AIZAWL THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE

Paper Presentation

Topic : Gestalt Therapy and Transactional Analysis.

Course Title : Advanced Pastoral Care and Counselling.

Course Facilitator : Rev. Dr R. Vanlaltluanga.

Presented by : C.Z.Lalngaihsaki.

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Introduction.

Gestalt Therapy sees everything as a whole. It explains the determinants of growth and
developments of human personality. Transactional Analysis changed the way a person think and
how he/she relate to others. Both these therapies play an important role in different areas of
human lives. So, in this paper we will see their nature, concepts and also therapy techniques.

1.What is Gestalt Therapy?

Gestalt is a German word meaning a whole or completion, or a form that cannot be separated
into parts without losing its essence. A gestalt is a pattern of elements that forms a meaningful
whole. According to Charles E. Bowman “Gestalt therapy is a psychotherapy with the goal of
improving one’s contact in community and with the environment in general. This goal is
accomplished through aware, spontaneous and authentic dialogue between client and therapist.1
Gestalt therapy is an existential, phenomenological, and process-based approach created on the
premise that individuals must be understood in the context of their ongoing relationship with the
environment.2

2. Background of Theory.

Fritz Perls was the main originator and developer of Gestalt therapy. Perls stressed a holistic
approach to personality. Although Perls was influenced by psychoanalytic concepts, he differs
with Freud’s theory on a number of grounds. Freud’s view of human being is basically
mechanistic; Perls stressed holistic approach to personality. Freud focused on repressed
intrapsychic conflicts from childhood, whereas Perls valued examining the present situation. The
Gestalt approach focuses more on process rather than on content. This process involves Gestalt
therapists putting themselves as fully as possible into the experience of the client without

1
Charles E. Bowman, “ Definitions of Gestalt Therapy: Finding Common Ground”. Gestalt Review 2/2
(1998), 106.
2
Gerald Corey, Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (Boston: Cengage Lerning, 2013),
109.

1
judgment, or interpreting, while concurrently holding a sense of one’s individual, independent
presence.

3. Objective and Nature of Therapy.

The objective of Gestalt therapy is to enable the client to become more fully and creatively alive
and to become free from the blocks and unfinished business that may diminish satisfaction,
fulfillment, and growth, and to experiment with new ways of being. A basic assumption of
Gestalt therapy is that individuals have the capacity to self-regulate when they are aware of what
is happening in and around them. Therapy provides the setting and opportunity for that
awareness to be supported and restored.3

4.Basic Concepts.

4.1.Holism and Field Theory.

According to gestalt theory, all of nature is seen as a unified and coherent whole, and the whole
is different from the sum of its parts. It considers the whole aspect of a person and no superior
value on a particular aspect of the individual.4 Holism asserts that humans are inherently self-
regulating, that they are growth oriented, and that persons and their symptoms cannot be
understood apart from their environment. Field theory is a way of understanding how one’s
context influences one’s experiencing.

4.2. Figure-formation.

The figure-formation process tracks how the individual organizes experience from moment to
moment as some aspects of the environmental field emerges from the background and becomes
the focal point of the individual’s attention and interest.5

4.3. Unfinished Business.

When figures emerges from the background but are not completed and resolved, individuals are
left with unfinished business, which can be manifested in unexpected in unexpressed feelings
such as resentment, rage, hatred, pain, guilt and abandonment. The effects of unfinished business
often show up in some blockage within the body, and the therapist’s task is to assist clients in
exploring these bodily expressions.

4.4. Energy and Blocks to Energy.

When energy is blocked, it may result in unfinished business. In Gestalt therapy special attention
is given to where energy is located, how it is used, and how it can be blocked. It can be

3
Gerald Corey, Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy…200.
4
Gerald Corey, Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy…201.
5
Raymond J. Corsini and Danny Wedding, Current Psychotherapies ( San Francisco: Thomson/ Brooks/
Cole, 2005) 311.

