Gestalt and Adlerian theory can help us understand life.

Gestalt therapy emphasizes the significance of restoring the wholeness of a person’s disembodied parts to create integration and balance.  These “disembodied parts” are the source of a person’s difficulties in life, and bringing awareness to this imbalance supports change.  Perls is quoted by Seligman (2010) describing the human organism, “We have not a liver or heart.  We are liver and heart and brain yet, even this is wrong – we are not a summation of parts but a coordination of the whole.  We do not have a body, we are a body, we are somebody.”  In Gestalt theory and practice, the body is a huge predictor of what is happening in the here and now and how the experience in counseling may translate into their behaviors in their everyday lives.  Gestalt techniques use observable behaviors in the here and now to bring awareness to the client of their emotions and thoughts so that they can reconnect with their body.  Gestalt theorists believe that all the qualities that a client  needs to be successful are within, but they sometimes may need help.  Through awareness and reconnecting with oneself in the here and now growth can occur. Read More

How do you know that you got it right?

I am close to graduation and completing my internship, I have the privilege to work with some amazing clients that are in recovery.  So far, it has been an eye-opening learning experience.  After class the other night, I started to reflect on a case conceptualization that we discussed in class.  I began to think, how do you know that you got it right?  In some cases there are many different paths a counselor can take with a client and there may be several different relevant issues the client needs help with.  So, again how do you know for sure that you got it right?  Read More

Why is it?

Why is it that when we have nothing to do we want to do everything, and when we have too much to do we only want a slice of time to do nothing?  Yet when given a chance at either, we still end up feeling disappointed?

As I begin this blog I will ask and attempt to answer the questions such as these that perplex the human condition.  My hope is that my background in counseling will open minds and provoke thought.  For those that are interested in partaking on this journey, welcome! Read More