Body Movement and Exaggeration

Body movement and exaggeration is applied when a client needs to become more conscious of their nonverbal gestures. The first step to this is having the counselor observe the client's language and behavior. The counselor may observe numerous gestures being displayed, such as shaking legs, clenched fists, tapping of the foot, etc. The counselor then points out this gesture to the client and asks him/her to exaggerate it. So, if the client was tapping his foot, then he would begin tapping it even harder or faster. Bringing awareness of this unintentional movement to the client's attention is supposed to diminish it in the future. A variation of this is if the client states something of importance, but does not realize it.  The counselor would then ask them to repeat the statement, but repeating it with more enthusiasm. This continues until the client realizes the importance of the statement. Gestalt approaches have been said to make some clients feel attacked and/or unimportant. However, this technique has been found useful with clients who have emotional issues, such as depression and personality disorders.