When I am asked what kind of therapy I practice, I say I have training in Gestalt therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy, but I consider myself to be integrative and “do what works” with each client.
Doing what works involves some level of practice experience, judgment, willingness to try new things, and stepping out of my comfort zone. I don’t defend against any particular approach to therapy and try to work with the client’s strengths, develop a collaborative relationship, and be myself as much as possible, including my sense of humor, presence, and worldview.
Gestalt therapy, which is considered part of the existential-humanistic tradition in psychotherapy, is “more than the sum of its parts,” as Aristotle said. The word “gestalt” is a German word loosely described as “whole.” A therapy combining various psychotherapy theories continues to evolve into a truly integrative perspective.
All psychotherapy theories are also a “gestalt.” As therapists, when we work with a client, all of our training and knowledge fade into the background, and we focus on present awareness and contact-making to meet the client in the here and now. Being genuine in the present moment is a key part of being a Gestalt therapy practitioner. Gestalt therapy involves expanding momentary awareness by proposing certain experiments and providing a particular kind of relationship where further growth can develop.
Integrative therapy involves customizing treatment tailored to individual needs, understanding and working with the specific aspects of the client’s life, and adjusting techniques to a more flexible orientation. Utilizing a collaborative relationship is in line with contemporary gestalt therapy.
Famous for the empty chair technique and its founder, Fritz Perls, in the 1960s—who used psychodramatic methods to confront the individual—gestalt therapy has changed and evolved over time to a more relational perspective. Originally trained as a psychoanalyst, Perls combined elements of field theory, gestalt psychology, Reichian therapy, and more into a new gestalt.
Today, gestalt therapy is influenced by a variety of psychotherapies, including contemporary relational psychoanalysis, body-based psychotherapies, post-feminist theories, and post-modern theories like constructivism.
A large part of gestalt therapy is cognitive, behavioral, and emotional, using imagination and the senses, and it can be fun, exciting, and anxiety-producing. Much of what gestalt therapists do is creative, experimental, and relationally oriented, grounded in a truly integrative perspective.
When we say “whole” in gestalt therapy, we mean all of the parts—not fragmenting the human being. We aim to see the person as completely as possible in their total environment with all of their complexities. Organically, we are everything we have experienced and are embedded in our environmental context with our genetics, social world, economic conditions, culture, and so on. No one is the same as us. Given this uniqueness, we are challenged to be artists who creatively live and adapt to life.
Human beings are constantly in a state of growth. It is impossible to avoid changing throughout life. Change will happen; a figure emerges from a ground. The present is made up of the past.
Certain blocks to living more fully can manifest and get in the way of further expansion and possibilities. People can get stuck after various kinds of trauma that produce fear, anxiety, depression, and more, impacting their potential to live a fuller, more satisfying life. These symptoms can cause us to stagnate by avoiding dealing with what has happened to us in our life.
The answer is in the present moment—by noticing more than we might do on our own. Gestalt therapists are experts at noticing slight changes in the here and now. By expanding our awareness of the present moment, we start to build a new sense of who we are (and who we are not).
Through gestalt therapy, we pay close attention to processing and digesting our life experiences (and all of our parts in the present moment). By paying attention to what we have been avoiding, this eventually leads to further growth.
We try to grasp and notice what happens in the present moment between therapist and client—exploring the client’s life, emotions, thoughts, movements, and other behaviors that arise almost randomly, and how they are impacted by the world (the therapist’s world, the client’s world, and the outside world). A shift can occur.
Gestalt therapy is practiced all over the globe. Practice and research are being done worldwide in gestalt therapy. I have gestalt therapy colleagues in Italy, Spain, the UK, Mexico, Canada, Iceland, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, India, and more.