Gestalt Theory ... Written from the counselors point of view.

Essay by matb43College, UndergraduateA+, December 2003

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Fritz Perls (1893-1970) developed and popularized Gestalt Therapy, his view of human nature is that clients are manipulative and that they avoid responsibility. Gestalt Therapy helps a person stay in the present rather than to live their life in the past, causing you to focus more on the problem trying to be solved rather than forgetting it. The present in therapeutic terms is know as "Here and Now".

Lets say that I was counseling a client using the Gestalt Theory. My client is a young teenager, about seventeen. His best friend died in a dramatic car accident, an accident in which my client was the driver but walked away unharmed. They had been friends since birth, always together. My client feels as though he never got the chance to say goodbye. He know suffers from emotional stress, bad nightmares and can not stop feeling guilty for the death of his friend.

Looking over my case load, I decide that this is a case that I want to pay particularly close attention to. Knowing and being able to some what understand the situation. I have to assist my client in becoming aware that his friend is in a much better place, by interacting with him. Doing so will relieve him of some of the guilt. Being able to accomplish this task is going

to be difficult without him thinking about the past and staying in the "here and now". A lot of what and how questions are going to have to be asked on my part to keep my client focused on the present. My client will also have to be reminded everything we talk about is now, there is no then. Being the counselor I have to be able to distinguish the importance of the past only if it...