Major Psychological Thought Informs Professional Behavior

When attempting to understand major influences in psychology, or how school of thought have or could influence any type of behavior, it is important to seek understanding of the history of psychology. Psychology did not emerge as a separate discipline, or specialization, until the late 1800’s—however, the earliest interpretations can be traced back to the Greek’s early time period (Cherry, 2022). The earliest studies of psychology, which are still highly debated among the masses, is the concept of nature vs. nurture (Cherry, 2022).

Through the rise of psychology, many different schools of thought emerged as a way to understand the uniqueness that is now considered psychology—or human perspectives, behaviors, thoughts, and motivations. The main change of psychology has been that of moving away from a highly speculative approach and moving more into a field of objective and scientific study and research (Walinga & Stangor, 2014).

Development of a New School of Thought

Gestalt psychology became a school of thought within the psychology field in the 20th century—therefore, it is fairly new—and it focuses primarily on the study of an individuals perception (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2022). The origination of gestalt psychology has been traced back to Austria and Germany and it was an attempt to add a sort of humanistic approach to the scientific study of one’s mental life; gestalt psychology will encompass “the qualities of form, meaning and value” that have previously been excluded (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2022). In the year 1912 a major discovery was made by psychologist Max Wertheimer that would go on to explain the study of illusion; by showing stationary objects in rapid succession, and having them appear to move, would explain the persistence of vision and experience when watching movies or television shows, which was in support of Gestalt theories and principles (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2022).

In essence the Gestalt school of thought, formally means that of configuration—which is understood as the way things are put together to form a whole (Cherry, 2022). Essentially, instead of looking at the mind in small sections and fractions of a whole, gestalt psychology instead wanted to look at the mind as a whole, to include thought and behavior as working together (Cherry, 2022). Gestalt psychology most commonly is perceived as challenging the thoughts and principles of that of structuralism—where parts of the whole are studied, structuralism determined that the best way to study the mind was the break down each mental process into a basic component and will then be studied separately—gestalt psychology challenged this notion (Bustamante, 2021). Gestalt psychology has additionally gone on to influence additional subfield of psychology including social psychology (McWilliams, 2015).

What could be referred back to Maslow’s Need Hierarchy would be a human instinctual necessity to reach self-actualization, Gestalt psychology at present time explains self-actualization the best because it requires an individual to understand their mind, thoughts, and behaviors as a whole and not as separate entities (Senreich, 2014). Within these cultural and social contexts, it then becomes a basic human necessity to understand not only the basic parts of a mind, the separations of mind and behavior, but also how the two come together and form a whole.

Understanding Gestalt Psychology in Relation to Professional Behavior

If we attempt to utilize gestalt psychology within the field of adolescents, working with adolescents, it is of utmost importance that the psychologist or counselor establishes a relationship of trust with the client prior to counseling beginning (Palmer, 2011). Because of the nature of gestalt psychology, enabling and coaching individuals to reach a level of self-actualization, trust becomes one of the most important factors when creating a counselor-client relationship. It is theorized that the more trust that is established within the context of this relationship, the more likely that a client is able to reach higher levels of awareness (Palmer, 2011). What is much different in a typical counselor-client relationship, the counselor in a gestalt psychology setting, is required to express their reactions, observations, feedback, fears, and expectations with their client—this is therefore considered a creative process in therapy, and the counselor plays an active and important role in such (Palmer, 2011).

Confrontation is an additional approach necessary when a counselor handles therapy with teenagers—when done properly, it would not be intimidating, and it would not feel like an attack to the adolescent, rather it would be an invitation to the adolescent to personally examine their own “behaviors, attitudes, thoughts, and verbal and non-verbal expressions,” (Palmer, 2011). By inviting the adolescent in to analyze for themselves their reactions and behaviors, they are able to begin gradual momentum toward self-actualization.

Much of gestalt psychology focuses on reaching the self-actualization step in the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, thus in order to do that, we have to understand ourselves for the entirety of who we are. As a therapist working with children, this is an opportune time to begin this type of therapy, because in order to reach self-actualization, a person must fully grasp who they are, where they have come from, and what could potentially be a motivator for their behaviors. This is in essence, re-parenting yourself or the adolescent in which you are working with.