2
manifested by tension in some part of the body, the posture, by keeping one’s body tight and
closed, by not breathing deeply, by speaking with a restricted voice.6

4.5. Awareness process.

Gestalt therapy focuses on the awareness process. The act of focusing on awareness enables the
client to become clear about what he or she thinks, feels, and decides in the current moment and
about how he or she does it. Gestalt therapists focus on clients’ awareness and contact processes
with respect, compassion, and commitment to the validity of the clients’ experiential reality.

4.6. The paradoxical Theory of change.

The paradoxical theory of change is the heart of the Gestalt therapy approach. The paradox is
that the more one tries to become who one is not, the more one stays the same. The more one
tries to force oneself into a mold that does not fit, the more one is fragmented rather than whole.
Knowing and accepting the truth of one’s feelings, beliefs, situation, and behavior builds
wholeness and supports growth.7

5. Therapeutic Techniques in Gestalt Therapy.

5.1.Dialogue.

Dialogue is the basis of the gestalt therapy relationship. In dialogue, the therapist practices
inclusion, emphatic engagement, and personal presence.

5.2. Focusing.

Focusing ranges from simple inclusion or empathy to exercises arising largely from the
therapist’s while being with the client. The therapists helps clarify what is important by helping
the client focus his or her awareness.

5.3. Enactment.

The client is asked to experiment with putting feelings or thoughts into action. This technique
might be as simple as encouraging the client to say to the person on reality. Creative expression
can also be a form of enactment.8

5.4. Experiments.

Experiments grow out of the interaction between client and therapist, and they emerge within
this dialogic process. They can be considered the very cornerstone of experiential learning. It
may include setting up a dialogue between a client and some significant person in his or her life;

6
Gerald Corey, Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy…205.
7
Raymond J. Corsini and Danny Wedding, Current Psychotherapies…312..
8
Raymond J. Corsini and Danny Wedding, Current Psychotherapies…330, 332, 333.

3
dramatizing the memory of a painful event; assuming the identity of one’s mother or father
through role playing, and so on.9

5.5. Body Awareness.

Awareness of body activity is an important aspect of Gestalt Therapy, and there are specific
Gestalt therapy methodologies for working with body awareness. The Gestalt therapist analyses
the patterns of breathing.

5.6. Loosening and Integrating Techniques.

Some clients are so rigid in their thinking that they do not even consider alternative possibilities.
Loosening techniques such as fantasy, imagination, or mentally experimenting with the opposite
of what is believed can help break down this rigidity so that alternatives can at least be
considered.10

5.7. The Internal Dialogue Exercise.

One goal of Gestalt therapy is to bring about integrated functioning and acceptance of aspects of
one’s personality that have been disowned and denied. Gestalt therapy pays attention to splits in
personality function. A main division is between the “top dog” and the “underdog”. The top dog
is righteous, authoritarian, demanding. The underdog manipulates by playing the role of victim,
by being defensive, apologetic, and helpless. The top dog and the underdog are engaged in a
constant struggle for control. The struggle helps to explain why one’s resolutions and promises
often go unfulfilled and why one’s procrastination persists.

5.8. The Empty- Chair Technique.

The empty chair is a vehicle for the technique of role reversal, which is useful in bringing into
consciousness the fantasies of what the “other” might be thinking or feeling. This is essentially a
role-playing technique in which all the parts are played by the client. Using two chairs, the
therapist asks the client to sit in one chair and be fully the top dog and then shift to the other
chair and become the underdog. This exercise helps clients to get in touch with a feeling or a side
of themselves that they may be denying. The aim is not to rid oneself to certain traits but to learn
to accept and live with the polarities.11

9
Gerald Corey, Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy…211.
10
Raymond J. Corsini and Danny Wedding, Current Psychotherapies…334.
11
Gerald Corey, Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy…215.

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II. Transactional Analysis.

6.What is Transactional Analysis?

