What is Gestalt Therapy?

Gestalt therapy focuses on helping people stay true to themselves; in other words, staying in tune with their emotions by accepting them and learning how to navigate them. Everybody is unique, and they see their world in their “unique way”; that’s why everyone has a different way of experiencing the same situation.

Gestalt is not only a therapy approach but also a philosophy of life. Gestalt teaches us to achieve fulfillment by staying attentive to our primary and other more complex needs. Gestalt teaches us how to “learn” from our emotions, which always help us grow if we allow them.

This growth impacts every aspect of our lives by staying authentic with ourselves, not only helping us stay in tune with our emotions. It will always allow us to improve the quality of our relationship with others, our functionality at work/school, and any other aspect you can think of.

Gestalt Therapy aims to increase awareness of present emotional and physical needs and take responsibility for them to facilitate authenticity and self-acceptance.

Most people don’t realize how many signs our body sends us to tell us something is incorrect: headaches, muscular tension, pains, etc. These symptoms could tell you something you might need to reflect on, something that might have happened that has affected your balance. Giving yourself what you need can restore balance.

Sounds crazy, huh? But it’s not. I’ve seen it happen many a time. I’m amazed at the breakthroughs I have witnessed from guiding clients through just listening to their bodies and accepting emotions, and this is the meaning of “taking responsibility.”

Gestalt Therapy helps us understand and make sense of our world and experiences while focusing on what is happening in the “here and now.”

Gestalt Therapy is an understanding of a person within their environment by achieving more significant insight into their experience of “being in the world.”

For adults and teens who are being treated for substance abuse, addiction, mood disorders, eating disorders, life transitions (relocating, divorce, career change), grief/loss, trauma, compulsive behaviors, anxiety, depression, and related conditions.

Gestalt therapy's core is the Paradoxical Theory of Change. "Change occurs when one becomes what he is, not when he tries to become what he is not. 

Change does not take place through a coercive attempt by the individual or by another person to change him, but it does take place if one takes the time and effort to be what he is -- to be fully invested in his current position. By rejecting the role of change agent, we make meaningful and orderly change possible." 

Arnold Beisser, MD

Complete Article: https://www.gestalt.org/arnie.htm