Authors | Research Objectives | Sample and sampling | Setting | Research design and procedure | Variable and measures | Therapy Method and treatment length |
1) Arip, Bakar, Ahmad & Jais (2013) Procedia- Social and Behavioural Sciences | Assessing content validity of GT’s group guidance module for student self-development | 9 experts (6 in teaching the subject matter + 3 language) | Sultan Idris Education University UPSI | Quantitative approach Review of literature about GT to build Group guidance module Examination of the face validity and content validity of the module by experts | Different sessions and individualized activities of the module | Group guidance module: 9 group guidance sessions and 12 individualized activities |
2) Doric. (2017) Gestalt Journal of Australia and New Zealand | The effectiveness of GT in a prison setting. May GT change offenders’ behaviours and lives? | 70 male offenders serving sentences for criminal offences | Serbia, Italy | Group therapy for a period of one year. | Validation tools Photography CORE Outcome Measure forms; CHAP treatment scale; Manic depressive, mixed-affective states | Four therapy groups, with 7 - 10 participants in each group Sessions were conducted weekly. |
3) Drăghici (2011) Procedia- Social and behavioural Sciences | Effectiveness of Experiential therapy, Gestalt and expressive-creative methods to improve geriatric patient functionality | 30 geriatric patients with depressive and anxious disorders |
| Criteria to select the members of the groups. Patients were grouped according to the severity of their symptoms. One closed and one open group underwent therapy during two different periods | Interview, direct observation and psychometric testing Mental states, Depression, Severity of affective disorders and cognitive efficiency | Eight sessions of group treatment. Drawing method |
4) Farahzadi & Masafi (2013). Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences | Comparison of different clinical models To study the effectiveness of Gestalt and cognitive- behavioural play therapies for decreasing dysthymic disorder in children | 18 fourth-grade female students at the elementary level with dysthymic disorder | Iran | Pseudo experimental with a pre-test and post-test. Semi-structured interview to put students randomly in three research groups: two experimental and one control group. 10 ninety-minute sessions held two times a week. At the end of the sessions, post-test completed by teachers | Child Symptoms Inventory (CSI-4), teacher form. | One experimental group intervened with GT plays and the other with Cognitive-Behavioural plays. The first focused on immediate experience, present time, responsibility, vocabulary use, and polarities. The second focused on relaxation, thought-record, positive self-expressions, social improvements, thoughts, modelling and role playing |
5) Gonzalez- Hidalgo (2017a). Emotion, Space and Society | Effectiveness of GT in social problems To assess if GT workshops help indigenous and peasant activists to deepen their life-stories, subjective reflexivity | 23 interviewees selected from 300 workshop participants |
| Participants chosen by Edupaz Scholar spent two months as an active participant- observant of Edupaz, interviewing their staff and two group therapists as well as conducting 23 interviews and three “performative” focus groups with members of indigenous and peasant communities that participated in GT workshops between 2004 and 2014 | Observation Interview Focus group | Workshops were inspired by Naranjo’s training for psychotherapist named SAT (Seekers After Truth); Workshops were 6 days long, intensive and retreat-based, focusing on the process of the relational construction of the self. Meditation, body work and movement, theatre, peer and group therapy were used |