ABSTRACT

Gestalt therapy offers a present-focused, relational approach, central to which is the fundamental belief that the client knows the best way of adjusting to their situation. This new edition of Gestalt Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques provides a concise, accessible guide to this flexible and far-reaching approach. Substantially updated throughout, topics discussed include:

  • The theoretical assumptions underpinning gestalt therapy.
  • Gestalt assessment and process diagnosis.
  • Field theory, phenomenology and dialogue.
  • Ethics and values.
  • Evaluation and research.

As such this book will be essential reading for gestalt trainees, as well as all counsellors and psychotherapists wanting to learn more about the gestalt approach.

part I|94 pages

Maps for a gestalt therapy journey

chapter 1|4 pages

Gestalt therapy

A very brief history

chapter 2|3 pages

So, what is gestalt?

chapter 3|2 pages

And what is a gestalt?

chapter 4|3 pages

Gestalt psychology’s laws of perception

chapter 5|4 pages

Figure and ground

chapter 6|4 pages

Awareness and the awareness continuum

chapter 7|3 pages

Contact

chapter 8|3 pages

The here and now

chapter 9|3 pages

Creative adjustment

chapter 10|3 pages

Self and selfing

chapter 11|4 pages

Structures of the self

Id, ego and personality functions

chapter 12|3 pages

Holism

chapter 13|3 pages

Individualism and field paradigms

chapter 14|3 pages

The contact boundary

chapter 15|5 pages

The gestalt cycle of experience

chapter 17|3 pages

The process of introjection

chapter 18|3 pages

Ground introjects

chapter 19|4 pages

Retroflection

chapter 20|4 pages

Projection

chapter 21|2 pages

Confluence

chapter 22|2 pages

Deflection

chapter 23|2 pages

Desensitisation

chapter 24|2 pages

Egotism/self-monitoring

chapter 25|3 pages

Continuums of contact

chapter 26|3 pages

Creative indifference

chapter 27|3 pages

Unfinished business

The Zeigarnik effect

chapter 28|3 pages

The paradoxical theory of change

chapter 29|3 pages

The aesthetics of gestalt therapy

chapter 30|3 pages

Support as ‘that which enables’

part II|32 pages

Beginning the therapy journey

chapter 31|3 pages

The therapy setting

chapter 32|4 pages

Contracts and expectations

chapter 33|3 pages

Contact functions

Making and breaking contact

chapter 34|4 pages

Assessment and process diagnosis

chapter 35|3 pages

How the client ‘bodies forth’

chapter 36|3 pages

Zones of awareness

chapter 37|3 pages

Emerging relational themes

chapter 38|3 pages

Planning the journey

chapter 39|4 pages

Assessing suicidal risk

part III|130 pages

The therapy journey

chapter 40|4 pages

Situation, field, lifespace, lifeworld

chapter 41|3 pages

Co-creation and temporality

chapter 42|3 pages

The therapy session as present situation

chapter 44|3 pages

The id of the situation

chapter 45|3 pages

Support in a relational field

chapter 46|3 pages

Shame as a function of the field

chapter 47|3 pages

Sensing into the field

chapter 49|3 pages

Development

A lifelong process

chapter 50|3 pages

Developmental theory

Six fundamental movements

chapter 51|3 pages

The cultural field

chapter 52|4 pages

Five explorations

chapter 53|3 pages

Language and metaphor

chapter 54|4 pages

Attending to the wider field

chapter 55|3 pages

What is phenomenology?

chapter 56|3 pages

Phenomenological enquiry

chapter 57|3 pages

Intentionality

Reaching out to my world

chapter 58|3 pages

Transcendental phenomenology and Husserl

chapter 60|3 pages

Existential phenomenology

chapter 61|3 pages

Intersubjectivity

chapter 62|3 pages

Attending to the bodily ‘felt sense’

chapter 63|2 pages

Energy and vitality

chapter 64|3 pages

The lived body

chapter 65|3 pages

Perceiving the whole

chapter 66|5 pages

Liminal space

chapter 67|3 pages

What is dialogue?

chapter 68|3 pages

I-Thou and I-It relating

chapter 69|3 pages

The between

chapter 70|3 pages

Inclusion and empathy

chapter 71|3 pages

Presence

chapter 72|3 pages

Confirmation

chapter 73|2 pages

Commitment to dialogue

chapter 74|3 pages

Attunement

chapter 75|3 pages

Enduring relational themes

chapter 76|3 pages

Self-disclosure

chapter 77|3 pages

The relational turn

chapter 78|3 pages

Rupture and repair

chapter 79|3 pages

Living the relationship

part IV|38 pages

Becoming

chapter 80|3 pages

Gestalt experimentation

chapter 81|3 pages

Experimentation and challenge

chapter 82|4 pages

Experimental methods

chapter 83|4 pages

Polarities and the TOPDOG/UNDERDOG

chapter 84|3 pages

Two chairs and the empty chair

chapter 85|1 pages

Homework and practice

chapter 86|3 pages

Dreamwork

chapter 87|3 pages

Catharsis and release

chapter 88|3 pages

Aggressing on the environment

chapter 89|3 pages

Working with trauma

chapter 90|3 pages

Phases of therapy and endings

chapter 91|2 pages

Developing awareness of awareness

part V|21 pages

Ethics and values

chapter 92|3 pages

Therapeutic boundaries

chapter 93|3 pages

Relational ethics

chapter 94|3 pages

Therapeutic use of touch

chapter 95|3 pages

Non-exploitation

chapter 96|3 pages

Therapist support

chapter 97|4 pages

Gestalt supervision

part VI|11 pages

Evaluating the approach

chapter 99|3 pages

Looking back and reviewing

chapter 100|3 pages

On uncertainty and certainty