Gestalt counselors view resistance as a way that one tries to hold onto his/or her psychological functioning.

Five Major Channels of Resistance:

1. Introjection:
a. The tendency to uncritically accept others' beliefs and standards without assimilating them to make them congruent with who one is
b. To passively incorporate what the environment provides, spending little time on becoming clear about what one personally needs or wants

2. Projection:
a. Disown aspects of self by assigning them to the environment
b. Trouble distinguishing between inside and outside world
c. Disown attributes of one's self that are inconsistent with self image and put them onto other people
d. Avoid taking responsibly of feelings and the person one really is

3. Deflection:
a. A way of avoiding contact and awareness by the process of being vague and indirectly using distraction
b. Makes it difficult to sustain a sense of contact with reality
c. May lead to overuse of humor, abstract generalizations, and questions rather than making statements, ultimately resulting in emotional depletion
d. May also lead to diminished emotional experience as one seeks to live vicariously through others

4. Retroflection:
a. One may do something to one's self that he/or she really wanted to do or would have done to someone else

5. Confluence:
a. Blurring the boundaries between self and environment
b. Fitting in, which alleviates all conflict
c. The belief all people feel and think the same way
d. The high need for acceptance and approval
e. Stay safe, never express one's own feelings
f. Therapist uses "W" questions, "the who, what, where, and why" to get the client to open up

Other Forms of Resistance:

1. Control of environment:
a. Resistance to contact
b. Boundary disturbance

2. Blocks to energy manifested by:
a. Tension in part of body
b. Posture
c. Keeping body tight and closed
d. Not breathing deeply
e. Looking away from people when speaking
f. Numbing feelings
g. Speaking with a restricted voice