Gestalt Therapy: Theory and Practice

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Gestalt therapy, the gestalt approach to psychotherapy is an independent and authoritative direction in practical psychology, a synthesis of psychoanalysis, bioenergetics, psychodrama and some ideas of Gestalt psychology. The author of this approach was Fritz Perls, at present it is a real movement, developing in its own logic and still looking for its own perspectives.

The history of Gestalt therapy is not simple. Fritz Perls initially adhered to a psychoanalytic approach, but later he greatly expanded his views. A certain influence on the formation of the Gestalt approach was exerted by the Gestalt psychology of Wertheimer and Koehler, Kurt Goldstein (holistic approach), Wilhelm Reich (the importance of physicality), Jacob Moreno (elements of psychodrama), and the influence of Eastern philosophies affected.

Although Gestalt therapy is sometimes positioned as a way of personal development, in reality the main tasks of Gestalt therapy are not developmental, but therapeutic. Clients do not come to a Gestalt therapist with development goals, they come with their own problems. Some Gestalt psychotherapists work in a serious, real psychotherapy mode, helping clients get rid of the problems that cause them anxiety and suffering. The other part of Gestalt therapists is more of a social movement, sometimes a hangout, in which the participants have a non-stressful therapy that has some developmental effect.

Today, in our society, everything turns into entertainment: even Gestalt therapy. It is good that such leisure really helps the development of the individual.

Gestalt therapists consider it normal if the therapy process lasts up to two years. 2 years is fine. More is wrong.

Conceptually, Gestalt therapy is close to humanistic, existential psychology and implements a predominantly female approach to psychotherapy. If the therapist asks about problems, not about goals, does not like to talk about reason, will and discipline, if you hear about the importance of feelings and the inadmissibility of “imposing” anything on children, about the dangers of control and the danger of people suppressing them true (usually negative) feelings — this is most likely Gestalt therapy. It is also easy to recognize pedagogy from Gestalt therapy.

To clearly see and understand the features of Gestalt therapy, it is useful to compare its approach with the synton approach.

Gestalt therapy is a developing and ambiguous phenomenon, especially not everyone who practices as a Gestalt therapist has sufficient culture and qualifications. Perhaps, in this regard, many distorted ideas and myths have accumulated around Gestalt therapy. Without claiming to be the ultimate truth and remembering that Gestalt therapy does not remain static, it changes itself, let’s try to outline its main features, positions characteristic of Gestalt therapy.

The main goals and objectives of Gestalt therapy are the restoration of a person’s normal contact with himself, others and life, the acquisition of vital energy. This work occurs mainly through work with actual feelings and bodily manifestations, although work with memories and dreams is often involved.

“In a ‘typical’ therapy session, either individually or in a group, the client describes some difficulty or current problem; the therapist helps him «turn on» (the existential position of freedom and responsibility) and focus on his experiences here and now (awareness). The therapist, through his presence (the ability to listen and remain sensitive), tries to establish a therapeutic alliance based on the I-Thou relationship. The therapist then offers the client an experiment aimed at developing their creativity, allowing them to see in a new way the difficulties they are working with in therapy, to release repressed emotions. Gestalt Therapy: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. G. Mascollier

The work of the imagination, conversations with imaginary characters are actively used. In Gestalt there is no task to think, there is a task to realize and feel. Some of the problems are solved through awareness (to realize what you are now feeling, what you are expressing now), some through real reaction. Gestalt therapy helps the client to find harmony between the mind and feelings, while giving the feelings a major role. From the point of view of Gestalt therapy, the best option is to rely on signals from the inside in your life, but take into account external realities when performing certain actions. Creatively adapt to the world, satisfying their internal needs in socially appropriate ways.

One of the main values ​​of Gestalt therapy is authenticity, harmony with yourself and your body.

“… What concerns the values ​​of Gestalt therapy, first of all (and this is the difference from some training systems), is the achievement of authenticity. That is, one of the goals of the work is just to increase the authenticity, the correspondence of a person to himself. So that in cases where there is no point, you do not need to fight with yourself, somehow live in peace with yourself and correspond to yourself. The fact is that our system of civilization is basically built, of course, on retroflexion and on the most complex retroflexive complex — narcissism. And narcissism, in short, is defined by the following thought — (this is from A. Lowen’s book «Narcissism») the denial of the true self. That is, in fact, I am a person who reacts quite quickly, quickly, emotionally to many things. For example, at some point I find out that it is not very profitable for the reason that it is inconvenient for others, for the reason that it does not correspond to the standard pattern, say, of male behavior in society, and I find out that it is more profitable for me to pretend to be, for example, a phlegmatic person. And then, accordingly, I begin to behave in this way. And instead of the true self, I have such a pseudo-construction that does not correspond to my reality, but nevertheless. — Daniil Nestorovich Khlomov, «Paradoxes of Gestalt Therapy».

