What is Gestalt Therapy?Gestalt Therapy

I base my work on Gestalt Therapy approach and for me the most important aspects of it are:

Awareness

One of the main assumptions underlying Gestalt therapy is to raise awareness – to find about you what you have so far didn’t know. It is not just about intellectual understanding of your experience and difficulties. Equally important is what is happening in your emotions, in your body, what is perceived by your senses and integrating your experience of all of those levels.

Wholeness

Gestalt therapy takes a holistic view of a person – we are our body, emotions, thoughts and sensations. The goal of therapy is the integration of all your aspects as equally important. Problems arise when the balance between them is disrupted.

Change and responsibility

Change occurs when one becomes what he is, not when he tries to become what he is not.”
Arnold Beisser

Change comes through accepting of what is, rather than striving to be different.
By becoming more self aware, you take responsibility of who you are and how you operate in the world. Then you can choose and consciously decide to try to function differently, and not only relay on old habits.
Making choices in harmony with who you are, you then fully become the author of your life, and this brings a sense of power and freedom.

Here and now

Gestalt therapy focuses on the present – on the ‘here and now’. This doesn’t mean that you past experiences and your personal history are not important. They made you who you are today. In therapy however we will focus on how your past influences and shapes your present way of being and what meaning do you give it now.

It might be that the past still occupies your attention and interferes with your abilities to lead a more fulfilling life. In these cases we will focus on what needs to be addressed and requires attention, and then work together to bring some resolution of ‘unfinished business’ where possible. 

Therapeutic relationshipGestalt Therapy

Therapeutic relationship is for me the most potent tool of brining change.
I often focus on how you and I relate to each other during the session. It can be very helpful as a way of recognising and understanding your patterns of relating to others and also as an opportunity to try different ways of relating to others.