Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on a person's

present life rather than delving into their past experiences. This form of
therapy stresses the importance of understanding the context of a
person’s life when considering the challenges they face. It also involves
taking responsibility rather than placing blame.

Gestalt, by definition, refers to the form or shape of something and

suggests that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. There is an
emphasis on perception in this particular theory of counseling. Gestalt
therapy gives attention to how we place meaning and make sense of our
world and our experiences.
Gestalt therapy was developed by Fritz Perls, with the help of his wife at
the time, Laura Perls, and introduced in the 1940s as an alternative to
more traditional psychoanalysis. Both Fritz and Laura were trained in
psychoanalysis and gestalt psychology.

Experience Influences Perception

In this client-centered approach to therapy, the gestalt therapist
understands that no one can be fully objective and that we are influenced
by our environment and our experiences. A therapist trained in gestalt
therapy holds space for their clients to share their truth, not imposing
their judgment and accepting the truth of their clients' experiences.

Since therapists are human as well, it is important for gestalt therapists to

consider the influence of their own experiences on what is happening in
the session.

Context Matters
When in session, gestalt therapists want to learn about the experience of
their clients. It is understood that context matters and the therapists use
techniques to help the client become more aware of their experiences,
their perceptions, and their responses to events in the here and now.

Rather than specifically targeting the past and asking clients to

purposefully bring up old experiences, gestalt therapists operate from a
place of understanding that as clients become increasingly aware, they
will overcome existing roadblocks. There is no forced work or technique,
just holding space for client awareness is key in this approach.

 How to Find a Culturally Sensitive Therapist

The Present
The main hallmark of gestalt therapy is the focus on the present. In the
session, the client and therapist rapport is critical in building trust and
safety. As the client shares, a gestalt therapist will help bring the client
back to the present if there is a sense they are spending too much time in
the past or if their anxiety may be speeding them into the future.

An example of keeping a client present might include something like

asking the client about their facial expression or body language as they
process a particular event or experience.

In asking about something they are observing in the room, they are
helping the client come back to the present and process what is
happening for them at that moment.

Working Through Pain

We work very hard to survive painful experiences, and part of this
survival may include shutting down our emotional hurt or painful memory
of the event. In gestalt therapy, you are offered a space where you don't
have to do that hard work anymore.

This isn't to suggest that things will come up quickly, but they don't have
to. A gestalt therapist understands that things such as painful memories
or events will come to awareness when the client is ready for healing in
that area.

Self-Awareness
During gestalt therapy, there may be some experiential exercises that you
will do with your therapist. Experiential exercise refers to therapeutic
activities done in therapy that can help to increase awareness and help
with processing. At the heart of gestalt therapy is awareness. As Frederick
Salomon Perls put it, "Awareness in itself is healing."

Rather than sitting still and talking, you may be asked to actively
participate in something like role play, guided imagery, or the use of
props to help communication and understanding. Engaging in experiential
exercises can be a wonderful way to open up and share, especially when
it is difficult to find words or when you tend to process in a more visual
way. Gestalt therapists understand that these exercises help to increase
awareness.

Techniques
Some therapy approaches tend to focus on the therapist as an expert on
distress and symptoms. The client has more of a learning role, as the
therapist shares their knowledge about what they are experiencing and
how to heal.

Within gestalt therapy, the client has space to safely explore their
experiences without fear of judgment. In fact, the client is encouraged to
not simply talk about their emotions or experiences, but to bring them
into the room so they can be processed in real-time with the therapist.

The goal of gestalt therapy is for the client to collaborate with the
therapist to increase personal awareness and actively challenge the
roadblocks that have been getting in the way of healing.

The therapist may guide you using several techniques.

Words and Language

Attention to language and tone is important in gestalt therapy. As clients
learn to accept responsibility, they learn to use language that reflects a
sense of personal ownership rather than focusing on others. For example,
rather than saying, "If he didn't do that I wouldn't get so mad!" a client
might be encouraged to say, "I feel mad when he does that because it
makes me feel insignificant and I don't like that."

The use of "I" statements is important in gestalt therapy.

 How 'I Statements' Can Help You Communicate

Empty Chair
This is a role-playing exercise that allows a client to imagine and
participate in a conversation with another person or another part of
themselves. Sitting across from the empty chair, the client enters into a
dialogue as if they were speaking with that other person or that other
part of themselves.

The empty chair exercise can be very helpful in drawing out important
perceptions, meanings, and other information that can help clients
become more aware of their emotional experience and how to start
healing.

Role Play
Another example of role-playing might be what is referred to as "top dog
and underdog." In this, it is recognized that a client has different parts of
self. Similar to the empty chair, the client speaks as both the top dog,
which is the more demanding side of their personality and the underdog,
which is the more submissive and obedient side of their personality.
The key is to become aware of inner conflicts so that the person can
better learn how to integrate these parts of self into a more complete
whole.

