Gestalt therapy is a therapeutic approach derived from psychology. In this sheet, you will discover this approach in more detail, its principles, the techniques it includes, its history, its benefits, the course of a session, how to become a Gestalt practitioner, and finally, the opinion of a specialist. .

The Gestalt is a humanist and existential approach. It integrates how we create meaning and what exists in the present moment, that is to say the whole of our body, our thoughts and our emotions. It helps create choices for a better life.

Gestalt is a German word that can be translated as “the form”, “what appears”, the “figure”. In other words, what is taking shape at this moment in the relational and organizational field between the patient and the therapist? Appeared in Germany at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, the theory of Gestalt is primarily a matter of philosophy and psychology. It would have developed partially in reaction to the dominant tendency in psychology at this time, where one sought to isolate the elements one from the other. However, according to the Gestalt, what we perceive, on all levels, is organized not by aggregates of pieces, but by sets – the whole being greater than the sum of its parts and different from them. When you recognize someone, for example, the whole face instantly makes sense.

Stemming from Gestalt psychology, Gestalt therapy is a major current in psychotherapy that we owe to Frederick S. Perls (commonly known as Fritz), physician, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and his wife Laura, psychologist. Born in Germany, but having had to flee the Nazi regime in 1934 when they were in their forties, the Perls were strongly imbued with Gestalt thought. Their work was also inspired by the psychoanalysis of Freud and Jung, by the character analysis of Wilhelm Reich, by the existential philosophical current and by Eastern religions, such as Taoism and Zen1.

Gestalt therapy is a medium to long term approach, on average 1 session per week for 2 to 3 years. In most cases, the approach would result in a positive change in the client’s condition within 4 to 20 meetings14. Longer-term in-depth work brings lasting flexibility to defense mechanisms and helps consolidate developments.

This shows the richness of the approach, but also the complexity of the theory.

Gestalt therapy is practiced in groups or individually. Each life problem can be tackled with Gestalt therapy: difficult separations or mourning, restoring / taking care of the existing link with oneself or others, helping to resolve certain psychological, somatic or existential problems, such as shyness, feeling of rejection, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, trauma …

Precautions: From the outset, a clear contract must be established with the therapist, among other things with regard to client engagement. Indeed, the potential power of Gestalt therapy may not be fully utilized if therapy is cut short or if it remains focused on too specific a problem4. On the other hand, care should be taken when using certain exploratory and awareness-raising techniques that can bring out emotions that are difficult to deal with and face13. It is therefore important to ensure the supervision of a competent therapist and adequate follow-up.

Help solve relationship problems

The results of a controlled study reveal that the 2-chair dialogue technique (the client alternately invests each of the 2 seats) would be useful for improving intimacy and marital harmony5. During this study, 45 couples were divided into 3 groups: dialogue at 2 chairs and development of empathy; learning to solve problems using the cognitive-behavioral approach; and control group (waiting list). The 2 interventions gave better results than the control group, and the gestalt therapy intervention proved to be superior to the cognitive-behavioral approach.

Another study involving couples in which one member suffered from moderate-stage Alzheimer’s disease also gave promising results6.

Help resolve difficult and unresolved past situations

Two studies have evaluated the effectiveness of the empty chair dialogue technique in this regard. The most recent, published in 2002, was carried out with people who suffered from various interpersonal problems and abuse in childhood7. Their main difficulty concerned an unresolved situation with a parent. The main goal of therapy was to reconnect with the emotions associated with the problem in order to reduce its impact. Twenty-nine subjects attended 12 to 14 weekly 1-hour individual sessions. The results indicate that 45% of them would have solved their problem with satisfaction.

The other study, carried out on 34 individuals affected by unresolved interpersonal problems, was published in 19958. Researchers compared empty chair dialogue (12 weekly sessions of 50 minutes) to a control condition (discussion sessions and reading about unresolved conflicts). The gestalt therapy technique produced significant improvements for most subjects, and the changes were maintained 4 months, and 1 year later. Although some improvements were also seen in the control group, the empty chair technique was significantly more effective in reducing interpersonal discomfort and distress, as well as in bringing about concrete change and resolving unresolved conflicts.

Promote the expression of emotions

A randomized study evaluated the effects of gestalt therapy on anxiety, depression and anger in 43 people aged 65 and over9. The subjects were placed either in a control group or in group therapy (1h30 per week for 6 weeks). The therapy consisted of expressing and exploring her negative emotions and developing coping strategies with the aim of reducing their incidence. Compared to the control group, gestalt therapy would have contributed to a greater expression of anger, the development of a less hostile and more pleasant attitude, as well as a significant decrease in confusion and greater clarity of thoughts. .

Encourage creative adjustments on a daily basis

By focusing his attention on how the process of tension is at work, the therapist helps to identify thoughts, sensations, etc. on the occasion of the difficulty. This awarness and the proposed experimentation brings the possibility of creating something new and gradually develops the client’s autonomy.

