What is Gestalt Therapy?
Gestalt therapy emphasizes personal responsibility and focuses on the individual’s experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, and the environmental and social contexts of a person’s life.
It prioritizes holistic understanding and integration of thoughts, feelings, and actions.
There is an emphasis on perception in this therapy, specifically aiming to increase a person’s awareness of themselves at the moment, and through this awareness, personal growth becomes possible.
Gestalt is based on the principle that everyone is a whole – made up of mind, body and soul – and draws on the philosophical idea that the whole is other than the sum of its parts. It emphasises that to fully understand people you have to look at their current situation as they experience it.
What happens in a Gestalt therapy session?
There’s no one way of conducting Gestalt therapy - each therapist will bring their own style and presentation to the session. But all Gestalt therapists should give you a non-judgmental space and support you to be more self-aware.
Says Katerina: “We focus on where you feel certain emotions in your body, or on giving voice to physical sensations in the body to reveal more understanding of underlying emotional experiences."
The therapy is interactive and feedback driven. “The therapist involves themselves in the therapy and shares what you are evoking in them as a way of prompting dialogue," she adds.
A session might also involve experiments, such as using objects in the room or drawing. A common technique is using an empty chair and imagining there is a person, or part of yourself, that you're in conflict with sitting there. You explain your feelings to them, then move to the chair and respond from their viewpoint. This helps you explore conflicts within yourself, giving voice to both sides to allow all views their full expression, and can lead to resolution and self-awareness.