The Influence of Integrative Gestalt Therapy on the Acquisition of Daily Life Skills and Habits

The efficiency of Integrative Gestalt Therapy on the decrease of undesired types of behaviour measured by the AAMD scale (Part two) in children with intellectual disabilities has been demonstrated in the authors' earlier works. The object of this work is to state the effects of the same therapeutic method on the intellectual aspects of social competence in the children with difficulties, as measured by the AAMD scale (Part one). Integrative Gestalt Therapy emphasises the wholeness of a person's body, intellect and soul in the social and ecological environment to which the person is undividedly linked. lt is a multidimensional and multimodal method, a method that causes changes on different levels, changes of physical, social-interactive and cognitive structure. Integrative GestaltTherapy has been applied as a group therapy during a period of one year on 13 children with intellectual disabilities, aged between 7-'l 1 years. The participants have been chosen primarily for their record in psychological problems and undesired behaviour. As the samples in question were dependent on the analysis of change of a sample of participants described by a set of quantitative variables in the initial and final state, a component model was applied. Results show statistically significant progress in the intellectual aspects of social intelligence. key words: Integrative Gestalt Therapy, undesired types of behaviour