Gestalt Therapy is part of Humanistic Psychology or also known as the Third Force, -after psychoanalysis and behaviorism-, which focuses on the development of human potential rather than on its pathology. Believes that every human being innately tends to seek fulfillment.
The word Gestalt is of German origin, it does not have an exact translation into Spanish, however, comes close to the idea of whole, part of the beginning the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
It is an integral vision of the human being, it sees it within a context and in relation, let us remember that we are social beings and that, in any inevitable way, at some point in our life, we will enter into a relational dynamic with another ... Finally, it is in this experience, where the growth process occurs.
The founder of Gestalt Therapy was Fritz Perls, a psychiatrist of German origin. He developed his approach in the 1940s, receiving his greatest influence from Rogers Client Centered Therapy. The following therapeutic characteristics stand out:
Gestalt Therapy abandons the idea that the therapist is the expert in the patient's life and that therefore it is he who unilaterally decides what is best for the patient and the solutions that must be implemented.
It presents itself instead, as a facilitator and as a guide, that helps the person to become aware of their difficulties, as well as their personal strengths to face them.
Confronts you in your dysfunctional ways of acting, presenting you with the healthiest ways to face your life in a way that is more congruent with yourself.
Establish a relationship from you to you, being able to even make self-disclosures of his life if he thinks that this can help the patient. The only difference between therapist and patient is that the former has a specialized training in mint healthl that allows you to guide the patient in his path to your well-being and personal development.
Emotion is a physiological response that our body gives to inform us of a need. Between the basic emotions They are: sadness, which tells us about a loss and the need to receive support; anger, which tells us that someone has exceeded a limit with us and that therefore we need to mark it again; joy, which expresses a state of connection and leads us to want to expand it to strengthen ties; or the fear that informs us of a threat, mobilizing us to fight or flee depending on how we judge our capacities to face the danger.
It is very common that since childhood we have not learned to properly manage "negative" emotions (sadness, fear, longing, envy, etc.) developing a tendency to repress them.
The problem is that if one swallows a lot, there comes a time when it overflows, facilitating the appearance of psychological symptoms. Symptoms are the body's way of telling us that something is failing in our personal development. From the Gestalt it is understood that those important emotions that have not been elaborated will arise again and again until the need they cover is taken into account.
Gestalt therapy seeks through exercises that mobilize emotions, but also through dialogue, to activate those emotions that are playing a crucial role in the suffering of the person.
Once you allow yourself to openly express what has become stagnant, you can become aware of what is there and what you need. The fundamental therapeutic objective will be that the patient can develop a attitude of self-respect towards himself.
A woman feels hurt because her partner lied to her about a family matter. Upon discovering it, he spoke with her and she apologized, promising not to do it again..
The matter was apparently settled, but an internal feeling of unease lingered in her for a time. Despite this, he did not want to delve into the subject, because they had already spoken about it and he believed that it was to delve into the wound without sense. After a while, she realized that she was constantly irritated in their relationship, to the point of getting angry over and over again over little things..
The couple's relationship ends up wearing out and they stop feeling the connection that united them previously. Due to this shared dissatisfaction, he begins to have insomnia problems and a constant lump in the chest.
Go to psychotherapy and during the therapeutic process She becomes aware that something that she believed was overcome was not entirely over and that her constant anger had masked the pain she felt at her partner's betrayal. Anger was an easier emotion for her to express, but instead she experienced a lot of discomfort with sadness.
The patient is organizing her feelings, at the same time that she realizes that they are not dangerous, but only inform her of what is important to her.
The therapist proposes, after a while, a joint session with his partner seeking to promote honest communication.
When the two parties connect with their deepest feelings, they can understand each other better and put aside grudges to see the hurt of the other person and the need that lies below: “I lied to you because I was very afraid of losing you, that clouded me and I did not know manage the situation "or" when you lied to me I felt that I could no longer trust you, I felt sad and lonely because you had always been a support for me ".
Once the defenses have been put aside and they have connected with the nuclear, they can see what solutions there are, whereas before they were only entangled between anger and anger. The solutions could come by restoring trust, by fostering honesty between the two of you, or even by breaking the relationship if finally there is not enough left to fight for it..