Body Language
During a session, a gestalt therapist will observe the client's body
language and movement such as tapping their foot, wringing their hands,
or making a certain facial expression. The therapist is likely to mention
their observation of this and ask what is happening for the person at that
moment.

Incorporating language, the gestalt therapist may even ask the client to
give their foot, hands, or facial expression a voice and speak from that
place.

 Understanding Body Language and Facial Expressions

Exaggeration
In addition to giving body language a voice, a gestalt therapist may
inquire about the client's body language. If it is difficult for the client to
find words to put to what is happening, they may be asked to exaggerate
that motion or repeat it several times in a row for a period of time during
the session to draw out some of their experience at that moment.

The client and the therapist get a chance to process emotions and how
the person might have learned to disconnect their emotional experiences
with their physical experiences.

Locating Emotion
During a session, it is common for people to talk about emotion. Talking
about emotion is different than experiencing an emotion. As a client talks
about emotion, the therapist may ask them where they feel that emotion
in their body.

Examples of how a person might describe how they're experiencing

emotion in their body include "a pit in my stomach" or "my chest feels
tight." Being able to bring the emotional experience to awareness in the
body helps the client stay present and process their emotions more
effectively.

Creative Arts
Additional activities such as painting, sculpting, and drawing can also be
used to help people gain awareness, stay present, and learn how to
process the moment. It is generally noted in this style that any technique
that can be offered to the client, other than traditional sitting still and
talking, can be helpful in allowing them to become more aware of
themselves, their experiences, and their process of healing.

 What Is Art Therapy?

What Gestalt Therapy Can Help With

There are a variety of conditions that gestalt therapy may be used to
treat, including:

 Anxiety1
 Depression
 Low self-efficacy
 Low self-esteem
 Relationship problems

Benefits of Gestalt Therapy

Some of the potential benefits of gestalt therapy include:

 An improved sense of self-control

 Better ability to monitor and regulate mental states
 Better awareness of your needs
 Better tolerance for negative emotions
 Improved communication skills
 Improved mindfulness
 Increased emotional understanding

Staying Present
Gestalt therapy aims for the client to gain greater awareness of their
experience of being in the world. Gestalt therapists do not have a goal of
changing their clients. In fact, clients are encouraged to focus on
becoming more aware of themselves, staying present, and processing
things in the here and now.

The collaborative relationship between therapist and client is fundamental

to the healing process in gestalt therapy.

Self-Awareness and Growth

It is suggested that the way we learn how to survive experiences,
particularly painful experiences, is to create blocks or push things out of
awareness so that we can move forward. As effective as it may seem, it
can create trouble for us as we become more compartmentalized and
fragmented in our sense of self and our experiences.

The very techniques we once used to help ourselves become blocks to

self-awareness and growth. Increasing client awareness allows for these
blocks to be identified, properly challenged, and moved out of the way so
we can find healing and personal growth.

Personal Responsibility
A key goal in gestalt therapy is to give clients the opportunity to own and
accept their experiences. In blaming others, we lose our sense of control
and become victims of the event or the others involved in the event.
Gestalt therapy encourages clients to challenge those old ways of how we
may have created meaning about an experience.

Learning how to accept and embrace personal responsibility is a goal of

gestalt therapy, allowing clients to gain a greater sense of control in their
experiences and to learn how to better regulate their emotions and
interactions with the world.

Self-Regulation and Growth

Gestalt therapy suggests that people strive for self-regulation and growth
but that they sometimes develop maladaptive techniques to survive
painful experiences. Some of these techniques feel helpful in the short
term because they can help minimize our pain or distress.

However, over the long term, they leave us in more emotionally shaky
places, unable to express ourselves. We may find it hard to interact with
others, and difficult to learn how to effectively regulate ourselves and be
whole, responsible beings.

Gestalt therapy believes that, despite some of these setbacks, people are
still wired for this sense of wholeness and feel distressed when we are not
able to achieve it. Our distress might look like physical illness, emotional
reactivity, isolation, and more.

Effectiveness
Research suggests that gestalt therapy can be effective for treating a
variety of conditions including anxiety and personality disorders and is at
least as effective as other psychotherapy approaches.2
 One study on people with anxiety in Hong Kong found that four
weeks of gestalt therapy resulted in lower levels of anxiety, less
avoidance of inner experience, and more mindfulness and kindness
toward oneself. Self-judgment was not influenced, however. 1
 Several studies have tested gestalt therapy in women with
depression and found the treatment to be as effective as cognitive
therapy and more effective than drug therapy in treating symptoms
of depression.3
 A study on divorced women found that 12 sessions of gestalt
therapy improved the women's self-efficacy, or ability to cope. 4
 One study on individuals with bipolar disorder found gestalt therapy
to be an effective outpatient treatment for not only improving
symptoms of the disorder but helping individuals to improve in their
social, work, and school lives.