Today, gestalt therapy is one of the most popular areas in psychology. Usually, this term means the ability of a person to independently complete complicated tasks, for example, get rid of love addiction or let go of resentment. Gestalt therapy is known for its effectiveness and variety of methods. Everyone who is not indifferent to the quality of their life should learn about it.
What it is
Under this therapy is understood as a method of practical psychology. Gestalt therapy mechanisms are aimed at analyzing and realizing by a person everything that is depressed, unspoken and incomplete in life, which further contributes to the harmonization of personality and getting rid of problems. In the process of work, the specialist helps the client “extract” from the subconscious mind those feelings, thoughts, images and memories that “pull” a person down and interfere with a full life. This method of practical psychology is aimed at identifying, analyzing and eliminating those problems and situations that are deep in the subconscious. The therapist or psychologist helps the patient learn to understand the motives of their actions and desires.
Method History
The emergence of this therapy occurs in the middle of the last century. The method has become a kind of alternative to psychoanalysis. In contrast, the essence of the new method is to work with unconscious psychological processes. Gestalt therapy Fritz Perls encourages a person to take responsibility for their feelings and emotions, bringing them to a more conscious level. Simply put, this direction can be considered a method of self-improvement, built on the treatment of psychological problems.
Fritz Perls
Fritz (Frederick) Perls is not only a well-known psychiatrist from Germany, but also the founder of gestalt therapy. The Gestaltist's Prayer written by him made a huge contribution to the creation of a new direction. Today it is very popular. This book on gestalt therapy became the basis of his approach to psychotherapy as a method of unleashing the inner potential of controlling his feelings. The advantage of this book is simplicity and at the same time a profound effect on the psychological state of a person. Gestalt prayer "Perls in the original was published in the sixties of the last century and immediately gained tremendous popularity.
"Gestaltist's Prayer"
Perls' work allows us to draw a figurative line between ourselves and society, as well as to understand that everyone has the right to live the life he wants. One of the key phrases in prayer is: "You are you, and I am me." Her author emphasizes that this separation opens up the possibility for a person to become morally free, without counting on someone else's help, approval and participation.
The absence of unreasonable expectations and mutual claims not only allows one to gain inner strength and independence, but also helps to evaluate reciprocity. The practical application of the Perls line promotes emotional growth and significant internal growth, since understanding the independence of someone else’s personality and their autonomy is one of the important indicators of spiritual maturity.
Thus, the expression “you are you, and I am me” helps restore emotional balance and inner harmony. For example, when during a quarrel a person thinks that he is unable to justify his hopes, this prayer helps to calm down and regain good mood. It is worth noting that in addition to Fritz Perls, other scientists who contributed to the birth of this direction, for example, Kurt Goldstein, Wertheimer, Koehler, Reich and Jacob Moreno, also appear in gelshat therapy.
Main goals
In psychotherapy, gestalt therapy helps the client to overcome internal fears, panic attacks, and also cure neurosis. But to achieve positive results in this direction, the therapist needs to discover the cause of psychological problems, evaluate it and analyze it. The goal of gestalt therapy is to change the person’s usual perception, his behavior, as well as to revive the ability to enjoy, rethink actions and relationships with others.
Thus, with the help of this humanistic direction, each individual is able to control his mood, emotions and life as a whole. Only after this step can we proceed to measures of therapeutic interaction and the process of awareness. The main objectives of gestalt therapy are:
- Attention to the body. This direction involves a conscious understanding of their physical sensations and movements. Establishment of bodily and spiritual connection helps to achieve self-awareness.
- Work with emotions and feelings. For one’s own consciousness, a person needs to learn to open up to other people, determine true feelings, and share this with others.
- Distinguishing between past and present. According to reviews, in gestalt therapy a lot of attention is paid to working on your emotions. At the session, the specialist helps to express their feelings and teaches them to get rid of them correctly.
- Analysis. Introspection is important for identifying sources of negative emotions. Understanding the root of the problem is already a big step towards solving it.
Gestalt therapy methods and techniques
At the sessions in therapy are carried out:
- Work with fictional characters.
- Analysis of memories and dreams.
- Exercises that help express your condition through movements.
- Work with emotions and feelings.
Gestalt therapy is divided into stages:
- Identification of negative, obvious and masked problems, as well as the search for weaknesses in the patient’s personality.
- Analysis and work on detected obstacles.
- Learning to express emotions, building confidence in one’s own feelings and in oneself as a whole.
Principles
Before you begin to study the techniques, you must understand the principles of gestalt therapy on which they are based. An important link in this direction is human interaction with the environment. That is, if some factor prevents you from living a full life, then this should be subject to change. The basic principles of therapy are as follows:
- Everyone chooses his own environment, in which he should be comfortable.
- Goals will be achievable only if they are own, and not imposed by society.
- A person needs to strive for spiritual balance and emotional balance.
"Here and now"
The principle of “Here and Now” is the main one, because, despite its simplicity in application, it provides radical changes in world perception and consciousness. He says that constant memories of the past are an irrevocable and passed stage in life, which pulls down and blocks the implementation of future plans. It is important to understand that all the most important things in human life are happening here and now. Therefore, Gestalt therapists urge with special importance and responsibility to relate to their position in the present tense.
Dream work
Psychologists are sure that night dreams are some kind of clues to the human mind, and therefore pay special attention to them. Ever since the days of Sigmund Freud, it is generally accepted that a dream is a message, feelings and desires that were suppressed in real life. Unlike classical psychoanalysis, in gestalt therapy the specialist does not try to interpret the patient’s sleep and to impose certain images. There are no ready-made instructions in this process.
According to a given direction, a dream in which fears, feelings, fantasies, and ideas are embedded are completely formed from the words of the client. Thus, each element of sleep is an inner world or part of the dreamer's personality. The psychotherapist's task is to help the patient discover and manifest these parts, as well as to understand what meaning they play in his life.
