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  • Essay / Gestalt and Analytic Therapy: A Counseling View of Human Nature

    Table of ContentsGestalt and Analytic Therapy: Analyzing the View of Human Nature in Counseling TheoriesCounseling Concepts and Techniques in My Theoretical ModelTherapeutic Approaches and Techniques for working with clients Gestalt and Analytical Therapy from different approachesConclusionMy historical background that led to my view of human nature should come from my love of science and my belief that everything you know comes from experience. More specifically the experiences a person has had throughout their life that have left an impact. This is where analytical therapy comes into play in my view of human nature. From my love of horror films and thrillers, I believe that people can have another side to themselves. That someone's unfinished business can prevent them from living life to the fullest. Just because we act a certain way in front of others doesn't mean that's who we really are. Our unfinished work can have a lot to do with someone not living in the present moment or realizing their full potential. They would only show who they think they are supposed to be to be accepted. When in reality, they could be quite the opposite. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay I believe everyone is like this even if they refuse to admit it to others or even to themselves. This is where Gestalt therapy fits into my theoretical choice involved in my therapeutic technique. My view of human nature would be that we are all motivated by certain emotions that we go through in our daily lives. For example, when someone is hungry and has to be somewhere other than to eat. This person will be in a bad mood and will not concentrate because of the need to eat. Additionally, our consciousness is what we show to the world. We are all born whole, but change with every experience we go through. This is where our archetypes begin to appear. But since we are born whole, we are neither good nor bad but expect to develop many personalities. We begin trying to meet our needs from the moment we are born and continue throughout our lives. So when we experience something good or bad, we can choose to forget it or keep it in our mind as a repressed memory. In other words, if an experience was bad, we will try to do it another way. This basically leaves the person with unfinished business and will always be there until they accept it. Gestalt and Analytic Therapy: Analyzing the View of Human Nature in Counseling TheoriesTwo counseling theories that align with my view of human nature would have to be Gestalt Therapy and Analytic Therapy. Analytical therapy involves getting the client to see who they really are. Accept that they have a certain role, not just the one they currently live with. Let them see their unconscious self that is hidden or pushed away. This will allow them to notice what is causing their breakup or what is harming their personality. The overall goal of analytical therapy is to make the person whole again. This is achieved by letting the person come face to face with their other self that has been pushed away or repressed. Gestalt therapy is where the counselor leads the client to recognize their unfinished work. To begin this process, the client must focus on the “now” to change their thinking. The future counseling framework to which I would apply my personal theoretical model would besomewhere involved in clinical and mental health. Specifically, in my hometown community of Corpus Christi, Texas. This setting could range from working with an agency, a hospital, or my own private practice. The people I would like to help would be anyone from children to adults. But the target population I would like to focus on would be children. Using my personal therapeutic model, I would help clients understand themselves better. How did they become who they are now and is this someone they feel comfortable with? By using certain techniques, I hope to lead them to reveal the hidden message through guidance. While allowing them to control the therapy to feel the accomplishment once they achieve their own goals. Hey, counseling concepts and techniques in my theoretical model. Four key concepts in my personal theoretical model are archetypes, complexes, holism and unfinished business. Archetypes and complexes come from the psychodynamic approach to analytical therapy. Whereas holism and unfinished business arise from an existential humanist approach to gestalt therapy. Starting with analytical therapy, my first concept is the archetype. The archetype is what makes us who we are as an individual. Neukrug states that if we tend to always care for and nurture others, this would constitute an archetype of “mothering.” This is not the only known archetype, there are many others but only four are important to embody a person. This is called character, which we show to the outside world. The shadow, which represents the opposite aspects of ourselves. The animus and anima are the feminine traits found in men (anima) and the masculine traits of women (animus). A man's anima would enjoy chatting with friends and attending musicals. Whereas a woman's animosity would always be competitive and wanting to take charge. Finally, there is the self. The self is the part of ourselves that has become a whole. This means that we have integrated all of our archetypes into one better human being. Complexes are created from the material or experiences that we repress and are linked to our energy from certain archetypes. This essentially creates our alter ego, the split personality, or worse, Mr. Hyde. Many complexes can influence the person. This is where complexes can compete for control to become the dominant