Gestalt Art therapy Training Workshop

1. Gestalt Art therapy Training Workshop Jenny O’Neill peregiancounselling@gmail.com www.peregiancounselling.com

2. The aim of this training is • To provide an overview of Gestalt therapy and its application in art therapy • To facilitate an understanding of attitudes and skills in working with Gestalt art therapy with clients.

3. Participants will: • Have a knowledge of Gestalt therapy • Understand the application of Gestalt therapy to art therapy • Understand skills & techniques of Gestalt art therapy • Know how to create a Gestalt art therapy experiment • Have a framework for the principles and steps in Gestalt art therapy and the theory which maps an art therapy experiment

4. what is gestalt therapy?

5. what is gestalt therapy? • Existential

6. what is gestalt therapy? • Existential • Experimental

7. what is gestalt therapy? • Existential • Experimental • Experiential

8. meaningful organised whole • pattern • configuration • structure • form • figure

9. The goal of gestalt therapy is to support increased awareness that leads to change and choicefulness

10. Influenced by – • Neuropsychology • Physics • Biology • Philosophy • Social science • Religion and spiritual tradition (Taoism and Zen Buddhism) • Adler • Smuts • Lewin

11. 1830’s Gestalt therapy is an evidence-based approach…. APA Presidential Task Force on Evidence-Based Practice. 2006. “Evidence-Based Practice in Psychology.” American Psychologist, 61: 271–285. Kazdin, A. 2008. “Evidence-Based Treatment and Practice: New Opportunities to Bridge Clinical Research and Practice, Enhance the Knowledge Base, and Improve Patient Care.” American Psychologist, 63: 146–159. Kellogg, S. 2004. “Dialogical Encounters: Contemporary Perspectives on ‘Chairwork’ in Psychotherapy.” Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 41(3): 310-320 Stevens, C., J. Stringfellow, K. Wakelin, and J. Waring. 2011. “The UK gestalt therapy CORE research project: The findings.” British Gestalt Journal, 20(2): 22-27. Yontef, G. and L. Jacobs. In press. “Gestalt therapy.” In Current Psychotherapies, 10th edition, edited by R. Corsini and D. Wedding. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. Brownell, P. ed. 2008. Handbook for Theory, Research, and Practice in Gestalt Therapy. Newcastle, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Brownell, P. 2010. Gestalt Therapy: A Guide to Contemporary Practice. New York, NY: Springer Publishing. Levine, T. ed. 2012. Gestalt Therapy: Advances in Theory and Practice. London & New York: Routledge.

12. Compared to…….

13. Compared to……. • Emotion Focused Therapy

14. Compared to……. • Emotion Focused Therapy • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

15. Compared to……. • Emotion Focused Therapy • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy • Mindfulness Approaches.

16. PhenomenologyDialogue/Existentialism Awareness Contact/relationship “Here and now” “I - thou” Field theory Connectedness “Authentic self” Behaviourism Experiment “What and how”

17. Phenomenology Awareness “Here and now” Bracketing Questions: Insight Want Naïve View Doing Discrimination Feeling Avoiding Imagining

18. Dialogue/Existential Contact/relationship “I - thou” Presence Inclusion Commitment Lived Dialogue

19. Types of Gestalt Experiment • Directed Behaviour • Exaggeration & Reversal • Repetition & Reformulation • Enactment Enactment of an unfinished situation from the distant past. Enactment of a contemporary unfinished situation Enactment of a characteristic Enactment of a polarity (Empty Chair) • Fantasy & Homework • Dream work • Movement and Music • Metaphors and Visualisations • Art therapy

20. Aims of Experimentation

21. Aims of Experimentation • To integrate experimental learning with cognitive understanding

22. Aims of Experimentation • To integrate experimental learning with cognitive understanding • To explore personal impasses , gain insight into the different processes which are at work within themselves- both the positive and resisting forces at moments of impasse

23. Aims of Experimentation • To integrate experimental learning with cognitive understanding • To explore personal impasses , gain insight into the different processes which are at work within themselves- both the positive and resisting forces at moments of impasse • To review their repertoire of behaviours and perceptions and develop greater choicefulness

39. Exercise One

40. Stages of Gestalt Art Therapy • Experience of creative process and medium • Exploration of artwork • Experimentation • Identification and emergence of theme

41. Stages of Gestalt Art Therapy • Experience of creative process and medium • Exploration of artwork • Experimentation • Identification and emergence of theme • Dialogue • Relating artwork to life issues

42. Experience

43. Experience Exploration • Support elaboration • Identify awarenesses that emerged during the creation of the work and now. • Assist further exploration

44. Experience Exploration • Support elaboration • Identify awarenesses that emerged during the creation of the work and now. • Assist further exploration Experimentation • Utilize further techniques ie. exaggeration/reversal/repetition/reformulation

45. Experience Exploration • Support elaboration • Identify awarenesses that emerged during the creation of the work and now. • Assist further exploration Experimentation • Utilize further techniques ie. exaggeration/reversal/repetition/reformulation Identification of theme

46. Experience Exploration • Support elaboration • Identify awarenesses that emerged during the creation of the work and now. • Assist further exploration Experimentation • Utilize further techniques ie. exaggeration/reversal/repetition/reformulation Identification of theme Dialogue • Exploration of the theme within the therapeutic relationship

47. Experience Exploration • Support elaboration • Identify awarenesses that emerged during the creation of the work and now. • Assist further exploration Experimentation • Utilize further techniques ie. exaggeration/reversal/repetition/reformulation Identification of theme Dialogue • Exploration of the theme within the therapeutic relationship Relate to life issues • Insight • Realisation of other ways to deal with issue

48. Exercise Two

49. Grading & calibrating • Talking about how a client might act differently in a situation

50. Grading & calibrating • Talking about how a client might act differently in a situation • Visualise the experiment happening in their imagination