Gestalt Therapy Reflection

Decent Essays
Introduction A few months ago, I was approached by the vice principal to speak to Alina, a female 7th grade student due to some behavioral changes in the last couple of months. She was fairly new to the school, so I reviewed her cumulative folder in order to inform myself about this student, unfortunately it was not very useful. I decided to contact her former counselor to obtain information that would be helpful for me know about this student. Once I spoke to Alina, I felt like it was important for both me to know more about her background, culture, beliefs, and values. I informed her that my door was always open and gave her an informed consent to take to her guardians. For the next sessions, I decided to use both cognitive behavioral therapy …show more content…
It was important for me to understand why Alina expressed feeling overwhelmed and alone at home. Since they recently moved to accommodate her extended family from Nepal, all of them were feeling overwhelmed and stressed with the adjustments. Her extended family lost most of the things they had and unfortunately some family members passed away in the earthquake, including Alina’s parents. When her grandparents revealed this information, I noticed how Alina quickly closed herself. I decided to use Gestalt Therapy because I felt like it was important for Alina to become fully aware of what she was experiencing at that moment, since it seemed like had unfinished business with the loss of her parent. My primary focus was to encourage Alina to be attentive of her own sensory awareness (Corey, 2013). Since we already had a therapeutic relationship, I explained to Alina that I would give her feedback, observe her nonverbal communication, and we will be doing some experiments and exercises in order to pinpoint any internal conflicts that she may be dealing …show more content…
Since CBT focuses on the cognitive aspect of a person, this approach can be implemented with a diverse group. Also, CBT can be modified depending on the unique needs of a person by assigning homework that will help the individual grow (Corey, 2013). If a counselor is not getting a full assessment of the client, it can impact the effectiveness of the approach, because the client may have a collectivist culture rather than an independent culture. Another limitation would be that cognitive behavior therapy is solely focused on the present, which may not help a person if they are dealing with some issues from the past. CBT and Gestalt therapy have similar strengths, such as being able to tailor it to diverse backgrounds. Gestalt therapy also focuses on the nonverbal behavior, which can help provide clues to show clients see what they are not aware of. One of the major shortcomings of this approach it can lead clients to have intense feelings, which some individuals may not want to show their vulnerable

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