Gestalt Therapy was created by Fritz Perls and is body-centered experiential therapy done in the present moment. The theory is, when you live an event fully in the present moment, you complete the gestalt, the happening, and then you are free in the next moment to choose something else to do. Simply said, if you are hungry, this is the gestalt, hunger, then you eat and feel fulfilled, full of food, the gestalt of hunger is completed and you are free of hunger. It really does work this simply even though as a Gestalt Therapist I spent three and a half years doing a Masters in Gestalt training in learning to tune into the present moment, subtle body motions and emotions of the client and myself.
Then comes the real difference. In gestalt, the counsellor and client set up to replay what the client is talking about in the present moment with all of the characters that were present. So if the client was upset about a parent at age five, this scene is set up with the parent being a pillow for example and the client has their adult self now and their five year old self. The five year old self now gets to present time talk to the parent with the safety of their adult self and the therapist assisting. The parent does not get to talk back, strike out or do anything since it is a pillow, unless the therapist chooses to have this happen via the client or therapist role playing this part. The five year old is free to scream, hit, kill, you name it, to this pillow, in total safety and become conscious of all the unconscious pent up words, emotions and actions hidden deep within their body. When these unconscious gestalts of fear, anger, and sadness are expressed in words, with all the emotions, and expressed with hitting, kicking, etc., full body expressions, the gestalt is fulfilled. The five year old is free to have a new expression and is not held hostage to the pent up inner gestalt that never got expressed. It is fun therapy, fast, simple, easy and safe.
The therapist watches the client in every way to support them to follow their body wisdom to fulfil the gestalt and to go onto the next event that will empower them to live a new life. I was trained to follow the client’s body wisdom and my body wisdom as well to support the client.
With Gestalt Therapy, change happens naturally, you don’t have to work at changing your life, it is changed doing Gestalt Therapy and completing gestalts.
Mark Evans - Tel: 644 211 241 - email: [email protected] - Located in the centre of Madrid