Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt Therapy is a humanistic method of psychotherapy based on the principle of holism. That is, it considers human mental processes from the point of view of the integrity of thoughts and emotions, body and mind, individual characteristics and the environment. We look at people as a single system, guided by acceptance and respect for their uniqueness.

It stands on three pillars:

Phenomenology.

Gestalt therapy focuses on the awareness of one’s own experiences, feelings, desires, and intentions. During the session, you will often hear such questions as “What is happening to your body now?”, “What emotions arise, how do you feel them, at what moment, during what thoughts?”. I can also ask you to choose a metaphor, an image of the current state, since our task is to raise the client’s awareness, help them understand themselves better, become more flexible and, accordingly, diversify their own ways of behavior. In the session, we do not rely on interpretations, but on your own experience of experiencing and living various processes. We explore your uniqueness here and now.

Dialogue.

The key focus of Gestalt therapy is the existential encounter between two personalities, the Gestalt therapist works by building a relationship with the client – that is why this type of therapy is so effective in matters of relationships with others, overcoming loneliness, and working through developmental traumas. During the sessions, we explore how the client interacts with the world, how they react to different situations, and how past and current experiences affect the process of interaction with others. Sessions with a Gestalt therapist are a safe space for exploration and experimentation, for learning new ways of interacting with the world and acquiring skills for building desirable relationships.

Field theory.

Since Gestalt therapy looks at a person as a holistic system, it considers the influence of external and internal factors equally. Therefore, it is important not only what happens to a person, but also the environment in which he or she is located, the conditions in which he or she grew up and was formed. The world is a dynamic place, where one person influences social circles, and social circles influence people. In the process of Gestalt therapy, the therapist can share his or her own feelings, actively respond to the client’s stories, forming a unique field of client-therapist relationships.

As you can see, Gestalt therapy is a semi-philosophical paradigm, it develops and requires curiosity about oneself, immersion in the inner and outer world. Therefore, the result of such therapy is profound changes not only at the level of behavior and solving a specific problem, but also at the level of perception of the world and one’s own values. Gestalt therapy can significantly improve your awareness, and thus your quality of life in the long run.

A special place in therapy is occupied by responsibility – the client learns to make conscious life choices, taking into account their own needs, feelings, values, and fears.

During the sessions, we can also do experiments – try new ways of behaving and reacting, learn to build relationships in new ways. An experiment, unlike a task, has no right or wrong answers; its task is to explore you without expectations and evaluations, but with curiosity and acceptance.

I am a certified Gestalt therapist at the Kyiv Gestalt University and a member of the European Association of Gestalt Therapists (EAGT).