Gestalt therapy
This is a humanistic approach that values individual self-determination, feelings and human creativity. This therapy uses ideas from drama to help clients to act out what they are feeling, and uses the idea of different conflicts in each person that show the personal and social conflicts dependant on the society lived in.
‘Gestalt’ is a German word meaning a pattern or parts that make a whole. The concept in this therapy is that people experience life as a series of patterns and when these are incomplete the human mind finishes them. This way of working is experiential and not about the intellectual ideas supporting the therapist. The practitioner will concentrate on the here-and-now experience of the client, looking to help remove blocks from old patterns of behaviour, thinking and feeling that are getting in the way of the client experiencing the world as it is.
The Gestalt therapist offers a number of techniques to the client to tap into feelings that are not allowed to come to the surface ordinarily. These practical methods include art and drama therapy, empty chair work, body language, dream and fantasy work.
The therapist is not a ‘blank screen’, does not diagnose or interpret what is going on for the client. The therapist is an authentic person helping the client to be more self-accepting and enabling the latter to listen to his/her ‘gut’ instincts. This is a directive form of therapy that will get clients to ‘experiment’ with different ways of behaving and thinking to challenge their habitual patterns.
This therapy works with individual adults and children.