10. Types and types of psychotherapy. Gestalt therapy. Existential psychotherapy.

Lecture



Plan

  1. Gestalt therapy.
  2. Existential psychotherapy.


one.

The method created by the American psychologist F. Perls under the influence of the ideas of Gestalt psychology, existentialism, psychoanalysis, gained great practical popularity: F. Perls transferred the patterns of figure formation established in Gestalt psychology in the field of perception into the area of ​​human behavior motivation. He considered the emergence and satisfaction of needs as the rhythm of the formation and completion of gestalt. The functioning of the motivational sphere is carried out (according to Perls) according to the principle of self-regulation of the organism.

Man is in balance with himself and the world around him. To be yourself, to carry out your “I”, to realize your needs, inclinations is the way of a harmonious healthy person. A person who chronically interferes with the satisfaction of his own needs, refuses to realize his “I”, over time begins to follow the values ​​imposed from outside. And this leads to disruption of the body's self-regulation process.

According to gestalt therapy, the body is considered as a whole, and any aspect of behavior can be a manifestation of the person’s whole being. Man is part of a wider field: the organism is the environment. In a healthy person, the border with the environment is mobile: the emergence of a certain need requires “contact” with the environment and forms a gestalt, satisfying the need completes the gestalt and requires a “departure” from the environment. In a neurotic personality, the processes of "contact" and "care" are highly distorted and do not provide adequate satisfaction of needs.

F. Perls considered personal growth as a process of expanding self-awareness zones, which promotes self-regulation and coordinates the balance between the inner world and the environment. He distinguished three zones of consciousness:


  1. Internal - the phenomena and processes occurring in our body.

  2. External - external events that are reflected by consciousness.

  3. Middle - fantasy, beliefs, relationships.


With neurosis, the tendency to concentrate on the middle zone prevails due to the exclusion of the first two from the consciousness. Such an excessive tendency to fantasize, interpretation violates the natural rhythm of the process of consciousness, forcing the client to focus on the past and the future to the detriment of the present, since it is possible to complete the gestalt (to satisfy the need) only at the “here and now” moment.

According to F. Perls, mental disorders in people are due to the fact that their personality does not constitute a single whole, i.e. gestalt Most clients experience stress as a result of unconscious conflicts that prevent them from contacting some of their own feelings and thoughts.

Gestalt therapy seeks to induce a person to experience his own fantasies, be aware of his own emotions, control voice intonations, movements of hands and eyes, and understand physical sensations that he had previously ignored so that he could again reconnect between all his personal aspects and as a result achieve complete awareness of his own " I". All violations are based on the limitations of an individual’s ability to maintain optimal equilibrium with the environment, disruption of the self-regulation process.

In gestalt therapy, there are five mechanisms of violation of the process of self-regulation: 1) Introequity; 2) projection; 3) retroflection; 4) deflexion; 5) Confusion.

With introjection, a person learns the feelings, attitudes, beliefs, assessments, norms, behavioral patterns of other people, which, while conflicting with their own experience, are not assimilated by his personality. This unassimilated experience - introject - is an alien part of his personality for a person. The earliest introjects are parental teachings that are learned by a child without critical thinking. Over time, it becomes difficult to distinguish introjects and their own beliefs. "He thinks what others want of him." .

Projection is the direct opposite of introjection. When projected, a person alienates the qualities inherent in him, since they do not correspond to his “I-concept”. The holes resulting from the projection are filled with introstructures. "He does to others what he himself accuses them of."

Retroflection - turning towards oneself - is observed in cases when any needs cannot be satisfied due to their blocking by the social environment, and then the energy intended for manipulating in the external environment is directed towards itself. Such unmet needs or unfinished gestalts are often aggressive feelings. "He is doing to himself what he would like to do to others." The retroflection is manifested in muscle clamps. The initial conflict between the “I” and others turns into an intra-personal conflict. Indicators of retroflection are the use of reflexive pronouns and particles in speech. For example: "I have to force myself to do it."

Deflex - evasion of real contact. A person characterized by deflexion avoids direct contact with other people, problems and situations. Reflection is expressed in the form of talkativeness, ritual, conditional behavior, the tendency to “smooth out” conflict situations.

