Person-Centered and Gestalt Therapy Strengths

Person-Centered and Gestalt Therapy

Strengths and weaknesses of person-centered therapy and Gestalt therapy

Person-centered therapy was developed by the American psychologist Carl Rogers in the 1960s partially as an antidote to the directed approach of Freudian psychoanalysis. In person-centered therapy, the "client determines the general direction of therapy, while the therapist seeks to increase the client's insight and self-understanding through informal clarifying questions" (Person-centered therapy, 2008, Encyclopedia of mental disorders). The therapist offers the client unconditional acceptance, and attempts to achieve a state of total congruence or sympathetic emotional harmony with the client's current mental state, without validating the patient's self-defeating thinking patterns. Person-centered therapy has come to be associated with the modern self-esteem movement because it stresses self-actualization, or the client striving to reach goals set for him or herself, by him or herself, not by the therapist.

Unsurprisingly, critics of the self-esteem movement have often taken person-centered therapy to task for encouraging the client to simply wallow in his or her problems, without undertaking positive actions to change. The more probing technique of Gestalt therapy, developed earlier in the century, stands in marked contrast to person-centered therapy, even though it also strives to create a holistic state of being within the self of the client. However, person-centered therapists would disagree that they merely engage in 'touchy feely' self- validation. Their approach, although non-directive and not overtly critical can be quite effective in creating real and meaningful change. It is the client who must decide he or she wants to change, not the therapist.

Person-centered therapeutic techniques undeniably stress empathy rather than judgment. The therapist often repeats what the client says, as if seeking clarification. This encourages the client to engage in self-searching analysis, as the client examines what he or she really means when making a sweeping statement. This has also prompted the critique that person-centered therapy is very difficult to administer to individuals without formal education, or from cultures where talking about one's feelings is frowned upon. But person-centered therapists point out that the therapy has actually been used successfully with children: "The person-centered approach can be used in individual, group, or family therapy. With young children, it is frequently employed as play therapy" (Person-centered therapy, 2008, Encyclopedia of mental disorders). However, Rogers did design the therapy with a specific group in mind, in general 'normal' people experiencing depression, or those with personality and mood disorders who were still cognitively able to discuss their thoughts. The goals of person-centered are to improve the patient's trust in themselves and their self-esteem; help them to become more able to live in the moment, and to let go of negative and unproductive emotions like guilt about past events that cannot be changed (Person-centered therapy, 2008, Encyclopedia of mental disorders).

The therapy requires creating an extended, trusting relationship with a therapist and frequently clients today do not have the health insurance coverage, time or the inclination to make something as vague as improving self-esteem as a goal of the therapeutic process, rather they must have a more specific goal, given the limited nature of the number of sessions they are allocated. Person-centered therapeutic advocates would say that the therapist can work swiftly, if that is the client's desire. But if the client is less than 100% committed to working through his or her issues the needed duration of the therapy can vastly exceed the time and money of the client. Still, person-centered therapists would point out that unlike psychoanalysis, the focus of the therapy is about 'being in the moment' and present-day concerns, rather than upon long-ago excavation of the past.

Gestalt therapy is a form of holistic therapy that focuses self-empowerment and self-actualization, which could be called the 'parent' of person-centered therapy. It requires an even more intensive relationship between therapist and client, and is far more structured and directed in its approach. "The goal of Gestalt therapy is to raise clients' awareness regarding how they function in their environment" (Gestalt therapy, 2008, Encyclopedia of mental disorders). But like person-centered therapy, the "focus of therapy is more on what is happening (the moment-to-moment process) than what is being discussed (the content)" (Gestalt therapy, 2008, Encyclopedia of mental disorders). Acceptance is at the heart of the therapy, as with person-centered therapy, but instead of uncritical congruence with the client's mental state and method of self-expression, Gestalt therapists focus on "integration, that is, how the many parts of the person fit together, and how the client makes contact (interacts) with the environment" Gestalt therapy, 2008, Encyclopedia of mental disorders). Being in the moment means to learn to positively self-regulate in the context of the rest of the world. The therapist tries to be in the moment as well, employing uncritical empathy during the process. The therapist creates a 'safe space' for the client to openly discuss his or her way of being in the world.