Gestalt Therapists

The field of clinical/counseling psychology is composed of several diverse therapeutic models; e.g. cognitive-behavioral therapies, systemic therapies, psychoanalytic therapies, humanistic therapies, etc. The question that can be asked here is: What variables influence the selection of one clinical or counseling specialty over another?

There has been some research that has attempted to examine why counselors and/or therapists select certain clinical specialties and other others. In this regard, studies have shown that specialty selection is to some extent influenced by the type of certification/credentials required (Myers, 1992); greater interest in the specialty than in the general field (Sweeney, 1992); family considerations (Miller, 1991); personality traits (Ream, 1995) and level of self-esteem and gender (Eden, 1985).

Despite the multiple factors inputting into the decision to select one type of clinical or counseling specialty over another, Peterson and Nisenholz (1994), report that there is one set of factors that is especially contributive to the selection process. This is said to be a set of factors involving the history of the therapist regarding his initial interest in the specialty.

In other words, specialty selection is often related to such background variables as when and how the therapist heard about the specialty and/or his or her life situation a

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d, responses were examined and assigned to discrete categories. Frequencies and percentages were then calculated for each category of response in order to compile a general profile of the factors most often selected as influential in specialty decision. In other words, all collected data was analyzed using descriptive methods. Findings Survey respondents (therapists) were asked to indicate how they first came to know about Gestalt Psychology and to also briefly describe their life circumstances at the time when they first heard about Gestalt Psychology. Frequencies and percentages observed for categories of response to these questions are presented in Table 1. As can be seen from examination of Table 1, most respondents initially were students who heard about Gestalt psychology in school. The least represented in the sample were those who initially heard of the specialty in therapy. Table 1 How Did You First Come To Know About Gestalt Therapy _________________________________________________________________ Read Book School Workshop Friends Therapy Frequency 16 16 13 11 3 Percent 6.38 34.04 27.66 23.40 0.02 ______________________________
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Approximate Word count = 1350
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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