Know More about Gestalt Therapy Techniques and Treatment For Depression

Through research and exhaustive efforts over the years  it has been found that  more than 60%of the earth’s suffer from stress and depression in their day to day life ,stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that the individual’s demands exceeds the individuals capabilities .In order to reach out these people a method had to be conjured to help the people to look inside themselves and to understand the root of their problems .To do this first the individual need to discipline their minds by making it devoid of all things ‘ stress’. Hence lead to the enactment of the gestalt therapy techniques to help people overcome their depressions and look forward to a new tomorrow.

Let’s get to know more no gestalt therapy techniques and treatment for depression, Gestalt Therapy Techniques is a phenomenological-existential therapy founded by Frederick and Laura Perl’s in the 1940s.  Explanations and interpretations are considered less reliable than what is directly perceived and felt. Patients and therapists in Gestalt therapy dialogue, that is, communicate their phenomenological perspectives. Differences in perspectives become the focus of experimentation.tis is to make clients to become aware of what they are doing, how they are doing it, and how they can change themselves, and at the same time, to learn to accept and value themselves.

Now lets look into the techniques practiced in gestalt therapy ,firstly lets start with Phenomenology , Phenomenology is a discipline that helps people stand aside from their usual way of thinking so that they can tell the difference between what is actually being perceived and felt in the current situation and what is residue from the past  . The goal of Gestalt phenomenological exploration is to bring about a person’s awareness, or insight to the situation they are subjected to. According to gestalt therapy, context affects experience, and a person cannot be fully understood without understanding his or her context. 

Gestalt therapy also recognizes that forcing a person to change paradoxically results in further distress and fragmentation. Rather, change results from acceptance of what is.

Gestalt therapy also plays a crucial role in Treatment For Depression. Gestalt therapy sessions do not follow specific guidelines; in fact, therapists are encouraged to use creativity in their approaches, depending on context and each person's personality. The empty chair technique and the exaggeration exercise are two of many gestalt therapy techniques used to help people in therapy increase their awareness of immediate experiences. Through exercises and spontaneous experiments, gestalt therapy also allows people reconnect with parts of themselves they may ignore . Thus opening up new possibilities and shine a new more vibrant  ray of hope into their lives.

Awareness For People From Gestalt Psychology and Its Techniques

It is a theory of mind of the Berlin school experimental psychology. It tries to understand the laws of our ability to achieve and continue the consequential perceptions in an apparently chaotic world. And it was founded by Max Wertheimer. The word Gestalt is a unified or meaningful whole. Two major techniques used for this purpose in Gestalt therapy are experiments and exercises.

Overview of Gestalt Psychology:

Gestalt therapy is one more type of counseling and that has established the existing framework. And the key elements include a Phenomenological Basis, Experiential, Existential, Awareness. Gestalt psychology is a school of psychology. It was founded in the 20^th century that offers the base for the latest study of perception. The word Gestalt is used in German and it means “placed” or “put together”. It refers to as ‘Law of Simplicity’. 

The Gestalt Psychologist focuses on awareness is not restricted to awareness of cognitive process, like as dialogue. But also, physiological processes over a process describe bodywork. Gestalt psychology inspires people to 'think outside of the box' and look for patterns. In this instruction, we will examine the laws of perceptual organization and the basic principles of Gestalt psychology.

What are the techniques in gestalt therapy?

There are two types of Gestalt Therapy Techniques. They are exercises and experiment that are used to increase a client's present awareness. Exercises are pre-existing techniques that are used to make something happen in a therapy session. The main aim  of an exercise is to achieve a specific goal, produce action or elicit emotion. Experiments are developing from the therapeutic process and client relationship. Experiments are fundamental to Gestalt therapy.

Specific Techniques:

1.      Internal dialogue exercise - the “top dog” and the “under dog.

2.      “I take responsibility for” – can be added to one of the client’s statements.

3.      Making the rounds – go to each person in the group and talk to them.

4.      Rehearsal exercise – to rehearse with the therapist out loud.

5.      Reversal technique - asking the client to do the opposite of their behaviors.

6.      Exaggeration exercise - Counselor exaggerates mannerism of client or asks the client to exaggerate mannerism in order to make the client aware of true feelings.

7.      Staying with feeling – so that you can work through the fears.

8.      Guided fantasy – Client is encouraged to visualize here and now experiences.

9.      Empty Chair – When client speaks to an empty chair, as if it were another person or another part of the client and it is used to help the client get in touch with other views or other aspects of self.

1.  A Gestalt Approach to Dream Work – Does not interpret and analyze dreams. Every part of the dream assumed to be the client creates scripts for encounters between the different characters of parts.