Improve self-confidence to dare to live life to the fullest

Self-confidence is acquired through various recognized experiences. When a person suffers from a deficit of self-esteem and confidence in his capacities, the benevolent accompaniment of the therapist is a precious support which allows him to reveal his potentials, according to the famous “Become who you are” by Nietzsche .

Other uses

The scientific literature mentions that Gestalt therapy can be used for various applications. A small randomized study, carried out on 14 newly hospitalized subjects with schizophrenia, found that gestalt therapy, combined with standard hospital treatment, could be useful in stimulating the resumption of contact with reality10. In addition, a case study suggests that the approach facilitates acceptance of chronic or very serious illnesses11. Another case study mentions that this therapy could facilitate the integration of the altered body image following breast cancer surgeries12.

The background or the foreground?

Everything we see, hear and feel is part of a “background” (the environment) where some things are temporarily in the foreground while the rest remains in the background. What is in the foreground changes constantly: you walk in a garden and, from minute to minute, this or that grove catches your eye, the rest blurring; the day your toaster dies, you suddenly notice all the toaster advertisements in the newspaper; you are worried about a medical examination and the rest of your life loses much of its interest … Moreover, at any time the individual must be able to discern which elements must be required, not each of them taking on their full meaning than in relation to the bottom: a puncture on the highway or in front of the house, it is not the same thing.

Gestalt therapy is also called “contact therapy”, because it takes place at the contact boundary between the organism (oneself) and its environment. The 2 are interdependent and constitute the organism-environment field. It is really about studying the process of contact, rather than how to be in contact.

This is how the therapist is attentive to the cycle of contact, to its fluidity.

In a harmonious and dynamic functioning, “the form” (the Gestalt) is in constant movement, each aspect of a moment of life taking the foreground at the appropriate moment, for example: to be hungry, to decide to eat and to choose what. , fully savor, digest, etc.

In each of these stages, the therapist will be attentive to the mechanisms which will disturb the fluidity of this Gestalt. Because by being present in the moment of the relation, the therapist can (make) observe the mechanisms of regulation of the cycle of the contact.

What do you see?

Here is an image which illustrates well our differences of perception.

In some people, and for different reasons, the movement between the background and the foreground is not very flexible. By inhibition, for example, a person does not accept to recognize that his anger is in the foreground, and no longer perceives correctly what he is going through. It can also happen that a preoccupation occupies all the mental or emotional space and can no longer return to the background: a man, unable to deal with the separation that occurred 5 years earlier, will remain frozen in the attitude of the ‘spurned lover; or else a person will invariably re-create a conflict from the past in their current relationship – even with their therapist. we then speak of an unfinished Gestalt: the cycle of contact has been interrupted and the therapeutic work is an opportunity to complete this Gestalt.

A wide range of techniques

An important peculiarity of Gestalt therapy is that the therapist is an “active observer”, sharing his own perceptions and feelings in contact with his client; if appropriate, this disclosure can support the client’s access to his own sensations, associations of thoughts. The difference in outlook between the 2 people counts for a large part in the therapeutic process.

Dialogue is very present in Gestalt therapy, but the approach is particularly famous for its wide range of modes of intervention. The gestaltist can adapt his action to the requirements of the context as well as the dynamics of his client. He can ask him to hit a cushion, to speak to an empty chair (where the “other” would be), to express in detail what he feels, to recreate his dreams by embodying characters or elements (the navigator, but also the boat, the sea, the storm…), to play a sketch (by becoming the different characters in turn), to draw his emotions, etc. There are dozens of techniques, several developed by the Perls, or adapted to Gestalt thinking based on borrowings from other approaches or from the artistic field.

The techniques used by Gestalt therapy are generally aimed at awareness and exploration of thoughts, behaviors and emotions.

Conscience, creativity and authenticity

Gestalt therapy does not seek so much to explain the origins of a problem, but to become aware of how it is organized now. It is not so much a question of “knowing why” as of “feeling how”. And then, to experiment with “creative arrangements” to restore flexibility to the Gestalt process. Because creativity – the ability to find new solutions – is seen as a necessary skill in critical moments of life.

To understand a problem, it is important to see it in the larger whole of the context. This is what allows us to say that Gestalt therapy is more than a treatment approach: it is a way of conceiving the relationship between the human being and the world, an existential philosophy. A large part of the therapist’s work therefore consists in bringing the client to an insight, a global awareness of his strategies, and to see how these promote or disrupt the authenticity of his frontier contact with the world. Insight is the moment when a very meaningful image is formed. The subject then perceives how the set of factors relevant to the problem is positioned in relation to the whole. In order for the client to reach this level of awareness, the therapist helps him develop and refine his awareness. 

On the other hand, psychological health is seen as the ability to constantly creatively adjust to what is going on within and around you – while everything is always in motion. Generally speaking, people would end up in therapy because their creative capacity is hampered by various defense mechanisms. The role of the therapist would be to find ways to stimulate this deficient creativity.