Confluence (or fusion) is expressed in the blurring of boundaries between the “I” and the environment. Such clients hardly distinguish their thoughts, feelings and desires from others. For people with confluence, the use of the pronoun “we” instead of “me” is characteristic when describing their own behavior. Confluence is a defense mechanism, resorting to which the individual abandons his true "I".

As a result of the action of these mechanisms, the integrity of the personality is broken, which turns out to be fragmented, divided into separate parts. Dichotomies are often such fragments: masculine – feminine, more actively, passive, dependence — estrangement, rationality — emotionality, etc.

The concept of "unfinished business" is one of the central in gestalt correction. “Unfinished business” means that unresolved emotions impede the process of actual awareness of what is happening. According to Perls, the most frequent and worst type of unfinished business is an insult that violates the authenticity of communication.

To complete the incomplete, to free oneself from emotional delays is one of the essential moments of gestalt correction.

Another important term is “avoidance.” The concept by which the behavior features associated with ways of avoiding recognition and acceptance of all that is associated with the unpleasant experience of an unfinished business are reflected. Gestalt therapy encourages the expression of delayed feelings, confrontation with them and elaboration of them, thereby achieving personal integration. In the process of gestalt correction on the way to the disclosure of his true individuality, the client goes through five levels, which F. Perls calls the levels of neurosis.

The first level is the level of fake relationships, games and roles. This is a layer of fake role-playing behavior, familiar stereotypes, roles. The neurotic person refuses to realize his “I” and lives according to the expectations of other people. As a result, his own goals and human needs are unmet. A person experiences frustration, frustration and meaninglessness of his existence.

The second level - phobic - is associated with the awareness of their fake behavior and manipulation. But when the client imagines what consequences may arise if he starts to behave sincerely, a sense of fear covers him. Man is afraid to be who he is. Afraid that society will ostracize him. And the client seeks to avoid confrontation with his painful experiences.

The third level is the level of deadlock and despair. It is characterized by the fact that a person does not know what to do, where to move. He is experiencing a loss of support from the outside, but he is not ready and does not want to use his own resources, to gain an internal foothold. As a result, a person adheres to the status quo, afraid to go through a tunic. These are moments associated with experiencing your own helplessness.

The fourth level is implosion, a state of inner turmoil, despair, self-loathing, due to the full awareness of how a person has limited and suppressed himself. At this level, the client may experience the fear of death. These moments are associated with the involvement of a huge amount of energy and the collision of opposing forces within man. The resulting pressure, as it seems to him, threatens to destroy it. A man in tears of despair experiences his own determination to accept the situation and cope with it. This is the layer of access to your true "I".

Fifth level - explosion, explosion. The client throws off the false, superficial, begins to live and act on his true "I". Achieving this level means the formation of an authentic person who gains the ability to experience and express her emotions. Thus, gestalt correction is an approach aimed at the liberation and independence of the individual.

The goal of gestalt correction is to remove locks, awaken natural resources that potentially exist in a person, contributing to his personal growth, achievement of value and maturity, and full integration of the client’s personality.

The main goal is to help a person in the full realization of his potential. This goal is divided into subsidiary ones:

  • ensuring the work of actual self-awareness;
  • offset locus of control inside;
  • promoting independence and self-sufficiency;
  • detection of psychological blocks that impede growth, and their elimination.


The position of the psychologist. In the gestalt correction, the psychologist is considered as a catalyst, assistant, co-creator, integrated into the whole of the client's gestalt personality. The psychologist tries to avoid direct intervention in the client's personal feelings and tries to facilitate the expression of these feelings.

The main goal of interaction with the client is the activation of the client's internal personal reserves, the release of which leads to personal growth.

Requirements and expectations from the client. In gestalt correction, clients are given an active role, including the right to their own interpretations of positions, on the awareness of the patterns of their behavior and life. It is assumed that the client must switch from rationalization to experiencing. Moreover, verbalization of feelings is not as important as the desire of the client, his willingness to accept the actual experience process, in which he will actually experience feelings and speak on their behalf, and not just report them.

Psychotechnology in gestalt correction is attached very great importance. They are called games and experiments. Gestalt correction gained wide popularity due to these games.

