Gestalt and Gestalt Pastoral Care Nomenclature and Definitions
Tilda Norberg is the founder of Gestalt Pastoral Care (GPC), and as a United Methodist minister she is appointed by her bishop to the ministry of Gestalt Pastoral Care. For six years she taught theory and practice at the New Institute for Gestalt Therapy in Manhattan. Tilda has written six books on Christian healing ministry and Gestalt Pastoral Care.
Tilda has provided the following list containing commonly used names and descriptions for various roles and Gestalt Pastoral Care functions. Also included are some new suggested terms derived from practitioners have come to talk about things.
Tilda has provided the following list containing commonly used names and descriptions for various roles and Gestalt Pastoral Care functions. Also included are some new suggested terms derived from practitioners have come to talk about things.
NEW NOMENCLATURE
From the 2016 Draft Gestalt Pastoral Care Handbook
From the 2016 Draft Gestalt Pastoral Care Handbook
People and Roles
Worker: one who comes for healing.
What a worker does: explores holistically by paying prayerful attention to her/his awareness continuum and engaging in experiments.
Participant: one who comes to an Opening to Grace retreat or other GPC event
Retreats: Opening to Grace and other GPC events (Not referred to as “workshops”).
Observer/Intercessor: one who “watches, prays, and gives feedback” at an Opening to Grace retreat, but does not work.
GPC Trainee: one who is enrolled in any of the training classes.
GPC Intern: one who is enrolled in the internship program.
GPC Minister or Facilitator: one who is a graduate of the Internship Program (not “guide” or “coach” except as a casual descriptive verb).
GPC Faculty Member, or collectively, GPC Faculty.
GPC Faculty: GPC Ministers who teach in the training program.
Worker: one who comes for healing.
What a worker does: explores holistically by paying prayerful attention to her/his awareness continuum and engaging in experiments.
Participant: one who comes to an Opening to Grace retreat or other GPC event
Retreats: Opening to Grace and other GPC events (Not referred to as “workshops”).
Observer/Intercessor: one who “watches, prays, and gives feedback” at an Opening to Grace retreat, but does not work.
GPC Trainee: one who is enrolled in any of the training classes.
GPC Intern: one who is enrolled in the internship program.
GPC Minister or Facilitator: one who is a graduate of the Internship Program (not “guide” or “coach” except as a casual descriptive verb).
GPC Faculty Member, or collectively, GPC Faculty.
GPC Faculty: GPC Ministers who teach in the training program.
Gestalt Glossary and Some Definitions Especially from "Consenting to Grace" Chapters 1 & 2 Complied by Alexandra MacCracken (Sept 2020)
Awareness: is the goal of gestalt therapy. This includes greater awareness in a particular area and also greater ability for the client to bring automatic habits into awareness as needed for for the purpose of integration and wholeness. Awareness includes knowing the environment, taking responsibility for choices, self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and the ability to make contact. (also referred to as “insight”).
Awareness Continuum: Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt Therapy, based his approach to clear and accurate communication on precise reporting of in-the-moment awareness. He believed that sharing one's present-tense awareness was the quickest route to self-knowledge and true intimate communication.
He stated that all internal experience could be categorized as arising from sensation, emotion, or thought. Clear communication requires that the person speaking about his experience accurately denote which category of information is being transmitted.
A way to practice these distinctions is to make statements beginning with variations of one of three phrases: "I see..."; "I feel..."; or "I imagine...". Perls called this exercise the Awareness Continuum. "I see..." refers to information taken in by the senses -- sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. "I feel..." communicates internal states of emotion -- anger, hurt, sadness, joy. "I imagine..." describes mental acts -- thinking, believing, or imagining.
The person practicing the Awareness Continuum simply speaks aloud (or writes) his or her awareness of the moment-by-moment internal experiences that come to the forefront of conscious attention.-the ongoing flow of sensations, feelings and thoughts which makes up the ground from which the main figures (Gestalts or Gestalten) of our interest emerge. In someone who is psychologically healthy, this flow is flexible and uninterrupted.
Confluence: is the loss of distinction between Self and Other, and loss of awareness of the contact boundary. Where do I stop, and you begin? The unconscious loss of self into surroundings, such as in mob mentality is also Confluence.
Contact or contact boundary: refers to the place where “I end and you begin”; a boundary. Contact is the point at which we meet the other, physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually. Good contact is like a healthy cell membrane, taking in nourishment while excreting the waste and toxins. If the contact boundary isn’t healthy or has been damaged, toxins can get in.
