Cultural And Intellectual Trends Of The 1940s And 1950s

According to Yontef and Jacobs, (2010) “Gestalt therapy was founded by Frederick “Fritz” Perls and collaborators Laura Perls and Paul Goodman. The three of them created several cultural and intellectual trends of the 1940s and 1950s into a new gestalt, one that provided a sophisticated clinical and theoretical alternative to the two other main theories of their day: behaviorism and classical psychoanalysis” (Yontef & Jacob 2010). Vallano (1986) identified the following as the main tenants of Gestalt therapy focuses on present functioning rather than on the past or future, what is concretely expressed rather than what is conceptualized, immediate experience as opposed to talking about or discussing abstract references to feelings and the client

According to Vallano (1986), an example of awareness is a woman becoming aware of the sensation of her thirst and considering what is available to her in the environment (e.g., water) in order to satisfy this need. “This basic formulation is extended to functioning in general: a person's awareness of his or her needs is seen as the critical variable in how he or she recognizes and acts on meeting physical and psychological needs and fulfilling them in the context of possibilities available in the environment” (Vallano,

(2014) noted that Gestalt group leaders are effective by paying attention to the group members as they share their experiences. Another of the Gestalt group leaders is that they do not concern themselves with the mechanical use of techniques in order to facilitate change in among group members (Cory et al, 2014). Hergenhahn (2009) noted that group facilitators use tools to help group members view problems differently than they normally would have, by having to teach the group members about the concept of equilibrium and disequilibrium. Hergenhahn (2009) noted that a state of disequilibrium existence if a person has a problem and the brain, would try to return to equilibrium. This tool helps the group member stay in the here and now, then focuses on resolution of the group member’s problem by teaching the group member how to examine the unbalance that exist due to the