Gestalt Therapy: History, Theory, and Practice

425 Pages·2005·2.162 MB·English

by  Dr. Sarah M. Toman NULL, Dr. Ansel L. Woldt NULL

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Copyright © 2005 by Sage Publications,Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical,including photocopying,recording,or by any information storage and retrieval
system,without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information:
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E-mail:[email protected]
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Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gestalt therapy :history,theory,and practice / edited by Ansel L. Woldt,Sarah M. Toman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7619-2791-3 (pbk.)
1. Gestalt therapy. I. Woldt,Ansel L. II. Toman,Sarah M.
RC489.G4G4845 2005
616.89′143—dc22
2004019663
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
05 06 07 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Acquiring Editor: Jim Brace-Thompson
Editorial Assistant: Karen Ehrmann
Production Editor: Sanford Robinson
Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd.
Indexer: Molly Hall
Cover Designer: Glenn Vogel
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C
ONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Prologue–Foreword ix
Pre-Text:Gestalt Pedagogy:Creating the Field for
Teaching and Learning xv
ANSELL. WOLDT,EDD
Dialogue Respondent:Sarah M. Toman,PhD
PART I:FOUNDATIONS OF GESTALT THERAPY 1
1. The History and Development of Gestalt Therapy 3
CHARLESE. BOWMAN,MS
Dialogue Respondent:Edwin C. Nevis,PhD
2. Classical Gestalt Therapy Theory 21
MARGHERITASPAGNUOLOLOBB,PSYD
Dialogue Respondent:Philip Lichtenberg,PhD
3. Contemporary Gestalt Therapy:Field Theory 41
MALCOLMPARLETT,PHD
Dialogue Respondent:Robert G. Lee,PhD
4. Phenomenology,Existentialism,and Eastern Thought in Gestalt Therapy 65
SYLVIAFLEMINGCROCKER,PHD
Dialogue Respondent:Peter Philippson,MSc
5. Gestalt Therapy Theory of Change 81
GARYM. YONTEF,PHD,MSW,ABPP
Dialogue Respondent:Reinhard Fuhr,PhD
6. Gestalt Therapy Methodology 101
JOSEPHMELNICK,PHD,ANDSONIAMARCHNEVIS,PHD
Dialogue Respondent:Norman Shub,BCD
7. Cultural Influences and Considerations in Gestalt Therapy 117
SABINFERNBACHER,MA
Dialogue Respondent:Deborah Plummer,PhD
8. Gestalt Therapy and Spirituality 133
R. ELLIOTTINGERSOLL,PHD
Dialogue Respondent:Brian O’Neill,MA,PsS
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PART II:GESTALT APPLICATIONS WITH SPECIFIC POPULATIONS 151
9. Gestalt Therapy With Children 153
CYNTHIAREYNOLDS,PHD
Dialogue Respondent:Peter Mortola,PhD
10. Adolescents:Development and Practice From a Gestalt Orientation 179
SARAHM. TOMAN,PHD,ANDANNBAUER,PHD
Dialogue Respondents:Mark McConville,PhD,
and Bruce Robertson,MSW
11. Family and Couples Therapy From a Gestalt Perspective 201
J. EDWARDLYNCH,PHD,ANDBARBARALYNCH,PHD
Dialogue Respondent:Joseph C. Zinker,PhD
12. Gestalt Therapy in Groups 219
PAULSCHOENBERG,PHD,ANDBUDFEDER,PHD
Dialogue Respondents:Jon Frew,PhD,and Irwin Gadol,PhD
13. Gestalt Approaches With Organizations and Large Systems 237
RICKMAURER,PHD
Dialogue Respondent:Seàn Gaffney,PhD
14. Gestalt Therapy in Community Mental Health 257
PHILIPBROWNELL,MDIV,PSYD
Dialogue Respondent:Karen Fleming,PhD
15. Gestalt Approaches to Substance Use/Abuse/Dependency:
Theory and Practice 279
MICHAELCRAIGCLEMMENS,PHD,MSW
Dialogue Respondent:Helga Matzko,MA,CAGS
16. Gestalt Educational Therapy 301
CARAGARCIA,PHD,SUSANBAKER,MA,ANDROBERTDEMAYO,PHD
Dialogue Respondent:George Isaac Brown,PhD
Epilogue 319
Comprehensive Reference and Gestalt Book List 321
Appendix A:Digital Gestalt:Online Resources for the
Discipline of Gestalt Therapy,A Comprehensive International
Listing,by Ansel L. Woldt,EdD,and Philip Brownell,PsyD 347
Appendix B:Gestalt Experience and Observation Guide
for Children:Human Growth and Development From a
Gestalt/Wholistic Perspective,by Ansel L. Woldt,EdD 371
Author Index 377
Subject Index 383
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A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
T
his textbook would not have been possible without the contributions of talent, time, and
tenacity of each chapter author and dialogue respondent. All brought their passion for Gestalt
therapy to the printed page. We have established new friendships and enriched existing ones
through the process of working together. All deserve an “A”for their genius,positive energy,
and desire to make this a worthy contribution to the Gestalt literature.
We received much needed support and words of encouragement for this project from a
variety of sources—our students, our colleagues, and our friends. We are especially appre-
ciative of the support we received from our editor at Sage, James Brace-Thompson, who