Contemplative Prayer: in the 1940’s, Fr. Thomas Keating became aware of the Church’s history and of the writings of Christian mystics. Prompted by these studies and time spent in prayer and meditation, he experienced a profound realization that, on a spiritual level, the Scriptures call people to a personal relationship with God. see “Intimacy with God”
One of the preparations for GPC Ministers, and a key component of GPC/
Experiments: Gestalt tools, questions and processes that help people come to awareness in their lived experience, especially about the parts of themselves that have been hidden, so that the parts can integrate for a more robust existence. Experiments are varied and creative, using the information noticed from the worker, including verbal, physical and energetic. A GPC Guide “listens” to the whole picture and especially to the nudges from the Holy One in the process of creating an experiment. (see the BREATHE sheet*)
Field theory: in any given moment, there are many objects, thoughts and feelings that are present to a person; Gestalt says whatever might meet the needs of the person becomes “foreground” and the other things recede more into the background of attention. A healthy person is aware of his needs, and these emerging needs and his previous experience of these needs--color the way he perceives the world.
Gestalt: from a German word first used in 1920s “Gestalten” is a verb: to create or form
“Gestalt” as a noun: meaning "the essence or shape of an entity's complete form" and refers to a whole or a completion that is greater than the sum of its parts. An integrated and healthy person is mostly aware of all the elements that unite to make them whole: their body, soul, intellect, spirit, and social context. Gestalt Theory focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the Guide-Worker relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of their overall situation.
An open Gestalt is a situation that has not yet been completed or resolved.
A closed Gestalt is a situation that has been completed.
Gestalt Pastoral Care: a scientifically validated amalgam of Gestalt modalities, Spiritual companioning, and Contemplative Prayer; rooted in the healing stories of Jesus, and trusting that God’s ongoing desire for us is wholeness and healing.
Homeostasis: also “Organismic self-regulation”--the process which undergirds Gestalt Theory -Perls describes homeostasis as the: “ability to form and close gestalts”
See 6 Functions of the Self (per Sylvia Crocker); Cycle of Experience* Example: If tired, then sleeps; if hungry, then eats.
Organismic self-regulation’s organizing focus is the property of a system that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, relatively constant condition of properties such as temperature or pH. It can be either an open or closed system. In simple terms, it is a process in which the body's internal environment is kept stable. GPC seeks that balance holistically in all the dimensions of being, including the person’s connection to the Holy One.
Insight: is the understanding of a specific cause and effect in a specific context. An insight is that which manifests itself suddenly, such as understanding how to solve a difficult problem. GPC listens to the Holy One for insight, as well as their own hunches.
Introjection: is the process by which the person replicates in himself behaviors, attributes or other fragments of the surrounding world, “swallowed whole” especially from other people (i.e. messages from parents)
Introspection: is examination of one's own conscious thoughts and feelings. In psychology the process of introspection relies exclusively on observation of one's mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one's soul. Introspection is closely related to human self-reflection and is contrasted with external observation.
Ontological: the study of the nature of being--how is the person exhibiting their existence in the moment. “relating to or based upon being or existence” from Merriam Webster
Paradoxical Theory of Change: proposes that honoring resistance opens a door for a worker to release their resistance if they are ready
Phenomenology: is the observation and study of all of what IS happening right now, the phenomena which are clues and pointers to the areas in the worker that are currently out of awareness.
Polarities: a situation where 2 “parts” in one person hold opposing views or desires.
“Part of me wants to take a walk, part of me wants to take a nap”
When these are discerned by the Guide, this is an ideal opportunity to have the two parts engage in a dialogue.
Resistance: a protective mechanism for the one who is not ready to face something. GPC honors and respects resistance as a rich source of information. Respecting a “no” can be healing all by itself to someone whose “no” has not been respected.
Sometimes, we can invite the worker to “lean into” and embrace their resistance, and often that leaning into will be the key that opens the door to a next layer. (Paradoxical theory of change).
Spiritual Companioning: active, intentional relationships that nurture the soul and foster spiritual growth-- to accompany someone on their spiritual journey.* a key component of GPC
Unfinished business (open gestalts) are unmet needs left over from childhood-they shape perceptions-they are powerful, and we trust they are constantly expressed in the present in or out of awareness, through signals from the worker.
Worker: the person who engages in the GPC process while being guided by the GPC Minister or Guide.
For more information visit the Gestalt Pastoral Care website.
Awareness Continuum: Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt Therapy, based his approach to clear and accurate communication on precise reporting of in-the-moment awareness. He believed that sharing one's present-tense awareness was the quickest route to self-knowledge and true intimate communication.
He stated that all internal experience could be categorized as arising from sensation, emotion, or thought. Clear communication requires that the person speaking about his experience accurately denote which category of information is being transmitted.
A way to practice these distinctions is to make statements beginning with variations of one of three phrases: "I see..."; "I feel..."; or "I imagine...". Perls called this exercise the Awareness Continuum. "I see..." refers to information taken in by the senses -- sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. "I feel..." communicates internal states of emotion -- anger, hurt, sadness, joy. "I imagine..." describes mental acts -- thinking, believing, or imagining.
The person practicing the Awareness Continuum simply speaks aloud (or writes) his or her awareness of the moment-by-moment internal experiences that come to the forefront of conscious attention.-the ongoing flow of sensations, feelings and thoughts which makes up the ground from which the main figures (Gestalts or Gestalten) of our interest emerge. In someone who is psychologically healthy, this flow is flexible and uninterrupted.