1. Experimental (dissociated) dialogue. This is a dialogue between fragments of the self. When a client has a fragmentation of his own personality, the psychologist suggests an experiment: to conduct a dialogue between significant fragments of the personality. For example, between an aggressive and passive start, between an attacker and a defender. It can be a dialogue with one's own feeling (for example, with a feeling of fear), as well as with separate parts of the body or with an imaginary (meaningful for the client) person.

The technique of the game is this: opposite the chair that the client takes (“hot chair”) is empty, the chair on which they put the imaginary interlocutor. The client alternately changes chairs, losing the dialogue, identifying himself with various fragments of his personality and speaking from the position of the victim, now from the position of the aggressor, and in turn reproduces replicas from the name of one, then the other psychological position.

2. "Big Dog" and "Puppy". A widespread technique is the use of two game positions: “Big Dog” and “Puppy”. “Big Dog” personifies the duties, requirements, evaluation. “Puppy” personifies passive-defensive installations, seeks for tricks, excuses, excuses, justifying deviations from duties. Between these positions there is a struggle for power and complete control over the individual.

The Big Dog is trying to exert pressure with the threat of punishment or the prediction of negative consequences of behavior that does not meet the requirements. "Puppy" does not enter into a direct struggle, but uses tricks - aggressiveness is unusual for him. Fragments of the dialogue between these
parts of the personality sometimes arise in the mind of the client in different situations of everyday life, when, for example, he tries to force himself to do something and at the same time manipulates various excuses and self-justification,
With the help of a systematic and sincere dialogue during the exercise, the client can more fully realize the fruitless manipulations performed on his own personality, become more sincere and able to more effectively control himself. The technique has a pronounced energy potential, enhances the client's motivation to more adequate
behavior.

3. Making circles, ate to go in a circle. The well-known psychotechnique, according to which the client, at the request of the presenter (the technique is used in group work), bypasses all the participants in turn, and either says something to them or performs some actions with them. Members of the group may respond. The technique is used to activate the members of the group, encouraging them to take risks of new behavior and freedom of expression. Often, it is suggested to begin a statement with a request to complete it, for example: “Please approach each member of the group and complete the following statement:“ I feel uncomfortable because ... ”” A client can go around and address each participant with a concern a question, for example, to find out how others assess it, what they think of him, or to express their own feelings towards members of a group. Reception allows you to more differentially determine your own experiences and relationships with others.

Repeated repetition of a phrase expressing any deep conviction can contribute to changing its meaning and content for the client.

4. Technique "vice versa" (shifter). The technique is for the client to play the opposite of the behavior he does not like; Say, shy began to behave provocatively; sweet and polite - rude; the one who always agreed would take the position of incessant refusal. The technique is aimed at the client accepting himself in a new behavior for him and integrating new structures of experience into the “I”.


  1. Experimental exaggeration. The technique is aimed at developing the process of self-awareness by exaggerating bodily, vocal and other movements. This usually intensifies feelings associated with a particular behavior: louder and louder to repeat the phrase, the spokesman
    do her a gesture. And of particular value is the situation when the client seeks to suppress any experiences - this leads to the development of internal communications.

  2. Unfinished business. Any unfinished gestalt is an unfinished business requiring completion. Most people have a lot of unresolved questions related to their relatives, parents, colleagues, etc. Most often these are unspoken complaints and complaints. The client is offered, using the “empty chair” technique, to express his feelings to an imaginary interlocutor or to contact directly the member of the group who is related to the unfinished business. In the work experience of the gestalt groups, it is noted that the most frequent and significant unexpressed feeling is guilt or resentment,
    It is with this feeling that they work in a game that begins with the words “I am offended ...”.

  3. Projective imagination games illustrate the projection process and help group members identify with discarded aspects of personality.


The most popular game is “Old abandoned shop”. The client is offered to close his eyes, relax, and then imagine that late at night he passes through a small street past an old abandoned store. The windows are dirty, but if you look, you can notice some object. The customer is asked to carefully consider it, then move away from the abandoned store and describe the items found outside the window.

Then he is invited to imagine himself with this subject, and, speaking from the first person, describe his feelings by answering the questions: “Why is he left in the store? What does its existence look like as this subject? ”By identifying with objects, clients project some personal aspects onto them.”