character. As Neukrug stated, "...the 'tyrant' might draw his psychic energy from the trickster and power archetypes." My next two key concepts come from the existential humanist approach through gestalt therapy. These concepts are holism and unfinished business. Neukrug mentions: “…holism means that all aspects of the individual, both internal and external, are connected.” This means that nothing is causing the person's behavior. As mentioned earlier about a person being hungry. If you haven't eaten all day, this need for food will motivate you. Your body will react in unison because of this lack of food. Your stomach will tell you it's hungry, your brain will focus only on the food, your body will start to respond, and then your mood and responses will come. This is essentially how a certain factor controls us. We are all driven to satisfy our overall needs, whatever they may be at the time. Finally, unfinished tasks are where you leave a task unfinished and leave you feeling unfinished. It can range from any experience to an argument with a person without having discussed your problemstogether. Or as Neukrug mentions, blocking your emotions from a young age. This person was told not to cry over the loss of a loved one, and now they are in therapy because they need to change their fake personality. This therapeutic process will allow him to fully feel his hidden emotions. Four key counseling techniques that will be used in my personal theoretical model are active imagination, dream analysis, empathy, and focusing on non-verbal behaviors. Both active imagination and dream analysis are part of the psychodynamic approach to analytical therapy. Active imagination is where the counselor leads the client to imagine a scenario to bring out their repressed memories. Using a fantasy or dream, the client would be asked to find a specific room that is always seen. This is where they may start to question why it's still there and if it matters. This allows the client to identify deeply repressed emotions or thoughts. Active imagination would be used in my personal theoretical model in order to give control to the client. It is up to them to accept the hidden message and I, the counselor, will be there to guide them through this process. The second technique from analytical therapy would be dream analysis. This technique allows the client to create a dream journal to track their dreams. With this journal, they will be able to explain them and review them in therapy. This will be beneficial for the client because he will reconcile with himself. Especially if there is a recurring theme that keeps coming up in dreams. It could also show whether it is a repressed memory or event that needs to be acknowledged, or whether the client needs to accept it. Empathy and focusing on nonverbal behaviors come from the existential humanistic therapy of Gestalt therapy. Empathy is somewhat frowned upon in that it sometimes slows down the process. But I think it's an important technique because it helps you better understand your customer. This allows the client to feel connected with you and be more open when discussing their thoughts and feelings. Of course, this will allow you to get more information from them and be able to understand. With a better understanding, I will be able to help the client throughout the therapeutic process. Focusing on non-verbal behaviors means getting the client to recognize their body movements. This means that our body contains all of our unspoken words and all of the issues that remain unresolved. For example, the text mentions that a person's nonverbal behavior is a hidden desire. Neukrug says: “For example, a person who stamps his foot is asked to be 'the foot' and to speak as if he were the foot. As he speaks, he begins to say, 'I'm trying to beat up my dad for the way he treated me.' This client just came out with his pent up emotions. But sometimes the client does not notice that he is speaking through nonverbal behaviors. This is why I would start by informing and then asking a client to “talk to their fingers” or another body part. Quite simply because it's something that doesn't seem to happen only when an emotional topic is brought up. People don't shake or move for no reason. Well, some do, but in a less aggressive way when something bothers them. I wouldn't reject this suggestion abruptly; I would incorporate it into the session when the need arises.Therapeutic Approaches and Techniques for Working with Clients The therapeutic process in my personal theoretical model, while using the psychodynamic approaches of analytical therapy, would help the client takeawareness. To make this happen, I would guide the client by moving them from their conscious to their personal unconscious, then to the collective unconscious. To achieve this goal, I would use dream analysis as stated previously. I think dreams are important because they help the client understand aspects of themselves. This allows the client to bring their subconscious to the forefront. As for using dreams in my own therapeutic work, I could see myself incorporating them into a journal. This way, clients can see the similarities and differences between the dreams they have. Some may have different meanings due to the day they lived or old experiences from the past. This will give them something to discuss at the next meeting. The therapeutic process in my personal theoretical method, while using the existential humanist approaches of Gestalt therapy, would help the client recognize their unfinished work. To move this process forward, I will use Perls' neurosis framework. The client will be able to experience the therapeutic process through the five layers. First, I would get the client to notice what they are showing as socially acceptable. Show