According to psychologist Georges-Henri Arenstein, the Gestalt spirit is “unconventional” because it favors the move towards a new field of possibilities 2. In the words of Gary Yontef, author of Awareness, Dialogue, and Process, the gestalt -therapy offers a way to be authentic and responsible for oneself. By becoming mindful and aware, a person can choose their existence and arrange it in a way that is meaningful to them.

It was around 1950, when they had just settled in the United States, that Fritz and Laura Perls fixed the term gestalt therapy and created the Institute for Gestalt Therapy in New York. There they led intensive workshops and study groups with a leading collaborator, thinker Paul Goodman. Then, from 1964 and for 4 years, Fritz Perls settled on the Californian coast, at the Esalen Institute, the bubbling cauldron of new psychotherapeutic approaches of the time. Esalen has influenced a large number of researchers in the social sciences and humanistic psychology. Gestalt therapy then quickly gained recognition across the United States. Fritz Perls died in 1970, but his wife continued research and teaching with a few collaborators.

The approach appeared in Quebec in the early 1970s when American workers came to teach in Montreal. Barely a few years later, Quebec already had several institutes providing training. They have occasionally welcomed the leaders of the movement, including Laura Perls for 10 years. Many psychologists, but also social workers, guidance counselors, criminologists, sexologists, etc. came to complete their training.

The first Gestalt training program in French-speaking Europe was offered in Belgium in 1976, thanks to the participation of American and Quebec trainers. The United States / Quebec / Europe relationship continued for several years. Today, gestalt therapy is well established in Europe, and particularly in France.

Gestalt therapy, already very rich in the baggage gathered by the Perls, continues to evolve. It is now seen as a coherent system of concepts and instruments, but a system that remains open, without dogmatism.

A new movement in Gestalt was born in Quebec in the early 1990s: the gestalt-therapy of the link or PGRO (Gestalt psychotherapy of object relations) 15-16. It was created by Gilles Delisle, Ph.D., director of clinical training at the Center for Gestalt integration and professor at the University of Sherbrooke. It is inspired, among other things, by a current of psychoanalytic thought known as the British School of Object Relations, hence the name. Its main field of application is that of personality disorders. It harnesses the ability of Gestalt therapy to increase experiential awareness of the present moment and the environment while respecting the human spirit’s quest for meaning.

On the other hand, the work of Ruella Franck and James Kepner gave birth to the rich work based on behavioral patterns: What is present in the body at this moment? It is the client’s experience during this experience that interests the therapist, and not the success of the experience. This is what is learning about “how the client organizes his way of being in the world” in that place.

The specialist

The specialist in gestalt therapy can be from many horizons of care: psychologist, psychotherapist, sophrologist, coach.

Course of a session

At the start of the session, the client explains his difficulties or his blockage. He comes with his “here and now”, carrying meaning in his issues. The therapist is attentive to how this here and now of the client is also manifested in the relationship with the therapist, and will help the client to unfold his sensations, his perceptions in the situation. He will use various techniques such as monodrama (the empty chair), amplification, polarities, appeal to the imagination, setting in motion, etc. This is how the client can find new resources in him to adjust as well as possible and expand his possibilities. The session ends with an exchange on the assimilation of feelings.

Become a Gestalt practitioner

Gestalt therapy training organizations generally require applicants to have at least 2 years of therapeutic work beforehand. The training lasts a minimum of 3 to 4 years.

there is no compulsory pre-requisite, however knowledge in human sciences or psychology (bac +3 level) is highly appreciated.

Some of the schools that train practitioners in Gestalt therapy include:

• EPG Parisian School of Gestalt in Paris
• IFGT French Institute of Gestalt Therapy in Bordeaux
• Gestalt + à Rennes
• IFAS Humanist School of Gestalt in Paris
• IBG Belgian Institute of Gestalt therapy in Brussels
• IFGAP Training in Gestalt and Professional Support in Grenoble
• IQGT Institut Québécois de Gestalt Therapy

2 professional associations represent Gestalt therapists:

• The French Gestalt Society (SFG)
• The European College of Gestalt Therapy (CEGt) Contraindications of * THERAPY *

there is no contraindication to the practice of Gestalt therapy. In the context of proven mental disorders, Gestalt therapy will be accompanied by drug treatment.

Gestalt therapy takes a holistic view of the human being and promotes constant dialogue between thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations.

“The form is the substance that rises to the surface,” said Victor Hugo. It is this form that Gestalt therapy will explore with benevolence and creativity to close the unfinished gestalt and thus harmonize the being with the world of his client.

It is used successfully in psychotherapy, personal development and in business (coaching, training).

My approach as a certified Gestalt therapist is relational and psycho-corporal. She is particularly interested in how you come into contact with yourself, with others, with your environment. Gestalt therapy explores what is fixed, what is painful, and gradually brings out new, creative and liberating resources.

I support adults, adolescents and children in individual therapy on various issues: difficult relationships, bereavements, self-esteem, addictions, feeling of exclusion, suffering at work, lack of desire in life,… My practice favors feeling how to seeking why, in order to create new concrete daily adjustments to live a harmonious life.