8. "I have a secret." This game is a study of guilt and shame. Each of the group members is asked to think about any important and carefully kept personal secret. The psychologist asks the participants not to share these secrets, but to imagine how others might react if these secrets became known to them. The next step could be to give each participant a chance to brag to others, “what a terrible secret he keeps in himself.” Quite often, it turns out that many are unknowingly very attached to their secrets as something precious.

9. "Exaggeration." Большое внимание в гештальттерапии уделяется так называемому «языку тела». Считается, что физические симптомы более точно передают чувства человека, чем вербальный язык. Ненамеренные движения, жесты, позы клиента иногда являются сигналами важных содержаний. Однако эти сигналы остаются прерванными, неразвившимися, искаженными. Предлагая клиенту преувеличить нечаянное движение или жест, можно сделать важное открытие.

Например, скованный, чрезмерно сдержанный мужчина постукивает пальцем по столу, в то время как женщина в группе долго и пространно о чем-то говорит. Когда его спрашивают, не хочет ли он прокомментировать то, о чем говорит женщина, он отказывается, уверяя, что разговор мало его интересует, но продолжает постукивание. Тогда психолог просит усилить постукивание, стучать все громче и выразительнее до тех пор, пока клиент не осознает, что делает.

Гнев клиента нарастает очень быстро, и через минуту он с силой бьет по столу, горячо выражая свое несогласие с женщиной. При этом он восклицает: «Она точно как моя жена!» В дополнение к этому осознанию он получает мимолетное впечатление о чрезмерном контроле своих сильных утвердительных чувств и возможности более непосредственного их выражения.

10. «Репетиция». По мнению Ф. Перлза, люди тратят много времени, репетируя на «сцене воображения» различные роли и стратегии поведения по отношению к конкретным ситуациям и лицам. Часто отсутствие успеха в действиях в конкретных жизненных ситуациях определяется тем, как данная
личность в воображении готовится к этим ситуациям. Such
подготовка в мыслях и воображении часто проходит в соответствии с ригидными и неэффективными стереотипами, являющимися источником постоянного беспокойства неадекватного поведения. Репетиция поведения вслух в группе с вовлечением других участников позволяют лучше осознать
собственные стереотипы, а также использовать новые идеи и решения в этой области.

11. Проверка готового мнения. Случается, что психолог, слушая клиента, улавливает в его словах какое-то определенное сообщение. Тогда он может воспользоваться следующей формулой: «Слушая тебя, у меня возникло одно мнение. Я хочу предложить тебе повторить это мнение вслух и проверить, как оно звучит в твоих устах, насколько оно тебе подходит. Если согласен попробовать, повтори это мнение нескольким членам группы».

В этом упражнении содержится фактор интерпретации скрытого значения поведения клиента, но психолог не старается сообщить свою интерпретацию клиенту, он только предоставляет пациенту возможность исследовать переживания, связанные с проверкой рабочей гипотезы. Если гипотеза окажется плодотворной, клиент может развить ее в контексте собственной деятельности и опыта.

Ф. Перлз вначале применял свой метод в виде индивидуальной коррекции, но впоследствии полностью перешел на групповую форму, находя ее более эффективной и экономичной. Групповая работа проводится как центрированная на клиенте. Группа при этом используется инструментально, по типу хора.

Во время работы одного из участников группы, который занимает «горячий стул» рядом со стулом психолога, другие члены группы идентифицируются с ним и проделывают большую молчаливую аутотерапию, осознавая фрагментированные части своего «Я» и завершая незаконченные ситуации.

Вся многообразная техника гештальттерапии направлена на обеспечение психологической поддержки личности, на освобождение человека от бремени прошлых и будущих проблем и возвращении его «Я» в богатый изменчивый мир личностного «сейчасного» бытия.

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К экзистенциальному направлению относят теории и системы личностной коррекции, основанные на теории экзистенциализма, подчеркивающей важность Проблем человеческого становления и ответственности человека за свое личностное становление, когда упор делается на «свободную волю», осознание ответственности человека за формирование собственного внутреннего мира и выбор жизненного пути. При таком подходе целью коррекции становится доведение до понимания человека смысла, который он хочет придать своей жизни.

