Theoretical Approach: Gestalt Therapy
This report aims to prepare a case conceptualization unique to Gogol Ganguly, a key character from the movie, “The Namesake”. The idea is to understand the client’s psychological issues based on Gestalt theory and find a solution to advance therapeutic healing to promote his well-being.
The 21-year old male client was referred to me for counseling by his parents because of an unexpected phase of irritable behavior. The family currently resides in New York City and are from a middle-class immigrant background, the parents having arrived in the United States from India long before the son was born. The couple also has a daughter. The father works as a scientist in a Manhattan research institute and the mother is a homemaker.
Based on my interview and initial sessions with the parents, it was clear that they come from a very conservative background in India and couldn’t distance themselves from their roots despite having lived in America for more than half their lives. This is in contrast to their children who are born in this country and seem more thoroughly assimilated into American culture. However, this is where I identified the root of their problems.
The client, Gogol Ganguly, currently studies architecture at a leading college and does not have any prior history of serious substance abuse except by his admission of trying marijuana once with his friends. Apart from that, he isn’t addicted to any habit-forming substances. The client believes he is facing identity issues due to his Indian origin; despite trying very hard to fit into American society, he isn’t able to shake off his ancestral values, something which keeps adding to his mental agony.
A recent visit to India actually helped in strengthening his fascination with the Motherland, while influencing his life decisions and career choices. For instance, he acknowledged his choice of architecture as a field of study after seeing first hand the world famous Taj Mahal monument in Agra, India.
With a first-hand knowledge of client issues, I was able to gather the following concerns that brought the client to counseling. The purpose of understanding these concerns was to take a look into his present behavior, and formulate a counseling strategy which would guide the selection, focus and sequence of interventions to be applied (Kuyken, Padensky & Dudley, 2009, p.7).
1. The client has deep-rooted feelings of anger and insecurity because he’s unable to solve complex and long-standing problems which arise due to his dynamic relationship with his parents (especially his father). The client believes his father is affectionate and doting, but probably a little over-indulgent in his son’s private affairs. There are things the client does not approve of and were sanctioned by his father, such as the choice of his birth certificate name as “Gogol” instead of “Nikhil” (which was chosen by his mother). The father named him after Nikolai Gogol, a famous Russian novelist of 19th century.
The client believes apart from the absurdity of the name choice, he has had to face a lot of depression during his adolescent phase because of his father’s non-awareness on the various connotations such a name could bring to a growing teen. Despite his literary genius, Gogol was also known to have died a virgin, and in poverty. The client says he was frequently mocked by his school peers due to this unfortunate historical fact and has recently filed an affidavit to have his name legally changed back to “Nikhil”.
The client believes by doing so, he ended up hurting his father’s feelings which is also not what he wanted. It’s clear that the client is extremely attached to his parents but at the same time, is seeking a lot more space in this relationship.
2. The client also faces symptoms of generalized anxiety, due to an inability to fit into American culture, despite having been born in this country. This affects his concentration in studies and is causing relationship conflicts with his White all-American girlfriend, Maxine. The client believes despite considering himself a Westerner, people do not adequately understand his ways because of his East Indian background, relegating him to stereotypes which he always ends up trying to disprove. At times, he’s treated as someone “exotic” and becomes the cynosure of everyone’s attention whereas on other occasions, he’s simply ignored in social settings because of his diverse background. This causes considerable stress in his relationships and has led him to isolate himself from social settings.
The client feels he often feels like a fish out of the waters when in the company of his girlfriend’s extended family. This frequently leads to thoughts of whether or not his relationship is doomed to failure. His lack of interpersonal skills in discussing this problem with his girlfriend makes him unable to make the right connections required between thoughts, moods, behavior, physical reactions and decision-making.
The client says he cannot discuss these thoughts openly with his parents as he believes they do not relate well with him on such issues. Moreover, he says his parents want him to pursue an Indian girl and are not very supportive of his choice for a White girlfriend.
With a firm overhaul of the client’s major concerns, I offer a theory-based description based on his concerns. Basically, all that the client really requires is self-regulating adjustments which would enable him to assume control over the present situation in his life, and come on top of his problems (Kuyken et al, 2009, p.145). The theoretical orientation I’m going to apply is based on Gestalt therapy.
My goal of using this therapy is to help the client gain insight into what he is experiencing on a daily basis and how he ends up unnecessarily feeding those experiences (Nevis, 1996, p.34), and ways in which he can adopt a corrective path of self-recovery. In order to understand the scope and function of Gestalt therapy, it may be understood that the theory offers a rich and unique way of life and enables individual clients to unleash their true potentials and come on top of feelings of guilt, pain, frustration, anxiety and more (Nevis, 1996, p.13).
