What are the multicultural blind spots of Gestalt therapy?

What will be an ideal response?


Gestalt therapy produces intense client feelings that might be appropriate for European American cultures but less suitable for Eastern and Asian cultures—cultures that place high honor and respect on family and parents. Asian clients might find, for instance, that getting angry with their parents in a top-dog, underdog experiment to be extremely upsetting. Gestalt therapy has three primary cross-cultural limitations. The confrontative role of the counselor, the intensity of the client’s emotional experience in therapy, and its highly individualistic philosophy limit the use of this approach for cultural groups that are more oriented toward the collective group than toward the individual. Gestalt therapy is focused on the individual. For instance, The Gestalt Prayer emphasizes that each person does his or her own thing. Some cultures are emotionally reserved, and the intensity of Gestalt therapy may result in cultural offense for some clients.

Counseling

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Counseling