- Exercise 1. The patient tells his therapist in detail about his dream. In this case, the most energetically charged elements should be distinguished.
- Exercise 2. The therapist offers the client to draw one of the fragments and select two characters from his dream. The patient’s task will be: to mold one of the characters from the partner, as from plasticine. With the created figure, you need to learn how to interact. Next, the client begins to play the role of the person whom he created himself, and the character takes on the role of the second hero from sleep.
The method of "Merging into contact"
Exercise 1. The client is asked to analyze and note his habits: how he washes, dresses, has breakfast, closes the door, cooks, etc. If it seems to the patient that his habits are not the most effective, so he wants to replace them with others, the therapist needs to ask a number of questions to the client:
- Imagine what happens if you change your lifestyle?
- Will you enjoy other activities?
- Do you have to face strong resistance?
- How do you feel when you see someone doing work similar to yours?
- Do you think changing habits can change your life?
Exercise 2. Pay attention to a detailed analysis of your characteristics: gestures, clothing, speech, behavior in general. Then ask yourself, in imitation, to whom did you find them? Do you feel gratitude to this person?
Exercise 3. Waking up before you get out of bed, think about the possibility of acting or feeling differently. Try to live this day a little differently, not the way it happens all the time. It’s not worth making decisions that need to be implemented, but just try to visualize easily implemented changes in the usual routine.
Exercise 4. Track your reactions to performances and movies. Determine how much you match yourself with different heroes. When you decide which characters you most often identify with, feel if you feel any internal resistance.
"Hot chair"
This method consists in a frank dialogue between the therapist and the client, when all other participants remain silent. Only at the very end of the conversation can they express their opinion to what they have heard, share their feelings and emotions. “Hot chair” refers to the place where the culprit of mental problems sits in the hope that after their utterance comes emotional balance and the right solution.
"Empty chair"
This is a place for a person who has inner experiences. It does not matter, an imaginary or living interlocutor will sit on this chair. The patient's task is to openly voice his fears, experiences and tell him all his problems.
Work with polarities
In gestalt therapy, this term is used to call the extremes of human behavior, opposing and conflicting lifestyles between which the patient chooses. To understand yourself and make the right choice, the following exercises will help.
- "The struggle of opposites." The therapist voices the topic of discussion, and after one of the clients entrusts the role of the defender, and the other as the attacker. Participants need to sit facing each other and start a discussion, while strictly adhering to the assigned role. An attacker tends to criticize, scold and teach a partner. The defender must apologize and make excuses. Ten minutes are allotted for discussion, then the participants switch roles. The essence of this exercise is that each participant can realize the feeling of insecurity, humiliation, shyness of the defender and a sense of aggression, power of the attacker.
- "Role-playing." This exercise is often used in modern Russian practice, and reviews of gestalt therapy and this method indicate its effectiveness. This method consists in the following: the psychotherapist offers a group of participants to alternately lose their intrapersonal contradictions, which they are not yet fully aware of, but understandable enough for other people. For example, if a client is embarrassed, speaks in a low voice, very often apologizes, and does not notice this, then he should be instructed to play the role of a timid, shy person. Also, a specialist asks him to exaggerate those traits of his character that are most pronounced for him. If the patient is aware of the peculiarities of his behavior and wants to get rid of them, he can be offered to play the role of a person with opposing character traits, for example, a boss who tends to talk with subordinates in a commanding tone.
Reviews
Studying the numerous reviews of gestalt therapy, we can conclude that working on yourself in this direction helps you learn to live in harmony with yourself, to show your feelings and emotions, to interact correctly with the outside world. Referring to numerous reviews, it is worth noting that after its passage, people begin to change internally. After working with a specialist, the patient begins to become aware of himself as a single integral organism that can be controlled. The World Wide Web contains a huge number of positive reviews about this method. The obvious pluses in the reviews about gelshat therapy are called by users:
- Certain methods help to uncover new personal qualities that were not previously suspected.
- Therapy teaches you to take responsibility for your actions.
- Helps to become an author of his life.
- This direction prolongs Freedom with a capital letter and leaves in the background feelings of guilt, shame, anxiety, and remorse.
- Unlike other psychological directions, in the gelshat therapy there are no roles of "patient" and "doctor". At the session, the therapist does not control, does not teach how to live, does not say what to do in a particular situation, but only accompanies the process of understanding the client, his personal choice of actions. The treatment process itself is built solely on an equal footing.
- Saves from depression, helps to cope with any psychological problem, even such as the loss of loved ones.
- It instills faith, helps you accept and love yourself for who you are.
Reviews of gestalt therapy indicate that today the practice of this direction is a new stage in personality development, which provides an opportunity to work with internal beliefs, desires and abilities.
But in this method, as in any other business, one cannot do without negative reviews. Some users write that the Gestalt therapist could not help them. Others report that he only exacerbated the situation. But here it is worth considering the personal attitude of each person to this approach. As practice shows, in order to solve your internal problems, sometimes it is necessary to change the psychoanalyst or completely change the direction.
Conclusion
Getting acquainted with reviews of gestalt therapy, we can conclude that in psychology this is a complex area with a philosophical and humanistic bias. In order to apply the acquired knowledge in practice, it is necessary to undergo training from professionals. Nowadays, there are training courses that can be attended in various educational institutions. The classes are taught by professors, associate professors and leading experts.
Anyone can take a gestalt therapy training. Classes are organized in such a way that theory and practice alternate. This approach allows students to consolidate their knowledge through personal experience of participating in psychotherapeutic exercises. As a rule, the cost of training in gestalt therapy varies from ten to forty thousand rubles, depending on the content of the program and the duration of the course.