Confluence: is the loss of distinction between Self and Other, and loss of awareness of the contact boundary. Where do I stop, and you begin? The unconscious loss of self into surroundings, such as in mob mentality is also Confluence.
Contact or contact boundary: refers to the place where “I end and you begin”; a boundary. Contact is the point at which we meet the other, physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually. Good contact is like a healthy cell membrane, taking in nourishment while excreting the waste and toxins. If the contact boundary isn’t healthy or has been damaged, toxins can get in.
Contemplative Prayer: in the 1940’s, Fr. Thomas Keating became aware of the Church’s history and of the writings of Christian mystics. Prompted by these studies and time spent in prayer and meditation, he experienced a profound realization that, on a spiritual level, the Scriptures call people to a personal relationship with God. see “Intimacy with God”
One of the preparations for GPC Ministers, and a key component of GPC/
Experiments: Gestalt tools, questions and processes that help people come to awareness in their lived experience, especially about the parts of themselves that have been hidden, so that the parts can integrate for a more robust existence. Experiments are varied and creative, using the information noticed from the worker, including verbal, physical and energetic. A GPC Guide “listens” to the whole picture and especially to the nudges from the Holy One in the process of creating an experiment. (see the BREATHE sheet*)
Field theory: in any given moment, there are many objects, thoughts and feelings that are present to a person; Gestalt says whatever might meet the needs of the person becomes “foreground” and the other things recede more into the background of attention. A healthy person is aware of his needs, and these emerging needs and his previous experience of these needs--color the way he perceives the world.
Gestalt: from a German word first used in 1920s “Gestalten” is a verb: to create or form
“Gestalt” as a noun: meaning "the essence or shape of an entity's complete form" and refers to a whole or a completion that is greater than the sum of its parts. An integrated and healthy person is mostly aware of all the elements that unite to make them whole: their body, soul, intellect, spirit, and social context. Gestalt Theory focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the Guide-Worker relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of their overall situation.
An open Gestalt is a situation that has not yet been completed or resolved.
A closed Gestalt is a situation that has been completed.
Gestalt Pastoral Care: a scientifically validated amalgam of Gestalt modalities, Spiritual companioning, and Contemplative Prayer; rooted in the healing stories of Jesus, and trusting that God’s ongoing desire for us is wholeness and healing.
Homeostasis: also “Organismic self-regulation”--the process which undergirds Gestalt Theory -Perls describes homeostasis as the: “ability to form and close gestalts”
See 6 Functions of the Self (per Sylvia Crocker); Cycle of Experience* Example: If tired, then sleeps; if hungry, then eats.
Organismic self-regulation’s organizing focus is the property of a system that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, relatively constant condition of properties such as temperature or pH. It can be either an open or closed system. In simple terms, it is a process in which the body's internal environment is kept stable. GPC seeks that balance holistically in all the dimensions of being, including the person’s connection to the Holy One.
Insight: is the understanding of a specific cause and effect in a specific context. An insight is that which manifests itself suddenly, such as understanding how to solve a difficult problem. GPC listens to the Holy One for insight, as well as their own hunches.
Introjection: is the process by which the person replicates in himself behaviors, attributes or other fragments of the surrounding world, “swallowed whole” especially from other people (i.e. messages from parents)
Introspection: is examination of one's own conscious thoughts and feelings. In psychology the process of introspection relies exclusively on observation of one's mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one's soul. Introspection is closely related to human self-reflection and is contrasted with external observation.
Ontological: the study of the nature of being--how is the person exhibiting their existence in the moment. “relating to or based upon being or existence” from Merriam Webster
Paradoxical Theory of Change: proposes that honoring resistance opens a door for a worker to release their resistance if they are ready
Phenomenology: is the observation and study of all of what IS happening right now, the phenomena which are clues and pointers to the areas in the worker that are currently out of awareness.
Polarities: a situation where 2 “parts” in one person hold opposing views or desires.
“Part of me wants to take a walk, part of me wants to take a nap”
When these are discerned by the Guide, this is an ideal opportunity to have the two parts engage in a dialogue.
Resistance: a protective mechanism for the one who is not ready to face something. GPC honors and respects resistance as a rich source of information. Respecting a “no” can be healing all by itself to someone whose “no” has not been respected.
Sometimes, we can invite the worker to “lean into” and embrace their resistance, and often that leaning into will be the key that opens the door to a next layer. (Paradoxical theory of change).
Spiritual Companioning: active, intentional relationships that nurture the soul and foster spiritual growth-- to accompany someone on their spiritual journey.* a key component of GPC
Unfinished business (open gestalts) are unmet needs left over from childhood-they shape perceptions-they are powerful, and we trust they are constantly expressed in the present in or out of awareness, through signals from the worker.
Worker: the person who engages in the GPC process while being guided by the GPC Minister or Guide.
For more information visit the Gestalt Pastoral Care website.