Some Principles of Gestalt Psychotherapy

Some Principles of Gestalt Psychotherapy

Some Principles of Gestalt Psychotherapy

Some Principles of Gestalt Psychotherapy

Awareness

I would say that awareness is one of the main benefits of being in therapy. Being in therapy helps us to really see ourselves, our behaviour and also the reasons how and why we do certain things. It helps to change negative behaviour patterns. Whatever is outside of our awareness runs us. The patterns of behaviour, which were necessary for survival and adjustment as children, are often no longer necessary and in fact, can be incredibly limiting.

We usually operate in our lives through a succession of fixed patterns, which are out of awareness, that then keep bringing us the same unwanted results and disappointments.

Field Theory

For effective therapy to take place one must apply the principles of Field Theory, put basically, "The idea originally is drawn from that of the electrical or magnetic field, itself originally a metaphor. What happens to something placed in this force field is a function of the overall properties of the field taken as an interactive dynamic whole. The field as a whole is also changed as a result of the inclusion of something new." (Parlett, 1991) As a therapist we are to look at the whole. The client has a entire field, a history, social set up, family background, etc that if we don't take into account and just see the client sitting in the chair we are missing most of what the client brings and the reasons he has become the person he is today. "The essence of field theory is that a holistic perspective towards the person extends to include environment, the social world, organisations, culture." (Parlett, 1991). Working with a client of mine who identified as an addict I investigated her field. Her mother suffered from severe schizophrenia. Her father had abandoned her. Her friends were also unsupportive. She didn't have any positive or supportive role models that a child would need to learn how to self regulate healthily. She found it almost impossible to take on anything nice or supportive from me as she was incapable of hearing it and integrating it. She had not received that before so therefore it was foreign to her. She thought when I said anything that supported her, that I was just doing my job. Which I felt really sad around, I can recall having tears in my eyes as I was so saddened to see where she was at after living her whole life with no support. She felt completely useless, powerless and as though she were not good enough, it was all about "when I lose weight everything will be ok", "when I get a job everything will be ok". Unable to just sit in the moment and feel what it was like to be who she was, at that moment. Unfortunately she was unable to stay in therapy as she felt what she had to say wasn't important, as all her life she had no one there who would listen to her and let her know what she had to say actually was important.

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