Compare and Contrast Cognitive Behavior, Gestalt, and Person-Centered Therapy
The cognitive behavioral therapy mainly focuses on how a person's thoughts and perceptions will affect how they feel and behave. People are reactive beings that respond to a variety of external stimuli and people's behavior is normally a result of learning and conditioning. Many research studies have demonstrated that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most effective approach for numerous psychological problems including anxiety. CBT is based on the notion that learning and thinking will play roles when an individual's emotional and behavioral problems emerge (Ung, Selles, Small, & Storch, 2015). The main goal of CBT is to reduce the distress that the individual might suffer or suffers by unlearning the maladaptive habits, providing new information processing skills, and changing the maladaptive beliefs. CBT works on the premise that behavior is learned, which means that the same way an individual learned something it can be unlearned.
CBT treats problems and boosts the individual's happiness by modifying dysfunctional emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. CBT will focus on solutions, encouraging the client to challenge their distorted cognitions and modify destructive patterns of behavior. The therapy relationship is collaborative and goal-oriented. Therapy will focus on thoughts, assumptions, behaviors, and beliefs that are held by the client (Hofmann, Wu, & Boettcher, 2014). The overall aim of therapy is for the client to develop more realistic and rational perspectives that allow them to make healthier behavioral choices and for them to feel relief against negative emotional states.
The aim of Gestalt therapy is increasing the awareness of the client so that they are able to come to a resolution for the unfinished business and to integrate their thinking, feeling, and sensing processes. Gestalt therapy places emphasis on the present experience, direct awareness of emotions and actions, and the perception of the...
Gestalt therapy is an existential, process-based, and phenomenological approach that was created on the assumption that individuals must always be understood in the context of their ongoing relationship with their environment. According to González-Ramírez et al. (2017) gestalt therapy can also be used to assist individuals with existential problems like conflict, sexual problems, separation, depression, unemployment, and loneliness. Therefore, it is not just limited to individuals who are suffering from psychosomatic or psychological difficulties. Gestalt therapy has been used in different situations like individual psychotherapy, family therapy, couple therapy, and group therapy. The emotional problems and frustrations experienced by individuals are mainly attributed to the individual's lack of understanding and recognition of their own feelings.
Gestalt therapy can be used to assist clients who have issues with anxiety, self-esteem, depression, and relationship difficulties. The best candidates for gestalt therapy are the ones who are willing to work on their self-awareness, but they find it hard to understand the role they play in their own discomfort and unhappiness. The aim is normally to build the client's self-awareness in order for them to better understand themselves and how the choices they make will affect their health and relationships. Once the client gains self-knowledge they are able to begin understanding how their physical and emotional selves are connected and they can develop more self-confidence for them to start living a fuller life.
Person-centered therapy makes use of a non-authoritative approach, which allows the client to take a leading role in discussions so that as the process continues they are able to discover their own solutions. The role of the therapist is to act like a compassionate facilitator who listens without judgment and acknowledges the client's experience without them moving the conversation in a different direction. The therapist encourages…
