studies that have appeared more recently, none sug-
gests that Gestalt therapy is more effective than
other forms of treatment (Elliott et al., 2004;
Greenberg et al., 1994), and some suggest that it
may be less effective. One reason we know rela-
tively little about the effectiveness of Gestalt ther-
apy is that most Gestalt therapists are vehemently
opposed to the idea of research. For reasons that are
not always clear, evaluation research is seen almost
as an antihumanistic endeavor.
Gestalt therapy took root in America in an era
of social turmoil and alienation. As a result, its
most suitable clientele may turn out to be young,
well-educated people whose problems center on
personal estrangement and alienation. Therapists
who have a Gestalt orientation sometimes seem
to do especially well with overly intellectualized,
college-educated people who have lost touch
with their feelings and immediate experience. It
certainly is not an antidote suitable for all patients—
no therapy is. However, it remains to be seen
whether Gestalt therapy will become more than a
flashy solution and whether it will be able to address
itself successfully to the problems in living that a
wide range of patients bring to therapy. By dealing
only with the present, Gestalt therapy runs the dan-
ger of becoming a short-lived solution that replaces
the search for meaning with a hedonism that can be
quite attractive to some whose brush with a pow-
erful, technocratic society has left them inhibited
and overcontrolled. At the same time, Gestalt ther-
apy has already demonstrated a staying power
greater than many expected.
Emotion-Focused Therapy
Before concluding this chapter, it is important to
introduce a contemporary form of humanistic-
existential therapy that seems likely to be quite influ-
ential to the field,Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT;
Greenberg, 2010; Greenberg, Elliott, & Pos,
2007). Originally termed process-experiential ther-
apy (PET), EFT integrates the client-centered and
Gestalt psychotherapy traditions. At the heart of
EFT is the theoretical proposition that emotions
are fundamentally adaptive and that emotions give
our life experience its value, meaning, and direction.
Because emotions help us to integrate our life
experiences, emotional self-regulation is necessary
for personal growth. From this perspective, dysfunc-
tion is the result of some impairment in the ability to
integrate experiences into a coherent self, in the abil-
ity to experience and identify emotional states, and
in the ability to regulate emotions. Such dysfunction
caninturnaffectone’s satisfaction with life and the
quality of one’s relationships with others.
In EFT, the therapist provides a safe and sup-
portive environment such that the client can become
more aware of different aspects of him- or herself,
can access and explore emotional states, and can
learn to better regulate and ultimately transform
these emotional states (Greenberg, 2010). These
goals are achieved through participation in a variety
of therapeutic tasks, including focusing, two-chair
dialogues, and empty-chair techniques (Greenberg
et al., 2003).
Although relatively new, EFT has garnered some
empirical support. Meta-analyses suggest that it is an
efficacious treatment and that it compares favorably to
other forms of treatment (Elliott, Greenberg, et al.,
2004). Furthermore, it is listed as having at least modest
research support for the treatment of depression (e.g.,
see Ellison, Greenberg, Goldman, & Angus, 2009).
Therefore,itappearsthatthisnewerversionof
humanistic-existential therapy is an important devel-
opment in treatment from this perspective. Box 13-3
presents some of the major features of EFT.SUMMARY EVALUATION OF
PHENOMENOLOGICAL AND
HUMANISTIC-EXISTENTIAL
THERAPIESAs we have mentioned throughout this chapter,
relatively fewer empirically sound studies have
been conducted to evaluate the efficacy and388 CHAPTER 13