Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt Therapy is a humanistic approach that focuses on the here-and-now of clients’ experiences in therapy rather than the past. Gestalt therapy views people in a holistic way that includes their environment and context. The word “Gestalt” means a system viewed as a whole rather than its individual parts. This concept can be applied to the human psyche because human beings, even though they seem like a whole on the outside, have many parts of the self on the inside.

Traumatic experience often shatters a person’s concept of self into fragments. Gestalt Therapy helps clients become more aware of different parts of the self and integrate them. When certain emotions and voices inside us are minimized, neglected, or suppressed, they cause mental distress and even disorders.

One technique used to achieve integration is role play. The therapist asks the client to embody the conflicting voices inside of them on two different chairs and have a dialogue with each other. Another technique is called empty chair, where the therapist invites the client to imagine an important person in their life is sitting on an empty chair and talk with them as if they are there. This helps clients to be aware of and express their emotions toward people who may not be able to hear them in real life. A Gestalt therapist may also ask clients to identify where in their body they can feel their emotions to facilitate mind-body integration.

Gestalt Therapy was developed in the 1940s by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls, and Paul Goodman as an alternative to traditional psychoanalysis.