescent provision team with over 460 contact hours.

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Gestalt Contacting Process

Contacting Process

Contact with anything not novel - not different - does not require adjustment because the familiar, by definition, has been adjusted to (either by integration or rejection).

The Novel

Contact with anything not novel - not different - does not require adjustment because the familiar, by definition, has been adjusted to (either by integration or rejection). What is pervasive is not an object of contact, ie, not assimilable. Essentially, what is not different is not contacted. Therefore what is assimilated is always novel

Comment:

Contact is dynamic, 

“… is the awareness of, and behaviour toward, the assimilable …”. ”. (Perls et al, 1951 p230).

CONTACT may be shown: C=f(A+B)n

Contact is a function of (varies with) the Awareness and Behaviour towards the novel

Reference:

Panic Attacks

Those suffering panic attacks tend to describe their condition as something unsayable. This unsayability would seem to lie at the very heart of the panic attack experience.

The unsayable is in the very essence of the panic attack; defying the logic of the experience - in every other sense the client 'knows' (mostly) they are not going to stop breathing; not going to have a heart attack; is not going to suffocate.

The unsayable is not a failure or deficit of language, rather is itself in the origin of the panic attack.

Comment:

first published by davidforrest on Sat, 27/10/2012 - 10:08
Based on: Panic Attacks and Postmodernity: Gestalt Therapy Between Clinical and Social Perspectives. Gianni Francesetti (Editor) 2007

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