This approach explores what is affecting the client in the here and now.

This approach explores what is affecting the client in the here and now.

• A. Gestalt
• B. Psychoanalysis
• C. Behaviorism
• D. Humanistic

Answer: (A)

Gestalt therapy centers on present-moment awareness. It explores what the client is experiencing in the here and now—the current thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and how they interact with what’s happening in the environment. The goal is to bring immediate awareness to experiences as they occur, including unfinished business that surfaces in the moment, so contact with self and others can be completed. Therapists often use in-session experiments to help the person experience and express what is happening in real time. This focus on current experience is what makes this approach best for examining what is affecting the client in the here and now; other approaches tend to emphasize past conflicts (psychoanalysis), observable behavior and learning (behaviorism), or growth/self-actualization more broadly (humanistic) rather than the central emphasis on present experience.

Gestalt therapy centers on present-moment awareness. It explores what the client is experiencing in the here and now—the current thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and how they interact with what’s happening in the environment. The goal is to bring immediate awareness to experiences as they occur, including unfinished business that surfaces in the moment, so contact with self and others can be completed. Therapists often use in-session experiments to help the person experience and express what is happening in real time. This focus on current experience is what makes this approach best for examining what is affecting the client in the here and now; other approaches tend to emphasize past conflicts (psychoanalysis), observable behavior and learning (behaviorism), or growth/self-actualization more broadly (humanistic) rather than the central emphasis on present experience.