As a teenager, these individuals are not yet adults—therefore this is a great time to begin this type of counseling, as the human brain is not fully developed at this stage and the opportunity for an individual to reach their fullest potential is at it’s highest peak the earlier you begin work on inner healing. While teenagers are still very many children, they have a past and sometimes that past can be quite traumatic. An inner child is most often times considered a subconscious being, or a different dimension of who an individual is now—but as adults, unless healed from past traumas, individuals will seek to unconsciously re-create the childhood in which they came from.

Inner child work, through the use of gestalt psychology, is the process of self-actualization, that allows an individual to access the child they are (in a teenagers sense) or were, and all of the emotions and experiences that child was taught to repress (Palmer, 2011). It is the process in which an individual will go through to “contact, listen to and communicate with, and nurture” their inner child (Palmer, 2011). The need to heal from past traumas and past neglect, repressed thoughts, and emotions, becomes ever more apparent for an adolescent or young adult due to the understanding of their prefrontal cortex development.

Past traumas, repressed thoughts, and emotions, and more can shape the way a young adult processes their self-control, organization, emotional control, and their judgement (Human Journey, 2022). When a counselor-client relationship is built early on, at the onset of puberty, it can reach it can help to establish trust well into the individuals early twenties (Human Journey, 2022). Establishing trust, and allowing an adolescent to potentially reach self-actualization, or to provide the tools necessary for them to continue on in their healing journey as adults, it will greatly affect their ability to appropriately maintain a level of self-regulation as a mature adult.

“The capacity for self-regulation is probably the single most important

contributor to achievement, mental health, and social success,” (Human Journey,

2022).

As a therapist working with teenagers and providing tools necessary to either heal their inner child, process, and heal from past traumas, and become a contributing member of society, it is important to ensure that the adolescents have the tools necessary to form a properly developed sense of self, and the pre-frontal cortex development at this stage is key (Human Journey, 2022). Providing tools necessary for an individual to understand a sense of self, while their brain has not finished developing, is critical to being able to establish complex understandings of intentions to not only their own being, but to other individuals as well (Human Journey, 2022).

Conclusion

Understanding that adolescents have the same response to fear and risk, as they do to reward is crucial in our understanding of the development of the teenagers mindset (Human Journey, 2022). When trust is established in a counselor-client relationship with a young adult, or adolescent, this learner theorizes that it would potentially be able to help the adolescent understand the need to make decisions in the process in which they do—therefore, the first step in understanding why they make decisions and choices in the manner that they do. This learner further theorizes that if a counselor-client relationship is properly formed within gestalt therapy, then the teenager would further seek to understand and gain clarity on why they would consider making the decisions that they have pondered making recently or upcoming, before the decision to make those actions are done.

References

Bustamante, N. 2021. What is Gestalt Psychology? Simply Psychology.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/what-is-gestalt-psychology.html

Cherry, K. 2022. The Origins of Psychology: From Philosophical Beginnings to the Modern

Day. Very Well Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/a-brief-history-of-psychology-

through-the-years-2795245

Cherry, K. 2022. What is Gestalt Psychology? Very Well Mind.

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-gestalt-psychology-2795808

Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. 2022. Gestalt Psychology. Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/science/Gestalt-psychology

Human Journey. 2022. Adolescence: Second Growth Spurt. The Human Journey.

https://humanjourney.us/health-and-education-in-the-modern-world/adolescence-second-growth-spurt/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA5NSdBhDfARIsALzs2EAb-_3P08TVjZBDSirDJexJl_qzQbnqFgxhwbl6gLTzapE5uVWlCLgaAgdlEALw_wcB

McWilliams, S. A. 2015. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences

(Second Edition). Science Direct. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-

sciences/gestalt-psychology

Senreich, E. 2014. A Gestalt Approach to Social Work Practice. City University of New York,

Bronx, New York. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271748843_

A_Gestalt_Approach_to_Social_Work_Practice

Walinga, J., and Stangor, C. 2014. Introduction to Psychology—1st Canadian Edition.

BCCampus. https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontopsychology/