What Is Gestalt Therapy?
Gestalt Therapy emphasizes a focus on the present. According to its theory, acceptance of where people currently are is an essential prerequisite for change to occur. Therapist and patient can engage in dialogue in order to explore phenomenological perspectives.
Therapists might notice when their client is tapping their foot or wringing their hands, and may ask what it feels like for them to do this. Furthermore, experiential exercises like the empty chair technique may also be used.
Fritz Perl
Franz Perl was a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst known for creating Gestalt therapy. Throughout his life he participated in intellectual circles, theoretical debates, travel adventures, emphasized the power of relationships while emphasizing unconscious processes; additionally he encouraged patients to accept responsibility for their actions.
Gestalt therapy requires clients to be willing to take risks and express their emotions openly, while simultaneously having enough support from their therapist to avoid frustration or indulgence. A good therapist must offer support without reinforcing attempts by patients to manipulate them; rather, an honest response should be offered instead.
Gestalt is a German term meaning “form,” used to refer to any entity which exceeds the sum of its parts. Gestalt Therapy places great importance on emphasizing what’s happening now while believing that events from both past and future are just projections of present experiences.
Gestalt therapy focuses on wholeness and integration for its patients, which it achieves by encouraging them to restructure their perceptions of reality, thus giving meaning and independence back into their lives.
Laura Perl
Gestalt therapy is an existential humanistic psychotherapy approach that emphasizes living in the present. Utilizing cognitive insight techniques, Gestalt combines dance, art, drama, body work with dialogue to help clients identify negative thought patterns that contribute to unhappiness as well as physical symptoms – ultimately creating a therapeutic relationship built on mutual respect and trust between client and therapist.
Gestalt therapy is an experiential form of psychotherapy used to treat anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and relationship difficulties. Additionally, it helps people learn to cope with chronic health problems like migraines and ulcerative colitis more effectively. Sometimes combined with other forms of therapy like hypnotherapy and acupressure.
Laura Posner Perl co-founded Gestalt theory with her husband Fritz Perl and worked together to pioneer Gestalt therapy during the 1940s and 50s. Their blend of therapy drew on Freudian psychoanalyism, psychodrama, and German theory of perception of the 1930s called “gestalt.” Laura died aged 84 at her birthplace of Pforzheim in West Germany where she also served as a noted psychoanalyst who specialized in treating trauma; additionally, she taught various mental health professionals.
Phenomenological-existential theory
At its heart, Gestalt therapy emphasizes active awareness work rather than manipulative therapy that manipulates patients toward some therapeutic goal. Gestalt therapists approach patients in an honest and open manner while upholding responsibility for the well-being and effectiveness of the process through dialogue that stimulates new Aha! moments.
Existential perspectives in therapy emphasize how people are constantly reconstructing themselves, which explains why experiences like increased intimacy or improved job performance often do not correlate directly with Gestalt therapy experiences. But as one’s sensing improves and contact boundaries loosen, those skills gained can easily translate to everyday life.
Over its training period, Gestalt therapy has evolved to emphasize an empathic and respectful dialogue with clients; an increased emphasis on the relationship between therapist and client; an explicit and ongoing exploration of psychodynamic themes; as well as an increased awareness of cognition-behavior relationships; as well as attending to working and resistance processes of consciousness in order to foster self-regulating systems that go beyond impulses and resistances.
Dialogue
Gestalt therapy’s most prominent characteristic is dialogue. Therapist and patient communicate their phenomenological perspectives in an open and nonjudgmental fashion to uncover new aspects of self-concept that they may have overlooked due to preexisting attitudes. Aside from verbal dialogue, Gestalt therapists may use various experiential exercises and techniques including role-playing, reenactment, or artistic exercises such as painting.
A therapist will pay close attention during sessions to their patient’s body language and movements, such as asking them to wring their hands or tap their feet, in order to identify what they may be experiencing and then describe it later. By helping their client be more aware of both themselves as well as the impact of their behavior on others, this allows the therapist to increase self-awareness while creating more self-control for all involved parties involved.
A gestalt therapist can teach their client to become aware of any negative thought patterns or behaviors which obstruct them from reaching their true human potential. This technique can often prove challenging, as it encourages individuals to take full responsibility for their feelings and actions while challenging them to let go of previous conflicts and experiences.
Experiential exercises
Gestalt therapy goes beyond dialogue by using experiential exercises such as role-playing and reenactment as well as drawing and painting to help patients become more self aware. By uncovering negative thought patterns that limit self-awareness or cause frustration they help patients become more conscious about themselves and discover which negative habits or behavior might be interfering with self-knowledge causing misery in life.
Assume a client is dealing with grief after her father has died; in order to help process and find resolution, her therapist might suggest the empty chair technique; encouraging her to speak directly to the empty seat as though it were him in order to process and find closure for these feelings.
Experience-driven psychotherapy is what distinguishes gestalt therapy from other forms of psychotherapy, making it unique. Gestalt therapists take a holistic approach that places emphasis on present day issues while helping clients move forward in their journey of healing. Though past trauma may still play an integral part, healing should be ongoing process for lasting change to occur.
A gestalt therapist will work to create a safe and supportive therapeutic environment. They will listen to any concerns you have about therapy as well as answer any questions you might have about how the therapeutic process works and could benefit you personally.
Body language
Body language is an integral component of Gestalt therapy sessions, enabling therapists to share phenomenological perspectives and experiment. This approach can be particularly helpful for people struggling with certain mental health conditions like PTSD and anxiety, helping them reclaim control of their lives and find peace again.
Clients may be encouraged to express their emotions openly or even act them out, which can be uncomfortable for some people. But, according to gestalt therapists, it can be more effective for patients to stay with what is felt than to try and evade it altogether. Through dialogue sessions with patients, their therapist may suggest personifying sensations (if your anxiety could talk what would it say?) which allows for deeper insights into feelings.
Gestalt therapists employ experiments to promote self-awareness. These can include enactments, role play, homework and other activities. For instance, someone feeling insecure in social situations might be given an exercise where he attempts to start up conversation at an office function with someone he doesn’t know well in order to gain confidence when faced with similar situations in future social encounters. By increasing awareness, better relationships and emotional healing may occur while simultaneously eliminating roadblocks that prevent you from reaching your goals.
Empathy
As opposed to other therapies, gestalt therapy places great emphasis on empathy as an essential element in understanding human experience. Thus, therapists listen without judgment or bias, closely watching body language for any clues that might indicate issues in sessions, and guide sessions based on clients’ individual experiences – ultimately helping the client discover and overcome any roadblocks to progressing further in life.
Melisa lost her father in a car accident and is struggling with how responsible she feels. To address these feelings and aid healing from loss, her therapist recommended the empty chair technique, whereby Melisa sits across from an empty chair and imagines their father sitting there. This helps Melisa give closure and move past grief more easily.
Gestalt therapy has proven useful in treating depression, anxiety and grief; however it should not be the primary approach taken when treating major personality disorders or psychosis. Therefore it’s crucial that when selecting a therapist they possess all of the appropriate credentials.
Gestalt therapists typically encourage their clients to participate in physical experiences like role-playing and reenactment in addition to talking therapy, in order to increase awareness of emotions and sensations as well as identify patterns that lead to emotional distress. This approach can also help clients develop skills necessary for managing stressful thoughts that lead to physical discomfort.
