The gestalt therapy fidelity scale

In this chapter we describe the development and validation of a fidelity scale for gestalt therapy (GT): Gestalt Therapy Fidelity Scale (GTFS). There were 24 participants from Europe, 22 from North America (USA and Canada), 11 from Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), four from Latin America, and one each from Israel and Japan. The eight concepts and 35 associated behaviors were submitted for the consideration of the expert panel through an online survey platform, Qualtrics. The draft 24-item GTFS was then subjected to preliminary testing through a pilot study in which a group of experienced gestalt clinicians used the GTFS to rate video recordings of clinical work by three well-known gestalt therapists, Michael Clemmens, Bob Resnick and Gordon Wheeler and an equally well-known therapist from a different modality, Jeff Young. The issues to be explored in the pilot study concerned the usability of the GTFS, and its capacity to distinguish gestalt therapy from other modalities. All of the participants gave higher scores on the GTFS to the videos of gestalt therapists than to the non-gestalt therapist. The results of the validation study confirmed that the GTFS can be reliably used as a measure for evaluating whether a therapist is administering GT. In addition to the use of the GTFS in clinical trials research, and qualitative or mixed methods research, we consider that the GTFS could be a useful instrument in psychotherapy training and supervision, including self-supervision.