Термин переводится с позднелатинского как «существование». В 20-е годы были созданы ключевые понятия в концепции человеческого существования, ставшие в совокупности с освоением новой физики основой одного из наиболее влиятельных и плодотворных течений в современной консультативной психологии и психокоррекции.

D. Boughenthal, one of theorists of the existential approach, put forward the following basic assumptions:

  • man is a whole, irreducible to the sum of its parts;
  • man exists in the context of his own human problems;
  • man is capable of awareness and is able to act rationally;
  • man always has a choice;
  • human behavior is always intentional, i.e. has a reason, always intentionally, a person can make informed decisions.


The basic concepts of a particular representative acquire a different emphasis, but in general they constitute the conceptual existential definiteness of the concept:

“Dialogue” is a concept put forward and developed by M. Buber. According to Buber, there are basic words in a language that make up verbal pairs. The difference between the main words is that they do not denote something that exists, and, when spoken, give rise to existence. These words: "I am you," "I - it." According to Buber, the main word “I-you” generates and affirms the world of relationships, unlike “I — it”, which generates experience.

“Experience” is a concept, the relation to which in science and philosophy has resulted in a dramatic struggle. The category of “experience” is not related to objective truth in relation to “my” existence, but to the subjectivity of “my” ontologically, rather than epistemologically comprehended being. In this sense, the experience of a 5-year-old child’s life is no less true; than the experience of the life of a wizened old man.

Therefore, in close connection with the concept of "experience" is the concept
"experience". “Experiencing” is a concept characterizing a special way or state of being. Proposed in 1965 by Jendlin, it is described as follows: an experience that is felt rather than thought, known or verbalized; the experience takes place in the immediate momentary present. Experience is a changeable stream of feelings that makes it possible for each individual to feel something at any given moment. Special importance is attached to peak experiences accompanying self-actualization, personal growth. The peak experience is the maximum feeling of the fullness of being and of all its potencies.

“Authenticity” (authenticity) is a concept introduced by M. Heidegger and developed by K. Jaspers in connection with the central problem of human philosophy, namely, the problem of transforming non-genuine human existence into genuine. Authenticity, according to Jaspers, is being unshackled and unfortified by any one concept, idea or possibility that is imposed from the outside and predetermines the choice of a person. In other words, it is sincerity to the end both in relation to others, and in relation to itself,
wherein the individual is free from both external manipulation and self-manipulation, manifesting himself in a directly clear and responsible free being.

"Soooaktualization". According to one of its creators, A. Maslow, this concept appears in a synonymous row with such concepts as “growth”, “self-development”, “individualization”. It is determined by two essential features: 1) acceptance and expression of the inner core (“self”), i.e. updating latent abilities and potential; 2) the minimum presence of illness (neurosis and other disability). At the very beginning of the concept understanding, there lies the search for the initial value paradigm, which can be called health, and complete (mental, social, physical), i.e. health as the fullest disclosure of human capabilities in individual life.

“Value” is a concept that, in an existential psycho-correction, reflects the content relating to the direction, aspiration of experiences. Value is not the point, but at least its condition. Realization of value can make life sense. The following values ​​are distinguished : cognitive preferences, aesthetic, moral, cultural "I". A. Maslow proposed the following dichotomy of values: 1: B-values ​​- everyday values, full values

2. O-values - deprivation values, values ​​arising from the lack of something.

The type of value inherent in man determines his being. According to Maslow, B-values ​​include: good, justice, beauty, truthfulness, self-sufficiency, etc. in the traditional formulation, in which the basic, i.e. basic necessities of life. They can be further distinguished in the following way: B-values ​​are the offspring of the individual and his, aimed at the world, experiences, while IB-values ​​are the demands of the individual and his, directed from the world to himself, experiences.

"Being in the world." The category is analyzed by almost all representatives of existential psychology and denotes a whole set of essential features and the phenomenology of experiencing one’s own “I” as being in the world: first, it is pure existence, that is, cash, given to yourself and the world; secondly, it is the true existence of the “self”; thirdly, being is the transcendence of a person into another; fourthly, it is a certain quality of existence, characterized by unlimitedness, completeness and dedication.

