Why Gestalt Therapy Is Based on Contemporary Realities

Gestalt Therapy

Thoughts / Feelings / Reactions

The first impression upon reading the Chapter 9 (Gestalt Therapy) is that is has a human feel rather than the harsher, less-friendly Freudian psychoanalysis. Not that all of Freud's work is harsh or standoffish, at all. But when the easy-to-digest narrative in this chapter (lacking some of the esoteric passages of Freud) refers to the "awareness of awareness" I relate immediately (Yontef, et al., 316). .

When the authors present a picture of therapy that asks the patient to dip into "self-knowledge ... self-acceptance," and knowledge of the environment around a person, this seems far more down-to-earth and patient-centered that other therapies (Yontef, 316). I also am comfortable with this theory because it doesn't "focus on curing disease" nor is it "restricted to talking about problems," but it asks the patient to get in touch with the world surrounding the patient and dip into the pictures that the human memory holds (Yontef, 316).

At the beginning of the chapter the Paradoxical Theory of Change may seem to a person just reading about Gestalt Therapy for the first time to be another deep philosophy or premise that needs work in order to comprehend. But how refreshing to see how basic and simple this theory really is: the more we try to be someone we are not, the more we stay the exact same person we are (Yontef, 300). Forcing myself into a mold " ... that does not fit" is like getting on a treadmill and walking fast but winding up in the exact same spot an hour later (Yontef, 300). Gestalt Therapy seems far more about getting in touch with one's current existence (and environment) than it is about going through dramatic changes, which has an immediate appeal to me.

On page 301 that thread continues, as the authors point out that Gestalt Therapy is about "the here and now" not what could be or should be, which other therapies focus on; the experience that often goes along with psychotherapy, as the authors point out, is "purely verbal" rather than conscious awareness (Yontef, 301). With Freudian psychoanalysis a person is asked to accept that there are deeply help conflicts, "unconscious drives and unresolved conflicts," based on past experiences that the therapist seeks to dredge up (Yontef, 303-03).

But on the other hand, Gestalt Therapy is non-confrontational, and it offers a belief that the mind isn't necessarily shaped by "instinctual urges" but rather it is shaped by "interactions with others" and on the "sense of self" (Yontef, 304). I also am struck by the "dialogic therapeutic relationship" explained on page 307: a) the Gestalt therapist has empathy for and is inclusive with the patient's experience; b) the Gestalt therapist comes across as authentic and transparent (rather than as an authoritative therapist who doesn't want the patient to question or to know at all); and c) the Gestalt therapist " ... does not control the outcome" but instead "surrenders to what happens between the participants" (Yontef, 307).

In particular I was impressed with idea that there is " ... no meaningful way" to give consideration to a person " ... apart from [his] interactions" with the environment the person is surrounded by (Yontef, 309). In a way this part of Gestalt therapy touches on the debate between "nature and nurture"; I have always felt that the environment a child grows up in has more influence on his adolescence and adulthood than his biological beginnings. Hence, a person's " ... lived experience nearly always takes precedence over explanation" (Yontef, 317).