assisted us through each stage of the development and production of this book. Thanks,too,
to the others at Sage who offered their technical expertise and assistance, including Karen
Ehrmann,our editorial assistant,and Sanford Robinson,our production editor.
We greatly appreciate Phil Brownell’s contribution to the appendix “Digital Gestalt:
Online Resources for the Discipline of Gestalt Therapy,”in which he detailed the history of
“digital Gestalt”and assisted Ansel in assembling the list of Gestalt resources available on the
Internet at the time of completing the manuscript. Phil’s commitment to the Gestalt commu-
nity is unwavering.
We also want to express our appreciation to two of the most generous, yet unpretentious
supporters of Gestalt’s development and maintenance around the world. Rarely seen or heard,
due to their quiet presence, are Edwin Nevis and Sonia March Nevis, whose unwavering
support is always there—encouraging, coaching, creating, challenging, contributing, and
urging us (and literally thousands of others) on to higher ground. Edwin and Sonia have been
central in the founding of two of the world’s most prominent Gestalt centers—the Gestalt
Institute of Cleveland nearly 60 years ago and, more recently, the “Gestalt Meeting House”
at the Gestalt International Study Center on Cape Cod,located in a beautiful wooded setting
adjacent to the National Seashore. Their continuing efforts and financial support for the
Gestalt Writers’ Conferences had a direct impact on our decision to create this textbook.
Thank you,Sonia and Edwin!
The book is dedicated, though, to the two people who believed in this project from its
fledgling beginnings through its phase of standing by for departure to takeoff. Without their
support and encouragement,this book would not have been completed.
So,a GRAND THANK YOU to
Nancy Woldt
and
Doug Toman
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P -F
ROLOGUE OREWORD
A L. W S T
NSEL OLDT AND ARAH OMAN
ABOUT CREATING THIS TEXTBOOK
The idea for this textbook project originated with the Kent Gestalt Writers’Group—a small
group of friends and colleagues living near Kent,Akron,and Cleveland,Ohio,most of whom
had been doctoral advisees of Ansel, the senior author, at some time. Some of them are
present in this textbook as chapter authors (as noted in their biographical sketches). For a time
we gathered together monthly,and then on an irregular basis,to support each other’s creative
potential and writing spirit. Part of the fun in our gathering was that we rotated meetings from
home to home and the host and/or hostess provided dinner or luncheon. Scrumptiously speak-
ing, at some meetings there was more eating than writing. Interestingly, four books, two
doctoral dissertations, some chapters in books, and several journal articles have emerged in
4 years since our inception,although not all of them were on Gestalt therapy.
The spirit of the writers’group caught hold of Sarah Toman during our early gatherings,
and she presented a fantastic idea of creating a textbook for novices entering the world of
Gestalt. At that time, she was proposing a new Advanced Counseling Theories course on
Gestalt therapy for doctoral students at Cleveland State University and was in the Post-
Graduate Training Program at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. This idea struck a particular
note with me,Ansel,as I had been encouraged numerous times over the past three decades of
teaching Gestalt therapy to use my course syllabi,lecture notes,class handouts,experiential
activities, and other class materials to write an academically oriented textbook on Gestalt
therapy. Support and encouragement from the writers’group naturally led to the idea’s taking
form and moving toward the creation of this “new gestalt”—the coming together of all the
pieces where the whole is greater than and different from the sum of its parts—and, for us,
truly an “aha”experience.
We would like to share some of the formative processes of creating this textbook using the
Gestalt cycle of experience in Figure P.1. This diagram attempts to depict the flow of human
processes of person-environment contact and the various Gestalt resistance processes that
affect the various phases of contact. In the chapters that follow,this person-environment con-
tacting process will be referred to as the cycle of experience, the Gestalt contact cycle, the
Gestalt continuum of experience,and the Gestalt homeostasis cycle by the different authors.
It is unfortunate that human contact is so poorly represented in one-dimensional figures such
as this,for there is always much more going on in our moment-to-moment interactions than
mere words and arrows can portray.
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