Therefore, the category of becoming is closely connected with the category of being, and the category of being itself is commensurate with the category of "world".

“Vital world” is a concept introduced and developed by E. Husserl. This is what is relevant to consciousness. “The life world” is a concept fixing the self-alignment of the experienced, realized, perceived, pronounced world as such factual. The concept of “life world” not only recognizes the ontology (an independent givenness of human consciousness), but also requires taking into account this internal ontology of consciousness, taking it seriously in working with a client.

"Event"   - rather, it is not a substantively related concept, but the principle of constructing correctional work in existential psychology. The principle of eventfulness implies the rejection of instrumental activism (with its infantile desire for self-affirmation at any cost) and assigns the subject of activity a different place in a much more complex interconnected world than it seemed in the era of classical scientific ideas.

The main goal of the existential correction is to help the client find the meaning of life, realize his personal freedom, responsibility and discover his potential as individuals in full-fledged communication. And the simultaneous task of existential interaction is the unconditional recognition of the client’s personality and his fate as the most important, unique and unconditional life-world deserving recognition, whose very existence is a value.

The position of the psychologist.   The basic premise of the psychological position is the understanding of the client in terms of his own life world, self-image and reality. The psychologist focuses on the current, momentary moment of the client’s life and his “seismic” experiences. The difficulty of the position is also that the psychologist must be able to combine the understanding of the client and the ability of confrontation with what is called the limited existence in the client. The ability or property of a psychologist to be in the world is the most obvious condition for his successful remedial activities.

The main tasks of the psychologist involved in the process of existential correction:

  • be fully present in order to assist the client in his immersion and help him to more fully describe his interest in solving the problem;
  • to form and maintain the client's conviction that he is able to do something for himself;
  • help the client discover the forces that destroy him and his life, help him find the conservative structures that he built himself and, accordingly, can change himself;
  • to be sympathetic and caring, especially in times of difficult, deep customer experiences;
  • be deeply confident that the client is able to help himself.


Requirements and expectations from the client. In existential psycho-correction, the main efforts are aimed at helping the client to take seriously his phenomenological world, to realize the reality of his conscious or unconscious choices and their consequences. Therefore, the position of the client is not limited to the achievements of insight; it is formulated as an expectation of actions stemming from the clarified value of the personality and its potencies. Therefore, customers are encouraged openness, spontaneous activity and focus on the main problems of life: birth, love, anxiety, fate, guilt, death, responsibility, i.e. on existential problems that do not have a rational solution, but the confrontation with which allows us to solve the current psychological problems of the client.

The client must be interested, deeply turned on, attentive to himself and to his life, this shows a deep level of his subjectivity. He must be able to respond to a deep interest in himself. Sometimes this interest may be damaged, so the client needs correction.

The client’s description of his interest pushes the limits of his possibilities in finding a solution through fixing attention on subjective experiences. The search process is carried out through complete immersion in oneself, awareness of one’s bodily sensations, emotions, thoughts, and expectation of discovery.

The process of existential correction consists in the development of inner self-consciousness, which modifies its own structures of perception, changing the construct “I and the external world”.

On this path, the client’s resistance is possible, since a person is limited in access to his inner potentials by the way he forms the “I and the outside world” construct.

The existential psycho-correction is not about psychotechnics as a set of techniques used to solve the problems of the main personal existential problematics, but approaches to   solving these problems.

The first approach is an emphasis on the development of self-awareness . Awareness of their own motives, choice of preferences, value systems, goals and meaning. In the context of the existential paradigm, emphasis is placed on the liberated function of self-awareness, since primacy is given not to reflexive self-awareness, but rather to the value experience of one’s “I”, the discovery for oneself of the significance and value of one’s own life-world. To give the client to realize and experience his limitations, his potential freedom from the past, the value of his “I” and life in the present - these are the basic prerequisites and the corresponding relations of an existential psychologist.

The second approach is the cultivation of freedom of responsibility. In accordance with this setting, the psychologist seeks to assist the client in finding ways of avoiding responsibility and freedom, and encourages risk taking regarding these values. Explaining that the client always has a choice, encouraging open recognition of his own refusal to take responsibility, encouraging himself to defend his own independence (autonomy) and focusing on the client’s personal desires and feelings, on his personal choice in a given life situation - these are prerequisites for the implementation of this installation.

