A brief summary of GESTALT THERAPY
(Provided by theGestalt Therapy Centerof The East San Francisco Bay Area)Gestalt Therapy is a powerful experiential psychotherapy focusing on contact andawareness in the here and now. By following their client's ongoing process, withspecial attention to both the therapeutic relationship and the client's style of interrupting that process, the Gestalt Therapist can help their client to both workthrough and move beyond their painful emotional blocks. This frees them to begin toexplore new behavior, first in the "safe emergency" of the therapeutic relationshipand/or group and then, as appropriate, in the outside world. The emphasis of thetherapy is not on talking about what has happened but on fully experiencing bothwhat is, and what can be.Unlike psychoanalysis, Gestalt therapy does not focus on talking about the client'spast. The past is not neglected, but its importance, including that of one's childhood,is not in what happened then, but in how it affects now. What we experienced as wedeveloped, and how we adapted to that experience, come into the present as bothour "unfinished business" and our character styles, or ways of being in the world.Gestalt therapists deal directly with these elements in the "here and now", workingwith contact styles and focused awareness to help their clients complete and workthrough unfinished business and learn to experience and appreciate their fullbeingness. By learning to follow their own ongoing process, and to fully experience,accept, and appreciate their complete selves, Gestalt Therapy clients can freethemselves to move past pain, fear, anxiety, depression or low self-esteem. They canthen discover who they really are, and allow themselves to develop in the waysappropriate for them.The origins of Gestalt Therapy derive from several sources, including psychoanalysis(by way of Wilhelm Reich), field theorists (such as Lewin), experimental Gestaltpsychologists (studying the nature of visual perception), and the Humanist-Existential movement. Each has made its own unique contribution to GestaltTherapy. From the work of Reich, we get an awareness of the impact of our earlydevelopment on our current being, the tendency to hold our feelings in our bodiesthrough tightening our muscles and constricting our energy flow, and the formationof character structure. The field theorists have helped us to see ourinterconnectedness, that we exist as part of our environmental field, and can only beunderstood in relation to that field. The Gestalt psychologists have demonstrated theholistic nature of our relationship with the world, "Gestalt" referring to the wholeform or configuration which is greater than the sum of its parts.The existential roots of Gestalt Therapy come especially through the work of thephilosopher Martin Buber and his emphasis on the "I-Thou" relationship. According tothis view, often now referred to as the "Dialogic" approach, it is within the context of the healing relationship, in which the therapist practices "presence", "inclusion" andthe "IThou attitude" that true healing takes place. Gestalt Therapy has in recentyears been moving strongly in the direction of emphasizing this powerful therapeuticdialogue, as well as the importance of providing support for the client during thetherapeutic process. Combining the power of the healing dialogue, in which the clientcan experience understanding and validation, with directed awareness andappropriately designed "Gestalt experiments", has enabled Gestalt Therapy to provea highly effective approach to psychotherapy.
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