Developed by Fitz and Laura Perls in the 1950's, Getsalt Theoyfocuses on howwe interpret what is happening in the moment and how this impacts on the way people respond.

The Gestalt Cycle of experience (see diagram below) describes a change process that an individual or system (interpersonal,
group, organisation) goes through in any given experience. Being more aware of yourself and the world around ou means you can achieve more by doing less.

Sensation is when you notice something is going on but nobody else seems to be aware of it. Awareness emerges when others are talking about what's going on but don't know what to do about it. Energy is Mobilised when you know what you need to do but nobody else wants to commit. The Excitement or emotional response affects your breathing before you finally take the decision but others aren't happy and there is no sense of achievement. Contact is achieved when people are happy with the outcomes and congratulating each other. Some people will not be happy and closure will not be achieved as they have Withdrawn, perhaps becaue it doesn't feel right. New sensations will then stimulate the cycle of responses to repeat themselves.

Another simple example illustrates the cycle:

A grumbling sensation in the stomach leads to awareness of hunger, the mobilisation of energy to walk to the
refrigerator, acquire food and eat (action).
The food alters the hunger state and induces change in the body (contact), producing satisfaction (withrawal) and closure.
With the withdrawal of attention from the hunger,
the subject can return to what s/he was busy with before hunger struck, or moves on to the next issue, according to the new sensation becoming conscious.

We have many (complex) cycles of experience in operation at
any given time; the skill is to separate these out and identify which sensations belong with which actions, and to learn from and close on each cycle before moving on.

Return to top ?

In any experience, the following present problems:

skipping stages (e.g. moving to mobilisation of energy before coming to full awareness, or whizzing from
sensation to action)
skimping on work within each stage (e.g. skimping on closure will cloud and confuse further work)
sticking repeatedly on stages (e.g. habitually coming to full awareness but not moving into doing something
about it = energy mobilisation and action)

Constructive and uninterrupted movement through the cycle produces smooth functioning. Interruptions and blockages at any stage induce a state of tension, frustrating the inherent tendency of someone's thinking to function optimally, or to finish the business at hand.

Blockages or resistance can occur at any stage in the cycle;
leaving unresolved or unfinished business to clog further sensation and subsequent processes. To
refer again to the hunger example: notice the mental and bodily reactions to suppressing hunger in the interests
of focussing on another piece of work; ultimately such unfinished business returns or reoccurs, often in a more
severe form.

The Cycle and concepts of sensation, awareness, energy mobilisation, action, contact/satisfaction, resolution,
closure and withdrawal, are used by change coaches and organisation development practitioners to diagnose, design and monitor interventions, enhance awareness and restore the effective and efficient mobilisation of energy for action and achievement. The concepts and the cycle are also used to delineate units of work which serve to organise and denote
meaning and progress in interventions (e.g. group process, coaching).

Return to top ?

A typical Gestalt intervention would heighten awareness of the process at hand in terms of the cycle, identify and
name blockages or resistance, and support the client's processes in working with this to achieve resolution or
closure. Often resistance or 'stuckness' shows itself in habitual behaviours, group norms, or aspects of
organisational culture.

The intervention brings this, and its consequences /manifestations, into awareness. A Gestalt intervener and the client would together design a procedure to support the client in experimenting with a different behaviour, or to investigate the resistance more deeply.

The major conceptual advantages of the Gestalt Cycle are:

the differentiation of sensation and awareness - this draws attention to stimuli received from the environment
by the senses (sensation) separately from analysis and scanning for additional data (awareness), resulting in a
fuller data collection experience.
energy mobilisation is given prominence as a separate stage from action - this allows for full attention on how
that energy arises in the person or system (and a check that this is proportionate to the awareness of the issue),
and focuses on commitment to moving to action.
the attention given to resolution (learning) and closure as separate stages - supports lingering on the "what did we learn?" questions, before moving to dealing with any unfinished business and goodbyes.

To leap from one cycle to the next without drawing conclusions or reflecting does not leave space for learning - hence its value is lost. It leaves unfinished business or what the theorists call "wave hopping". It can leave you feeling thatyou are always trying to catch up. As a result you are unable to pay full attention to what is going on right now. Events need to flow or unfold to give them a purpose and real meaning.

We create meaning from interpreting our physical environment, the conditions at play at the time, the mental and emotional states of the people and what you are thinking and feeling at the time.

More info at: http://www.gestalt.on.ca/site/page.php?id=49
Read: Skills in Gestalt Counselling and Psychotherapy by Joyce Philip and Charlotte Sills. Sgae 2001

Return to top