Gestalt Therapy

            Gestalt therapy is a humanistic approach to therapy.  The focus of gestalt therapy is helping the client to focus on the here and now of their experiences and how to discover how it is related to broken parts of their personality (Jones & Butman, 2011).  For gestalt therapy, the client-therapist dialog is very important.  The therapist may suggest to the client that they express themselves in a certain way to bring about more mindfulness and understanding of their thoughts and feelings.  Gestalt therapists may use tools such as the empty chair technique to bring about this mindfulness and help their clients put their thoughts and feelings into perspective (Jones & Butman, 2011).

            In the case of Helen, the therapist uses the chair dialog as a method of helping Helen understand how her current feelings about herself relate to her past and feelings about her parents.  She began the session by telling the therapist that she did like how she felt about herself or her current circumstances in her marriage.  As the therapist guided Helen into the chair dialog, Helen appeared uncomfortable and unsure of how to proceed.  The therapist offered some suggestions on what she would say and as Helen became more comfortable, she took over the dialog and continued on a journey of self-discovery.  Helen discovered that she is angry at her parents and begins to empathize with how her mother must have felt.  She identified feelings of anger towards her father because he was not emotionally there for the family.  Rather than being there for his family, he worked long hours and this created feelings of abandonment and discontent among Helen and her siblings.  The therapist was also able to guide Helen into switching roles and helped her to identify feelings her mother and father must have had.  This helped her to understand how supportive her mother actually was and the lack of participation in the family that her father had (Pearson Learning Solutions, n.d.).

            This type of therapy appears to have been very effective for Helen and helping her to understand how her current feelings about her marriage relate to the examples set by her parents.  It appears to have given her an ability to recognize her negative feelings as they surface, and how she can begin to change.  Helen appeared much more relaxed at the end of the session than she did at the beginning (Pearson Learning Solutions, n.d.).

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References

Jones, S. L., & Butman, R. E. (2011). Modern Psychotherapies (2 ed.). Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Pearson Learning Solutions (n.d.). Gestalt Therapy Session [Video File]. Retrieved from http://media.pearsoncmg.com/pcp/21270572125/index.html?wf=1&item=2