In the existential psycho-correction there is no direct training. A person can learn only by himself. Therefore, it is the nuances in the behavior, attitudes of the psychologist that are of particular importance. The development of openness, client sensitivity to the nuances of relationships in communication is the way to existential psycho-correction.

The third approach is to help open or create meaning. In the implementation of this installation, the fixation technique on the sense proposed by J. Gendlin is useful. Its content is to focus on bodily sensations in the process of any action. Clients are asked to shut up, try to feel and understand their true experiences, their significance for him. An important point in the application of technology is the discovery of an existential vacuum, i.e. meaninglessness of life, and confrontation with the client or facilitation of his possible experiences in this regard.

The psychologist does not indicate the meaning of the client’s life, but only creates conditions for the client to open or create his own meanings. Moreover, it should be remembered that the meaning for an existential psychologist is not given directly, but comes along the way, with the involvement of man in creativity, creative activity, in which his intentions are usually directed not at himself, but outside.

The fourth approach is uniqueness and identity. The key to the implementation of this mechanism of psychocorrection is to encourage the client to openly express his feelings and to become aware of the differentiation between feelings and experiences: reactive, situational and deep (personal). The main line of realization of this premise is the discovery of your own authentic “I” and “I” of the unauthentic, when the client does, speaks and feels not what is peculiar or wanted by him, but what is connected with imitation of life, with games, and not with authentic relationships affinity or alienation with others. Own identity, where x is “I”, “My”, and where “Not me”, “Not mine”, and experiencing one's identity, one's “I” as a unique unique life world - this is the main guideline of this psychocorrectional premise.

The fifth approach is to work with anxiety. In the existential psycho-correction (unlike other directions) there is no obligatory rule - to reduce the level of anxiety of the client. Anxiety is considered as one of the manifestations of being, so the psychologist is interested in how the client tries to cope with anxiety; what function is performed by anxiety (personal growth or restriction of its personal being); whether the client is inclined to accept his anxiety or seeks to suppress it.

Anxiety as a manifestation of the borderline situation in which the client is or in which he places himself is an important phenomenon for remedial work. Her research, manifestation, acceptance, separation, respect for the client in connection with his anxiety and his attitude towards her are the components of the psychotechnique of the representative of existential psycho-correction.


  1. Relationship with time. Although the main attention is paid to actual experience, the attitude towards time (future, past) is an important point and method in remedial work. A simple question: “How do you imagine our meeting with you in 10 years?” - can cause a whole
    range of experiences associated not only with the understanding of his own life, but also with the study of its possible meanings. In addition, a projective study of possible ways of self-realization can increase the degree of personal realization in the present tense.

  2. The relationship between the psychologist and the client. In the existential correction of the relationship, they are of particular value, since, as is clear from the analysis of psychotechnics, these relationships are valuable in themselves. Their unique personal connotation, personal meaning, “nuancing” the whole range of experiences in connection with communication with a person as a significant other is the source of powerful influences and personal changes; respect, trust and faith in the client; self-disclosure and honesty towards yourself; refusal to manipulate and readiness to take attitude towards oneself in response to one’s own transparency, with which the psychologist models his personality with productive means of experiencing, without taking responsibility for imposing his behavior on another, such is the corrective core.


The main results of a successful existential psycho-correction are the broadening of the client’s sense of being and an increase in its viability (vitality).

Literature.

Main literature.

  1. Yezhova N.N. The workbook of a practical psychologist. - Rostov n / D: Phoenix, 2008.
  2. Malkina-Pykh I.G. Handbook of practical psychologist. - M.: Eksmo, 2008.
  3. Handbook of practical psychologist. / Comp. S.T. Posokhova, S.L. Solovyov. - M .: AST: KEEPER; SPb .: Owl, 2008.

Additional literature.

  1. Bulyubash I.D. Gestalt therapy guide. - M., 2004.
  2. Gestalt approach: witness of therapy. - M .: Psychotherapy, 2007.
  3. Sidorenko E.V. Experimental group psychology. - SPb., 1993.

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    The basics of psychotherapy

    Terms: The basics of psychotherapy