them that their “you” wants to achieve something that is repressed. While the other side goes with the flow of things or what they are used to. Then, in the bogus layer, the client will be able to see where he is going wrong in his life or in front of certain people. They act and show one type of themselves, but in reality it could be quite the opposite. In the impasse layer, I would get the client to notice what they are saying. Hopefully by this time the customer is on the right track and already knows the answer to their problem. If they didn't understand or tried to blame me for not providing an answer, I tried to guide them. This means I would have them repeat what they were saying, so they could actually hear each other. In the implosive layer, which would be the next step when the client actually hears themselves say the answer. Or perhaps when the client accepted the truth that had been with him all along. Finally, there is the explosive/authentic layer where the customer experiences an emotion or decides what they are going to do with their decisions. There are four other approaches that I would like to incorporate into two of the previously mentioned techniques. This way, children could benefit more from these types of therapies. These would include sandbox therapy, sentence completion, drawing tests and board games. Sandbox therapy would be open to children and adults. I had mentioned previously that I would like to focus on non-verbal behavior in my technique of using Gestalt therapy. This would be an approach to better understand the customer. Of course, after gaining insight from the client in a previous session. I would bring thumbnails that fit the client's problem. This way, when creating a scene, these thumbnails would allow the client to express their thoughts through a display. Timm and Garza explain: “…The Gestalt therapist uses the client's verbal and nonverbal response to the images on set to increase the depth and breadth of awareness of the accepted and denied aspects of the self. » Carlberg, Thoren, Billstrom and Odhammar said: "To facilitate and elaborate the expression of thoughts and feelings during the interview, the child was encouraged to draw freely..." I thought this would be a another way to help children benefit from this therapy. As for using board games, I would be able to observe the child's motivations in play, which “…allows insight into their emotional dynamics.”Social, cultural and spiritual issues relevant to my personal theoretical model would not be a factor in my opinion. Simply because these types of issues have already been balanced or resolved. During the creation of these theories, different problems arose due to the beliefs of Jung and Perls. But today, some people still have problems with the way the process works. Gestalt and Analytic Therapy in Different Approaches In this section I will describe the two theories and how each had social, cultural, and spiritual issues. First of all, I will describe Gestalt therapy from psychodynamic approaches. Second, there will be analytical therapy from the existential humanist approach. Gestalt therapy presents issues specifically related to social, cultural and spirituality. Some people may find this therapy uncomfortable. Quite simply because of the way he asks them to live certain aspects of their lives. Sometimes it goes against a person's belief system. Another problem would be that therapy asks the client to “…question our ability to connect with others and the way we interact with others.” This would go against a clientele from a collectivist culture. Before beginning the process with one of my clients, I explained the therapeutic process. This way the customer will be able to know what to expect. This would be beneficial as it would allow the customer to express their comments or concerns. Socially, although people agree and like gestalt therapy, others do not like it. Some feminists find this beneficial because they can regain parts of themselves that they thought they had lost. While spiritually, others believe it is not the role of therapy to identify a lost self. If a part of you was lost, then that's how it was meant to be and didn't belong there. In order to avoid any problems, I would take into consideration the cultural roots of my clients and strive to help them. None of these issues apply to any of my beliefs, so I don't consider them a problem for me. The only thing I would focus on is the overall well-being of my client. Analytic therapy also presents different problems, for example, some people find that Jung viewed men and women as dichotomous. That people are subject to change and cannot be labeled. His views on God were quite similar, but he did not explain God as a particular type. It allowed the client to imagine their own type of God and try to be that type of person. The same went for the cultural aspects, he tried to make the therapy applicable to all cultures. But some people don't see it that way, even though he explained that we are all connected through common archetypes. As I mentioned before, these questions do not apply to any of my beliefs. Therefore, I have no problem with the type of therapies nor would I impose my beliefs on a client. My main goal would simply be to help the client find a way to do this therapy. Their beliefs will not be judged and are welcome to be discussed throughout the process. The effectiveness of my personal theoretical model will be promising through the anticipated results, changes and progress for future clients. In the Gestalt therapy approach, my effectiveness will be sufficient to achieve the expected results. This means that being dramatic and taking risks is something I consider beneficial when it comes to using it in consulting. This would reduce.