What is Gestalt
WHAT IS GESTALT?
Gestalt therapy is a psychotherapeutic approach that embodies the word "wholeness". Gestalt philosophy supports the concept that mind and body function as a unit. As individuals, we need to get from and give to our environment. The most basic adjustment in life is learning how to manage that boundary so that our needs are met while assuring that we are connected to those around us and maintain our integrity. The therapeutic process works to increase awareness of thinking, feeling, bodily and behavioral responses leading to an increased ability to make contact with self and other. A uniqueness of Gestalt therapy is that it is action oriented. Clients are assisted in bringing feelings and behaviors into the therapeutic session through the use of experiments. Experiments are designed to explore responses and free blocks to new behavior.
Dynamic
The therapist is an active participant - observing, framing, designing experiments, engaging in the present moment with the client.
Holistic
Connects mind and body. Teaches how to listen to and dialogue with the language of the body. Through metaphor, heightened awareness, and attending, the therapeutic process helps the client connect with his or her own reality.
Contact and Boundaries
Establishing healthy and clear contact with ourselves allows us to establish healthy contact with others. Gestalt teaches how we can make solid contact with present reality, initiate contact with others, and maintain safe and flexible boundaries.
Unfinished Business
Through our development and growth, we learn to subvert or repress our healthy needs as an adjustment to "safety" and "security". Gestalt work helps reattend to our need so that we can make a conscious adult decision about our behavior. We work through our unresolved conflicts and personal "holes".
Here and Now
Attending to the present moment and what is "alive" for a person we learn our personal need system and how we do and do not meet our needs. Our past and our future are incorporated in our present.