GESTALT THERAPY

Joanna Kato
mgr psychologist
Gestalt therapists
supervisor, trainer 1
The word “GESTALT” means “whole, configuration, integration, pattern or form”.

 Gestalt therapy is a phenomenological-existential therapy founded by Frederick (Fritz) and

Laura Perls in the 1950s.
 It is based on the principle that humans are best viewed as a whole entity consisting of body,
mind, and soul, and best understood when viewed through their own eyes, not by looking back into
the past but by bringing the past into the present. 

It emphasizes to alleviate unresolved issues connected with anger, pain, anxiety, resentment etc.

Feelings or experiences are not just discussed (talked about), but must be actively expressed in
the present time.

2
People need to be understood holistically and contextually – as a” Gestalt”

Therapist helps people to become more who they are by helping them stop
trying to be who they are not.

In the process of therapy people become more and more aware of all their
‘parts’, accessing slowly those that they have dis-owned in their history.

An adaptive behaviour that was a creative adjustment slips below awareness

and its repetition guides to a “fixed Gestalt” a response that is no longer
helpful in the present.

3
4
 Students protests

Connection with society

In the 1950 - 1970 we lived in the “narcissistic society” (Lash, 1978)

- how to give dignity to the capabilities of real life
- “no” is healthy
-emotions of ‘power’ are normal
-bodily energy and sexuality can be fully experienced
- bigger trust to individual experience
- independence from bonds
- focus on individual experience
”I am I and you are you” (Perls)
Support of self regulation and separation from bonds

Hippy movement 5
1970 -1990 “technological society” (Galimberti)
development of technology, production, the machine becomes
very important and can be controlled and so can be human
emotions – especially pain.
Oikos (home) becomes a blunder and an obstacle in
productivity
The children of narcissistic parents do not make mistake, are
free from pain . Strong pressure for success.
6
Liberation and minority rights movement
Pop culture neo expressionism E. Munch, graffiti art
MTV, punk, hip hop
The fall of the Berlin Wall
revolution in Eastern Europe
7
In psychotherapy - search of self outside intimate bonds.
Difficulties with the “being with” and the need to feel oneself
in solitude
 - work at the contact boundary – “what happens between
the two of us”
 – group work, group as a source of healing

8
1990 – 2020 “liquid society” (Baumann)
 Internet, communication, fast movement, migratory movements, lack of roots

Street art, urban art, virtual art

 Cold war, dissolution of the USSR

 In therapy -

Absence of intimate relationships

Loss of tradition and community support
 Virtual support – does not offer a relational container, a physical body that can contain and support the experience.
Excitement not supported becomes anxiety. Body becomes desensitized.

Therapists support the physiological process of contact (“breathe and feel what happens at the boundary)”.
 Therapists supports the ground of the experience, the process of contact (not only the emerging figure/need).

9
Gestalt pictures – figure and ground
Figure does not exist without the ground
It is the ground that allows the figure to form, to emerge

Figure and ground are in an intertwined relation – one does not exist without the other.
At the same moment of time we can perceive only one
Our choice in perception is connected with our story, experience – this process occurs
out of awareness. 10
 Shift in paragimd

From focus on figure formation and emerging of

individual need to supporting the ground and process
from which the figure emerges

11
12
Gestalt /gestalten -
something that is made of many parts and yet is somehow more
than or different from the combination of its parts

13
Gestalt therapy uses awareness to identify these incomplete parts.

To assist a person towards the realisation of wholeness, new forms of behaviour

are experimented with, feelings are named and released, and thinking patterns are
brought to consciousness and updated.
This is done in the focus of the present moment, allowing liveliness and freshness
to enter old and stale experiences.

14
 AWARENESS
[It] is the spontaneous sensing of what arises in you of what you are doing, feeling, planning"

Awareness of:

awareness of body sensations (all immediately available to conscious awareness);

awareness of sensory contact with aspects of the environment, of seeing, hearing, touching,
tasting, or smelling exudations from environmental stimuli (also immediately available);

awareness of cognitions, thoughts, memories, daydreams, future plans (none of these is

immediate);

awareness of one's personal truth, one's personal beliefs and values

The process of awareness is connected with contact – to be present and emotionally

available to what happens in the here and now.
21 Jan 2022 15 15
What are you aware of now?