The patient is the one who has the responsibility for his life. Therapy helps him to get to know himself, to open his eyes and to gauge the consequences of choosing one path or another, being the one who sets the changes in motion. For this you will have to enjoy the good things what their decisions bring but you will also have to digest the negative consequences that could appear.
The last part is the most complicated and the one that usually blocks people to make changes, since there are consequences that are difficult to assume (for example: experiencing the rejection of someone you appreciate, generating a conflict that leads to a distancing, that a relationship breaks down, etc.).
These consequences are exaggerated and magnified on numerous occasions, but however minimal the possibility may be, they are usually possible and the person does not want to take that risk..
If beyond the fear of losing something, a need or desire is found, it is usually worth risking, because it turns out well or badly, normally one does not regret doing something in which one believed. Rather, they often regret stopping doing something out of fear..
Like all ideological currents, Gestalt is influenced by different approaches, the main ones from my point of view is existential philosophy, phenomenology and Zen Buddhism.
The first is aimed at the analysis of the potentialities that are inherent to the person; It is not based on observing man, but the conditions in which he lives. Phenomenology refers to the description of the obvious, what is happening, in other words, the immediate experience.
In Gestalt Therapy we work with emotions and sensations, when the therapist reflects - or describes - the patient , helps him to observe aspects of himself that may not have been so visible to him. The sensations that are experienced are loaded with emotions and feelings that, when describing or naming them, help to address what is being experienced at the time of therapy. Finally, Zen Buddhism, which is one of the Buddhist schools, through meditation seeks to achieve wisdom beyond the rational.
Gestalt is an approach made up of different visions, which enrich, on the one hand, the perception or approach to our own reality; and on the other, the therapeutic work, to help the patient to potentiate his being from his resources. This approach has various concepts and techniques of therapeutic intervention, for this moment, I will cite two of them: the here and now, and the realization..
The phrase "Here and now" has been used more frequently in therapeutic vocabulary lately, and this is one of the key principles of Gestalt: Live in the here and now. And it is a very valuable foundation that this approach gives us, however, despite having an extremely important and deep background, it is often difficult to achieve and carry it out..
This may be due to the difficulty of breaking the belief that there is not only the present, but there is also a past that reminds us of experiences and a future that we yearn to achieve in the best possible way. Although both times are somewhere in our mind - in the form of memory and longing - the reality is that the past only exists when some of its elements are manifested in our present reality; while for Gestalt, the future is unreal, not yet arrived.
It is for this reason that only the present, what we are living in this moment, while I write these lines and while you read them, is what really matters..
Another important concept, -and that also seems wonderful to me- is the awareness, or realize, which is nothing other than keep in touch. It has a strong relationship with the here and now, because We will not be able to contemplate the experience we live today, if our attention is focused on what we did yesterday, or on the plan I have for the weekend. In this way, all the wealth of what happens in front of us at this moment, is lost and therefore, we cannot establish any contact with our now..
Awareness is being in contact in a spontaneous and genuine way with what we are and feel, in the here and now. Sounds amazing right? However, once again, to reach that contact we have to train our senses and be open to immediate experience..
We live in a world that requires planning, thinking ahead; have a life plan, know what you want to study, if you want to get married or not, how many children will you have ... What would you like to work on and at what age will you buy your house. Always looking towards a reality that is not yet present, and is not in the now. We are not used to enjoying the moment we are in.
This reminds me of an article I read a few days ago, the author mentioned autopian reality, sharing the idea that we are always wanting more, and more… and more, even when we reach one goal, we will want another one. And I'm not saying that is wrong, of course not! It is something admirable - and courageous - to have desires, expectations and to fight to achieve it; it seems to me a magnificent lifestyle.
The problem I think is to have the view only in that direction, the one in which the attention is only in time ahead, and what we are doing now, all the effort, work, successes and mistakes that we make to get to that point, let's not enjoy it. That's when I think we can pay even more attention.
The idea is not to make this article a Gestalt Therapy class, it is enough for me to share the wonder of this approach and way of perceiving and experiencing life. As long as we are in the here and now and have the openness of experience, We will then be able to discover our potential and recognize the responsibility that we have for the various cycles of experience that we live throughout our lives..
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