Awareness: Overview
By Shea Stevens
Gestalt has awareness as its main goal, which it shares in common with the psychodynamic approach it emerged from, and in this way it differs from behavior modification approaches (Yontef 133).
Awareness: Both Content and Process
Growth in awareness for the client is a matter of both content and process: The client in therapy may grow more aware of their cognitive, emotional, and/or sensory experiences— awareness of specific content— and also develop a process/practice of awareness in their day to day life (Yontef, 150).
The goal is for the client to exercise their muscle in this practice of awareness so that they can be “self-responsible and self-supportive” (133). And it is not only exercising a muscle, but also addressing any unfinished business that may be hindering this freedom to make contact.
Yontef says “awareness includes knowing the environment, responsibility for choices, self-knowledge, and self-acceptance, and the ability to contact” (p 150). Self-knowledge may require therapy sessions that are more content-heavy; the client can grow in awareness through the content of various topics of conversation, recalling personal experiences, therapist’s use of psychoeducation, etc.
The ability to contact may be strengthened by engaging in the process of present-moment-awareness, a habit built up by the client both in and out of the therapy session, which is the exercising of the muscle mentioned earlier. This way of operating in session is what has been commonly associated with gestalt; scanning for what the mind-body is experiencing in the present moment.
Connection of Past, Present and Future
People who do not know much about Gestalt might know that it tends to encourage present-moment awareness. The nuance that Gestalt Therapy also includes the freedom to connect to past and future may not be as widely understood. This is because the present is not able to be isolated from the past or future. This is a nuanced balance and every therapist uses their own judgement how to work with each individual client toward the goal of awareness.
Awareness Is Necessary for Assimilation, Self-Regulation, & Growth
Present moment awareness relates to the concept of “assimilation” (to chew; to process something well.) Laura Perls has said that Gestalt therapy theory was built around the idea of assimilation. We assimilate our past and our concerns about the future step by step, it is a process. We cannot adequately process unfinished business without connecting it with how it arises here, and here, and here. I encourage clients to practice awareness of what comes up in their day to day life, because their process of integration (or assimilation) calls them to pay attention to the particular way their thoughts, feelings, and needs take shape that day and hour. We can meet our needs well if we notice them as they arise, in order to maintain self-regulation.
The concept of awareness is closely related to the concept of change in Gestalt. Yontef writes,
“The gestalt therapy notion is that awareness (including owning, choice, and responsibility) and contact bring natural and spontaneous change. Forced change is an attempt to actualize an image rather than to actualize the self. With awareness, self-acceptance, and the right to exist as-is, the organism can grow” (Yontef 147).
This brings up the contrast between truly assimilating change (chewing it), versus introjecting (swallowing it whole, or forcing change). Gestalt views on change are explored in this post.
References:
Gestalt Therapy, By Dave Mann. pp 15-17, 29-31
Gestalt Therapy, By Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman. Vol.2 Chapter 5, p 290
Awareness, Dialogue and Process, By Yontef. Chapter 5, pp 129,133, 144-145, 147, 150-151, 154