16
 Phenomenology
phainomenon – appearance - is something that can be perceived and described

Edmund Husserl - investigation and description of phenomena as they are

experienced without suppositions, theory or explanation
Experience as perceived from the first person’s point of view. “The first person
perspective”.
The central structure of an experience is its intentionality – the experience is
directed toward something, as it is an experience of or about an object.

21 Jan 2022 17 17
 HOW DO WE EXPLORE

WHO?
 WHAT?
 WHEN?
 WHERE?
 HOW?
 WHY?

21 Jan 2022 18 18
 FIELD THEORY

In Gestalt therapy the model of an individual is always of that individual in his/her environment
or "field" or "life space" (Lewin 1951). Thus, the focus of therapy is the individual, the
environment, and the interactive processes between.

Field is everything that exists. Everything in the field is intertwined and in constant movement.
Every movement in any part of the field causes changes in the field.

21 Jan 2022 19 19
No one knows the field directly
We collect information through sensory data (seeing, hearing,
smelling, tasting, touching, movement, speech)
and make meaningful “wholes” based on the past experience.

We connect to the world through our senses

Being in the field, we are taken by what happens,
by feelings in our body, we are taken by almost entities, even
before feelings are differentiated.

21 Jan 2022 20 20
The field is the entire situation of the therapist, the client and all
that goes on between them.
The field is made and constantly remade.
The therapist is not detached, objective, separated from the field
but rather a part of it.
The field is organized, and therapy involves the mutual
investigation of how it is organized.
Gestalt therapists work in the “here and now” and explore the
immediate, present field.
The therapist attends to explore different parts of the field.

21 Jan 2022 21 21
The task of the therapist is:

. learning about the client’s subjective view of the world,(phenomenology)

. honouring and respecting that experience,(validation)

. exploring how they come to construct life in that way.

The therapist is as a midwife:

assisting a process which has its own rhythm of unfolding, and which requires an ability to be
finely tuned to the needs of the moment.

21 Jan 2022 22 22
 Discuss a recent life experience


What was your experience?

How did you contribute to create this experience?

What was the experience of the others? How did you
contribute to their experience?

What other factors may have contributed to your
experience? How might have you affected those factors?

How is the sharing of this situation in this meeting with me
affecting your experience of this situation?

21 Jan 2022 23 23
 CONTEMPORARY GESTALT THERAPY

GT is a theory and practice of the experience (phenomenology)

The end of each experience is assimilation – leading to growth. To go through an experience we

need support.

When relational support is missing we cannot assimilate the experience (a novelty) , we find a way
to survive but not assimilate – creative adjustment (fixed gestalt)

24
 CONTACT BOUNDARY

The space where contact

unfolds, is made and
constantly remade
Does not belong only to the
organism
Nor only to the environment
It belongs to both, co creates
the between
21 Jan 2022 25 25
 DIALOGUE

“In the beginning was the relation”

“There is no I without the Other”

21 Jan 2022 26 26
 I – it and I – Thou
Is practical 
A real encounter with all the
Is goal oriented person’s being
 Includes every day’s task
 Presence
 Does not require full presence
 Inclusion
 It is necessary to function
 Commitment to dialogue

21 Jan 2022 27 27
 THE BETWEEN

Is what happens between client and therapist when they share

their phenomenologies
A process that emerges
Difficult to talk about
Has to be lived
Requires surrendering and
trust that something will happen

21 Jan 2022 28 28
21 Jan 2022 29 29
 REFERENCES
 Buber, Martin (1958). I and thou (2nd ed.). New York: Charles Scribner &
Sons.
 Perls F. , Hefferlin R. , Goodman P. (1994) Gestalt Therapy : Excitement and
Growth in the Human Personality. Profile Books Ltd
 Yontef G. Jacobs L. Introduction to Gestalt Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, 2011
(234-382)
 Houston G., 1995, The Now Red Book of Gestalt, Barnwell’s Print Ltd., Norfolk

Yontef G. M., 1993 Awareness, Dialogue and Process The Gestalt Journal 3,
1,

Francesetti G., Gecele M., Roubal J. Ed (2013) Gestalt Therapy in Clinical
Practice. Franco Angeli, Gestalt Therapy Book Series

21 Jan 2022 30 30
21 Jan 2022 31 31