Therapeutic Psychology

Assignment Two - PSY4999

Section A

1. The therapeutic approach I have chosen is the Gestalt approach. “Gestalt therapy is an existential, phenomenological, and process-based approach created on the premise that individuals must be understood in the context of their ongoing relationship with the environment. The goal is for clients to gain awareness of what they are experiencing and how they are doing it. Through awareness change automatically occurs” (Corey, 2009). Corey explains that this approach concentrates mainly on the clients own perceptions of life in the “here and now” reality. It is based on the perception that people are always growing, redeveloping and finding themselves.

There are several basic principles of the Gestalt therapy theory. Briefly these are Holism; which sees the client as a whole and are interested in the whole person and do not separate any particular aspect of the persons personality. Corey emphasises how the practice “attends to the client’s thoughts, feelings, behaviours, body, memories and dreams”. The second principle is Field Theory; this principle is all about the client and the environment he/she is in and how the client manages and changes as the environment does. “The field is the entire situation of the therapist, the client and all that goes on between them. The field is made and constantly remade” (Corey, 2009). The third principle is the Figure-Formation Process; this principle “describes how the individual organizes experience from moment to moment” (Corey, 2009). The aspects that come out, from the background environment and have an effect on the client. The fourth principle is the Organismic Self-Regulation; this process is when “equilibrium is disturbed”. This might be brought about by a client’s “need, a sensation or an interest”. Gestalt therapists use the disturbances as awareness during therapy and use the figure formation process as

Name: Tahitha Gengan

Student Number: 44353731...