Basically, the Gestalt therapy works against the background of existing relationships that matter to an individual and focuses on what can be done at the present moment, while enabling the client to break free from the old habit of carrying the baggage of guilt, shame and frustration (Nevis, 1996, p.11). Gestalt therapists believe that their approach is uniquely capable of responding to the difficulties and challenges of living, both in their ability to unburden the client of the misery they’re facing, and by showing them some of the best ways to achieve their true potential (Nevis, 1996, p.11).
Perception, feelings and acting are the guiding factors that influence a client to eventually accept “self-responsibility” for whatever that is happening in their lives, and how they may turn their emotional guidance system into a core inner strength (Nevis, 1996, p.45).
The idea behind this therapy is to make the client auto-resilient to the impact of the problem that ails them with the passage of therapy. In prescriptive terms, Gestalt theory is meant to “spruce up” the immunity system of the client’s emotional guidance system from unexpected changes taking place in the outside world (Nevis, 1996, p.80).
In order to implement Gestalt therapy to solve the client’s present problems, I anticipate there will be some resistance because he will have to “reach out” to other significant figures in his life (Nevis, 1996, p.145) which is a key task associated with achieving the desired benefits of this therapy, and often fraught with unwillingness.
Herewith, I formulize the short-term and long-term goals for therapy with this client which are mentioned as under.
Short-term goal
I’m going to meet the client for once a week, taking two-hour sessions which will continue for seven weeks. The client has been asked to do volunteer homework which includes attending social work camps comprising refugee children, disadvantaged White American groups and children of divorced parents and those whose fathers are in prison.
The objective of these interactions is to dispel some incorrect notions for the client that he’s having it very rough and everyone else’s more privileged than him (Kuyken et al, p.240).
The client also associates White Americans as more privileged than him, blaming a racist system for all his psychological issues. This notion will be put to test when he spends time with White Americans who are much worse off than him.
The whole objective of this short-term Gestalt therapy session is to instill in the client an attitude of self-responsibility, and a higher awareness (with an increase in maturity levels) to make him understand that his problems actually pale in comparison to the psychological issues that other people are facing right now. These newer social interactions are aimed at appealing to his intellectual side (I gathered from my interactions that the client happens to be very intelligent with an above par IQ and EQ score). Only when he realizes he’s one among many others on the same boat, will he gain a realistic picture on whether his problems are genuine, or he has been reading too much into other people’s intentions.
Long term goal
As a long-term goal, after the therapy session is over, the client was encouraged to talk out to the people he has issues with – his father and his girlfriend; instead of bottling up his feelings of anger and resentment, it’s advisable that he takes the proverbial bull by the horns and sorts out the matters that are causing him distress.
It’s no secret once the client speaks out his heart on these issues with the people who matter, it will be his personal task to find out whether his feelings were genuine, or was he over-reacting to some situations.
As an example, the client would be counseled to gain maturity on the subject, and harden up to the fact that many people do have unusual names. Whether or not he chooses another name, he should have no problems being identified with the earlier name as well. This should align him in the right direction while healing his relationship with his father.
As a therapist, I’m able to use an abundance of techniques that are based on the Gestalt therapy, a few specific exercises have been suggested above. Since, the work is unavoidably present-centered, the results are instantaneous and will enable the client to see the root cause of his worries and anxiety, and take corrective steps.
Since, the client is quite intelligent and capable of adequately taking care of himself, the interventions needed are minimal. However, my job as counselor remains throughout the duration of therapy. Even though we are having weekly two-hour sessions, the client may contact me at other times when he needs to address a pressing problem.
The response from my client to the therapeutic healing process based on Gestalt theory, has been very positive. Even after our initial discussion, he showed a huge amount of eagerness to put these exercises to test straightaway. The obvious reason for this alacrity is that the client did find answers to a lot of questions he couldn’t earlier.
The reason for this is because so far, he had bottled up these thoughts inside him, the client wasn’t really able to look past them to shape his future. All that is likely to change now as the client sees a new positive trend in his life and is eager to implement therapy solutions to its best effect.
Once, the client has undergone a few weeks in therapy, I intend to engage him in an open-ended discussion with his parents and girlfriend to get to the bottom of the issues that affect them, and to assuage past feelings of anger and trauma.
As a counselor, I strongly believe the client will show gradual but permanent improvement in his problems with the passage of therapy. This is because in theoretical terms, the Gestalt theory shifts the onus of responsibility for improvement to the client, instead of the counselor. If the therapy is applied correctly, I anticipate the following noticeable improvements in client behavior.
- Better inter-personal relationship with his parents, especially his father
- Better understanding of the values-system on which runs his girlfriend’s family, and most Americans at large
- More harmony with his own individuality – a syncretic identification as an American and a cultural association with his ancestral homeland.
References
Kuyken, W., Padesky, C.A., & Dudley, R., (2009). Collaborative Case Conceptualization: Working Effectively with Clients in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. The Guilford Press: New York.
Nevis, E.C., (1996). Gestalt Therapy: Perspectives and Applications. Routledge: London.