Transactional analysis is a theory of personality and relationships based on a study of specific

ego states, a theory of social interaction or interpersonal communication and a system of group
or individual psychotherapy used as a tool for personal growth and personal change.
Transactional analysis is a way of inquiring into what goes on between people and inside people
in order to help them make changes.12

7. Development of Transactional Analysis.

With a history dating back to the 1950s, TA is among the older established of today’s therapies.
Like many other therapeutic approaches, it derives essentially from the work of one person in
TA’s case, the psychiatrist Eric Berne. Berne was originally trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst,
and the roots of TA lie in the psychodynamic tradition. Among Berne’s early mentors were two
analysts who had themselves developed their own theories from Sigmund Freud’s ideas, namely
Paul Federn and Erik Erikson. It was from Federn that Berne first learned the concept of ego
states, which he built into his own theory. Transactional analysis continued to refine and expand
both the theory and practice of TA. The approach is widely used in psychotherapy and
counseling, as well as in a range of other applications such as education, management and
communications training.13

8. Basic concepts in Transactional Analysis.

Transactional Analysis tends to stress basic human needs which are mostly directly related to
everyday observable behavior. These needs include strokes hunger, excitement hunger and
structure hunger.

8.1.Stroke Hunger: Stroke hunger, is the continuation of the child’s original contact hunger,
his/her needs to be held, rocked and otherwise attended to be friendly and sympathetic persons.
Stroke, plainly speaking refers to the positive messages humans give to one another in
communication. As strokes are vital factors in human growth their absence is said to constrict the
growth.

8.2.Structure Hunger: this refers to one’s use of time-what to do with 24 hours a day. A person
may devote most of his/her time in biogenic functions like, eating, sleeping, finding supply for
sustenance, such as food, shelter, clothing and so forth.

12
Philip Lapworth and Charlotte Sills, An Introduction to Transactional Analysis (New Delhi: SAGE
Publications, 1993), 1.
13
Stephen Palmer, Introduction to Counselling and Psychotherapy (New Delhi: SAGE Publications, 2000),
316.

5
8.3.Excitement Hunger: the preferred ways of structuring time are those that are most exciting.
Conversely, the most distasteful ways of structuring time are those involving the least amount of
excitement. This is to say that human being unconsciously structure time following the line of
his/her interests, or say directed by pleasure principle.14

9.Human Development and Ego states in Transactional Analysis.

9.1.Structural Analysis: in Transactional Analysis, personality is composed of three basic

structural units, ego states, each of which is conscious, though the three states are distinct from
one another and have different contents and functions. The goal of structural analysis is to define
and distinguish these ego states clearly so that their respective functions do not overlap.15

9.1.1.Parent Ego: the parent ego state has two parts: the nurturing parents, which provides
support, affirmation; and the critical parent, which makes judgments, disapproves and criticizes.
The parent-ego state may provide clear guidelines or give mixed messages.

9.1.2. Adult Ego: The adult ego state is like a computer; it is objective and rational, integrates
messages from the other ego states, and solves problems. It is straightforward, give opinions, and
asks questions.

9.1.3. Child Ego: The child ego state contains early experiences, emotions, and the capacity for
both joy and shame. It focus on the self and manifest such non-verbal behaviors as tears, whining
etc.

9.2. Transactional Analysis: Transactions are the basic units of behavior. Transactional
Analysis describes three types of transactions characterized by the source of transaction, its
target, and the replying ego state.

9.2.1. Complementary Transaction: The target and the replying ego states are the same, and
the reply is directed to the source ego state. Complementary transactions are likely to lead to
interactions and relationships that are clear, open and rewarding. People say what they mean and
can understand what other people are saying.

9.2.2.Crossed Transactions: The target ego state and the replying ego state differ. In crossed
transactions, the responses people receive usually are different from what they anticipated, and
they may feel ignored and misunderstood.

14
Ezamo Murray, An Introduction to Pastoral care and Counseling (Delhi: ISPCK, 2013), 160, 161.
15
J.C.Landrud, “Transactional Analysis,” Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, edited by Rodney J.
Hunter
( Bangalore: Theological Publication in India, 2017), 1282.