It is important to consider that in the Gestalt approach, a person is primarily an organism living in the environment and driven by natural needs.

The real engine of human life is not the head, not the mind, but desires, feelings and the energy of needs. Everything that a person does, he does to satisfy his personal needs.

Gestalt therapy is not developmental psychology, it is psychotherapy, the prevailing position is “The world is big and strong, but man is small and weak.” This is ignoring the power of the mind, fear of tension, disbelief in achieving big goals, underestimating the healthy potential of adults and children. Gestalt therapy-style trainings talk about the most elementary things in the conviction (and convincing) that it is very difficult to cope with this. For a Gestalt therapist, there are no healthy people, everyone has problems, everyone is a little sick. The approach is dominated by the priority of the “Accept!” strategy, the “Change!” strategy is less often used. and power options are practically excluded. Gestalt therapy is a feminine approach to solving client problems.

Gestalt therapists, as people, are very different, including cheerful and positive people, but in their professional activities, their initial attention is often paid not to the client’s capabilities, but to his problems.

We emphasize — only the initial attention. Professionally working Gestalt therapists in the process of therapy, as a rule, rely on the strengths of the client and provide the final exit to the positive.

Starting work, the Gestalt therapist usually avoids demonstrating positive examples, does not teach effective communication, does not tell how to live correctly, the search for problems, mistakes and weaknesses of the client is more characteristic of the Gestalt. Starting work, the Gestalt therapist first of all looks for the internal problem that interferes with the client in order to remove obstacles to development or normal life. The formulation of positive goals, setting goals for clients, adopted in the synton approach and coaching in general, is not typical for Gestalt sessions: in all the records of consultations (sessions) that we managed to find, the Gestalt therapist immediately began working with the client’s problem, not turning it into a task. During consultations (at sessions), the focus is on negative emotions, attention is drawn to the negative, negative feelings are instilled. In the articles and speeches of Gestalt therapists, there is a tendency to see difficulties, difficulties and obstacles in everything.

Most of all, the conviction of the majority of Gestalt therapists that it is impossible to live on a constant positive, that it is always false and a defense, causes controversy. For them, a person who constantly smiles hides his problems behind this shell. Children who do not resent their parents are problem children for Gestalt therapists. In their interpretation, these are children who are not sure of their parents and live in fear that a sincere expression of their feelings (feelings of resentment) will destroy their relationship with their parents.

The mother complains that her daughter treats her worse than her father, although she spends more time with the child than the father, who is either just at work or on frequent business trips. She behaves well with her father, is friendly and respectful, but she does not listen to her, is impudent, treats her without respect. The Gestalt therapist says: “You are all right, you should rejoice, it is immediately clear that the child in you is sure that you will not go anywhere, is sure of your love and your feelings, that’s why she behaves like that. The daughter is not afraid to express her negative feelings to you, which means that you have a healthy relationship. And as for the relationship between your daughter and dad, it causes me concern. If she is so polite with him, behaves so well, it means that she is insecure about her dad, she wants to achieve his love. We need to work with dad, make his relationship with his daughter healthier.

Kjell Rudestam writes: .

Who is Gestalt therapy suitable for and who is not? Gestalt therapy is popular primarily among women: women talk closely about feelings, about the causes of their problems, they are satisfied with the ideology of the gestalt approach, aimed at harmonizing the inner world. Energetic business-oriented men understand Gestalt therapy worse, group process seems boring to them, and consultations, which talk a lot about feelings, are too slow and not practical. However, as usual, the client’s perception of the therapeutic process is no longer dependent on the approach that the therapist implements, but on the personality and talent of the therapist himself. Gestalt therapists are different, and wise, and not very — everything, as in any direction, everything is like in life. Here is a note Dirty Gestalt, written by Polina Gaverdovskaya, a well-known Gestalt therapist — that the Gestalt approach (more precisely, some of its representatives) has come to grow up.

There is a lot of literature on Gestalt therapy, but most of the books and articles are written in difficult-to-understand language. The training of Gestalt therapy comes mainly through live work with you personally. This is not very similar to classical training, you are treated rather than taught, but most students enjoy this process.