“Change occurs when one becomes what one is, not when one tries to become what one is not.”
Arnold R. Beisser
The meaning of Gestalt
“Gestalt” is a German word, which roughly translated, means the whole; it implies wholeness, or as a verb, to make whole or complete.
Gestalt therapy originally developed in the early 1950’s by a group of avant-garde psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers and educators, as a reaction against the orthodoxy of psychoanalysis of the time, and as a model of human experience that values authentic living and relating.
Relational Gestalt Therapy is…
Holistic
• The therapist holds the perspective that we are never not in relationship with our environment and with others and responds to the client in their context
• The therapist works to understand how the client is, in relationship to others, while bringing to awareness their past, present and future hopes, and supporting them to see how this will also organise their current experience
• The relational world view is informed by the philosophical systems of field theory, existential phenomenology and dialogic relating, and organised with an attitude of holding complexity and bringing a hermeneutic sensibility
Present centered and focused on awareness
• The therapist promotes self awareness and self and environmental support with the belief that growth occurs through awareness and authentic dialogue
• A key focus is on supporting the client to relate, embody and live in the here and now
Grounded in the therapist/ client relationship
• The client /therapist dialogue offers the opportunity for a healing experience where the emphasis of the therapy is, not only talking about what has happened, but on fully experiencing what is, and allowing emergence of possibility and change
• By holding a position of curiosity and cultivated uncertainty the therapist aims to assist the client to deepen their existential experience and co- create an emergent exploration of who they are and how they have creatively adjusted in order to self regulate and become more fully who they are in the world
• The therapist trusts the client to guide the work by determining what matters to them
• The working relationship provides an opportunity for an authentic and meaningful meeting where the focus is on the relationship and there is an acknowledgement of mutual influence and co-creation of the process
About viewing the therapeutic relationship as a vehicle for the development of awareness
• Awareness is developed through reflecting on their relationship and the unfolding process, on developing awareness of the clients experience in the present moment
• Attention is given to how the past as remembered, and the future, as anticipated, may be currently present and shape the clients experience
• The use of creative experimentation, through different ways of behaving and expressing, is used as a vehicle to explore and heighten awareness
About choice and flexibility
• The goal is for clients to become aware of what they are doing, how they are doing it, and how they can change themselves, and at the same time, to learn to accept and value themselves (“Change occurs when one becomes what he is, not when he tries to become what he is not” Arnold Beisser)
• From a relational (or field theory) perspective, change occurs when we change our relationship to the supports in our environment or increase the supports that are available in the environment
• By learning to follow their own ongoing process, and to fully experience, accept, and appreciate their complete selves, clients can free themselves to make more appropriate, spontaneous and creative contact with the environment
How does Gestalt differ from other approaches?
Because Gestalt therapy is process-oriented, therapy deals with core issues in each uniquely whole person. Any aspect of the person may be appropriate in working through material that emerges in therapy: behavior, cognitions, beliefs, body sensations, imagining, and dreams.
The creative processes and style of the therapist are the only limiting factors in suggesting experiments that may be helpful toward clarity.
This is radically different from forensic forms of “doctor/patient” therapy where one might expect to be prescribed-for according to a categorical template of “symptoms”.
Functioning from a position of “radical respect,” the Gestalt therapist believes that persons already possess an innate inclination and predisposition to health and wholeness.
Therefore, while there are viable interventional and facilitative tools at the therapist’s disposal, he or she does not presume to “fix” or “cure” anyone else. The client is the “expert”.
As a Gestalt therapist, my humanistic roots are important to me. If I cannot see what is growthful and creative in my clients, how can they be expected to see it for themselves?
Unless I believe that they are ‘self-actualising’, capable of changing themselves and their lives should they wish to do so, then why are we working together?
For me, therapy is about people taking charge of their lives, and becoming ‘whole’ rather than split or fragmented people.
How is the therapy done?
Gestalt therapy is an exploration rather than a direct attempt to change behavior. The goal is growth and autonomy through an increase in consciousness. The method is one of direct engagement, whether that engagement is the meeting between therapist and client or engagement with problematic aspects of the client’s contacting and awareness process.
The model of engagement comes directly from the gestalt concept of contact.
Contact is the means whereby living and growth occur, so lived experience nearly always takes precedence over explanation. Rather than maintaining an impersonal professional distance and making interpretations, the gestalt therapist relates to the patient with an alive, excited, warm, and direct presence.
In this open, engaged relationship, patients not only get honest feedback but also, in the authentic contact, can see, hear, and be told how they are experienced by the therapist, can learn how they affect the therapist, and (if interested) can learn something about the therapist.
They have the healing experience of being listened to by someone who profoundly cares about their perspectives, feelings, and thoughts.