6
9.2.3.Ulterior Transactions: Ulterior transactions take place on two levels of communication
simultaneously: an overt or social level and a covert or psychological level. They involve more
than one ego state as a source or target of a communication.16

9.3. Game Analysis: Game in Transactional Analysis terminology refers to a series of ongoing
transactions that appear to be complementary, but which include interior transactions designed to
set the stage for a well-defined payoff. The goal of game analysis is for persons to gain
awareness of the games they play, how they initiate, and how they get hooked into them by
others.

9.4. Script Analysis: A script is one’s life plan, written by a person’s own early decisions,
growing out of transactions with parents. Generally, people follow the scripts their parents have
for them. It may be constructive, destructive or going nowhere. The goal of scripts analysis is to
change non-productive scripts into winner scripts through deep level redecisions for personal
autonomy.17

9.4.1. I’m not OK, you’re OK: This position is appropriate for young children who perceive
themselves as weak and helpless and seek strokes from others who appear powerful and in
control. Here, people feel that guilty, depressed, powerless and inferior to others, although they
long for acceptance and appreciation.

9.4.2. I’m OK, you’re not OK: This people grow up believing that they must rely totally on
themselves. They treat others in angry and punitive ways, and blame other for their difficulties
and have little empathy or caring for others.

9.4.3. I’m not OK, you’re not OK: This is the most negative of the four positions. People in
this position typically were deprived of strokes. Consequently, they become hopeless and even
suicidal, seeing no value in themselves or others.’

9.4.4. I’m OK, you’re OK: In this position, people feel good about themselves and others.
These people focus on winning situations and have a good balance among their ego states.18

10. Application of Therapies in Pastoral Counseling.

Many of the Pastoral counsellor have adopted different therapeutic techniques and methods used
in Gestalt therapy. Such techniques took form in human potential therapies and growth settings.
The emphasis in Gestalt therapy is working with the whole person. In terms of values, the

16
Lina Seligman and Lourie W. Reichenberg, Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy (Noida: Perason
India Education services, 2016), 215, 216.
17
J.C.Landrud, “Transactional Analysis,” Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, edited by Rodney J.
Hunter…1283.
18
Lina Seligman and Lourie W. Reichenberg, Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy…218.

7
concepts of acceptance, and acknowledging what we are, being clear about our needs and
support is important in Christian views. In Gestalt, self- knowing may be interpreted as the
deepest kind of God-given self-knowing.19 Likewise, Many pastors, pastoral counselors, and
Christian psychologists have found Transactional Analysis categories of Parent, Adult,, and
Child compatible with their religious understanding of human nature, and have also found it
usefully in many areas of human conflict and difficulty. Transactional Analysis help an
individual to balance their ego state.20

Conclusion.

These theories explain human development and personality change. It is important for effective
and significant change in a person. It helps an individual to become more conscious of his/her
thoughts and behaviors, and ultimately have better, more constructive interactions with people.
For achieving a healthy relationship in the society and within the family circle it plays an
important part.

Bibliography:

Corey, Gerald Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Boston: Cengage Lerning,

2013.

Landrud, J.C. “Transactional Analysis,” Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, edited by

Rodney J. Hunter. Bangalore: Theological Publication in India, 2017.

Murray, Ezamo An Introduction to Pastoral care and Counseling. Delhi: ISPCK, 2013.

Palmer,Stephen Introduction to Counselling and Psychotherapy. New Delhi: SAGE

Publications, 2000.

Reichenberg, Lina Seligman and Lourie W. Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Noida:

Perason India Education services, 2016.

Sills, Philip Lapworth and Charlotte An Introduction to Transactional Analysis . New Delhi:

SAGE Publications, 1993.

19
V. VandeReit, Gestalt Psychology and Psychotherapy, in Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling,
edited by Rodney J. Hunter (Bangalore: Theological Publications in India, 2005), 459.
20
J.C.Landrud, “Transactional Analysis,” Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, edited by Rodney J.
Hunter…1283.

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Wedding, Raymond J. Corsini and Danny Current Psychotherapies . San Francisco: Thomson/

Brooks/ Cole. 2005.

Journals:

Bowman, Charles E. “Definitions of Gestalt Therapy: Finding Common Ground”. Gestalt

Review 2/2 .1998.