Gestalt Therapy Training: Core Skills & Top Techniques for Trauma & More

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All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Handouts

Speaker

Stephanie Goldsmith, PhD Related seminars and products

Goldsmith Psychology Inc

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Stephanie Goldsmith, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist and the owner and Clinical Director at Goldsmith Psychological Services where she provides individual, couples, family, and group therapy as well as post-graduate supervision to associate clinicians. Some of her specialty areas include trauma, dissociation, interpersonal relationships, eating disorders, LGBTQI issues, and whole person care. ​Stephanie is a Certified Gestalt Therapist, Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, is trained in EMDR and EFT “Tapping”, and has completed certificate training in Emotion Focused Couple’s Therapy. She is the Co-Director for Gestalt Associates Training, Los Angeles and she also provides Gestalt clinical consultation via teleconferencing to therapists all around the world. In addition to her work in private practice, Dr. Goldsmith is an Associate Clinical Professor at Loma Linda University.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Stephanie Goldsmith maintains a private practice and has employment relationships with Loma Linda University, and Gestalt Associates Training. She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Stephanie Goldsmith is a member of the International Association of Trauma Professionals, the California Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Association.

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Objectives

1. Describe the existential and phenomenological roots of Gestalt theory.
2. Identify the three pillars of Gestalt therapy.
3. Describe the Gestalt Formation and Resolution Cycle in case conceptualization.
4. Illustrate the importance of experiential experimentation in Gestalt therapy.
5. Summarize how Gestalt works with process to treat trauma.
6. Describe how Parts work and Somatic work can be integrated into Gestalt therapy.

Outline

Introduction to Gestalt Practice today

• Key historical influences
• A bottom-up experiential approach
• Somatic attending, how to notice the “the here and now”
• Get collaborative, “contact” in Gestalt work
• Focus on the whole experience
• Dialogic and Relational in nature
  • Demonstration: Attending to the relationship, Intrusive thoughts, OCD patterns, dissociating in contact with others
  • Demonstration: “Here and Now” relational attending, contact

Gestalt Theory Concepts & Pillars of Therapy

• Three Pillars: Field Theory, Dialogue, Phenomenology
• See the client in context, nothing is irrelevant
• Awareness: The Goal of Gestalt Therapy
• Stop interruptions that get in the way of awareness
• The difference between awareness and insight
• Simple breakdown of Gestalt Formation and Resolution Cycle
• Being a guide, not an expert
• Defense styles: projection, retroflection, deflection, introjection
• Paradoxical Theory of Change: Change through full acceptance

Gestalt Therapy Practice Basics

• Focus on process over content
• Therapist as observer and relational partner
• Identifying patterns, memories, and characterological traits
• Allow time for assimilation
• Relapse prevention against old memory/characterological patterns
• Diversity considerations
• Research risks/limitations, ethics
• Assessing client readiness for emotionally intensive work
• View on diagnosis on pathology, “blocked awareness process”

Gestalt Therapy Demonstrations & 5 Key Gestalt Techniques

• Create space and opportunity for discovery
• Allow client attention to focus on their own process
• Discussion and example of the following interventions:
  • Chair work – even in telehealth
    • Demonstration: Overscheduler, wants to “slow down and relax”
  • Exaggeration
  • Do the Opposite
    • Demonstration: Let go from long-time job, invited to exaggerate emotions, retroflection and deflection.
  • Doing the Circle
  • Pointing out the obvious
  • Awareness Exercise
    • Demonstration – transition point in her life, worried about making the wrong choice, dissociation
• Demonstration: Paradoxical Theory of Change, body anxiety
• Demonstration: Upcoming Milestone Birthday, life purpose, Figure Shaping

Neurobiology, Trauma & Memory

• The limitations of “talk therapy” and trauma processing
• How traumatic experiences change neurophysiology
• Left versus right brain processing and what it means for therapy
• Memory storage – how ordinary memories change over time
• 2 parts of the Autonomic nervous system
• Polyvagal explanation for trauma responses
• Evolutionary advantages to trauma neurobiology
• Somatic sense of self in the world

Gestalt Therapy for Trauma Treatment

• What gets in the way of the work is the work
• How trauma interrupts
• The intersection of anxiety and trauma
• Disconnection and memory impairment
• Working with implicit memory system to create present moment choice
• Holistic individualized approach: cognitions, emotions, sensations
• Variations in your clients’ window of tolerance
• Facilitating new learning

Gestalt Therapy & Parts Work Integration

• Whole person versus part responses
• Parts work, IFS, and chair work target the same concepts
• Systems thinking on the individual level
• Types of Parts: IFS Therapy categorizations
• The concept of “Self Leadership”
• Experiments can work with movement and the body
• Other recommended treatment integrations: EMDR, Brainspotting
  • Demonstration: Starting a new business, imposter syndrome, working with child parts
  • Demonstration: CPTSD, parts work, assimilation of new awareness

Target Audience

• Counsellors
• Social Workers
• Psychiatrists
• Psychologists
• Case Managers
• Addiction Counsellors
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Psych Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals