Gestalt Therapy is a here-and-now type of therapy. Therapists encourage the client to identify their feelings or behaviour and consider how they affect their present environment. This self-awareness can then promote healing and personal growth, enabling the client to make decisions in the present context, rather than the past.
Self-awareness is a key concept of Gestalt thinking.
History
Gestalt Therapy was chiefly developed by Fritz Perls. His work
Ego, Hunger and Aggression (1947) and later
Gestalt Therapy (1951) helped establish the approach's theoretical framework. Early Gestalt therapists used dramatic techniques that required the client to physically enact emotional issues - it took a far more Experiential approach than modern versions.
Approach
Gestalt psychotherapy is a form of
Humanistic Therapy and is influenced by Psychoanalytical theory. Practitioners focus on here-and-now experiences, in order to remove the obstacles of behaviour patterns created by past situations. Roughly translated as 'Whole', the Gestalt approach stresses the need of wholeness between mind, body and soul. Gestalt therapists seek to address conflicts that may prevent this perceived harmony.
How can it help?
Gestalt psychotherapy can help improve a client's self-awareness and to break negative behaviour patterns. Is useful for treatin
anxiety, bereavement and
depression. Other conditions such as Insomnia can also be addressed. Sessions take place in both group and individual sessions depending on the practice.
Gestalt Psychotherapy resources
The Association For The Advancement Of Gestalt Therapy
The Gestalt Centre
