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| Gestalt Psychotherapy & Voice Empowerment |
Psychotherapy is a term used to describe a variety of different talking therapies used to treat a number of emotional and behavioral complaints. Psychotherapy involves talking to a licensed professional during a scheduled series of appointments. The following definition comes from http://www.addiction-rehabilitation.com/glossary.html Psychotherapy is the treatment of emotional or behavioral problems by psychological means, often in one-to-one interviews or small groups. Modern psychoanalysis and cognitive therapies concentrate on the patient's beliefs. Other therapies, such as those within humanistic psychology, attend to the patient's emotional state or sensitivity. The distinction, however, is not clear-cut, as all these therapies involve intense exploration of the patient's conflicts, and most rely on the emotion generated in therapy as a force in the patient's recovery. In contrast, behaviour therapies derive from the view that neurosis is a matter of maladaptive conditioning and concentrate on modifying patients' behavior.
Gestalt therapy is considered one of the humanistic psychotherapies. It is holistic, experiential, and interactive. Rather than working from a pathology model where the client is seen as sick and needing treatment, it focuses on the total person. That is, it honors the unity of the mind, body, emotions, and spirit and helps the client recognize, trust, and draw upon his or her inner resources. In the 1940's, Frederick (Fritz) Perls, a trained psychoanalyst, developed the Gestalt theory and method in response to his dissatisfaction with the analytic, mind-focused therapy of the first half of the twentieth Century. Gestalt therapy integrates Gestalt and humanistic psychology, existentialism, and Eastern teachings. It is a creative, sometimes meditative, and gentle therapy that helps clients to live fuller, more effective lives. How is Gestalt therapy different from other psychotherapies? An important aspect of Gestalt therapy is that it works with you in the present tense. By focusing on your feelings and body-sensations, you tune in to what matters in the moment. In the process, you become aware of your underlying beliefs, patterns, and past experiences that can stand in the way of your serenity and success. This awareness opens the way for you to have new choices and healthy change. Gestalt therapy uses a number of tools and methods that support the healing of unfinished business from the past. Two of these are chairwork and dreamwork.
Who can benefit from psychotherapy? Almost anyone can benefit from psychotherapy. Having someone to talk to can ease many difficulties. Having someone to talk to who is trained, compassionate, insightful, and offers tools for overcoming obstacles supports growth and healing in a safe way. Psychotherapy is very helpful for people with the following issues:
What stops people from getting help? To be effective, psychotherapy requires a sincere desire to feel and function better. This takes self disclosure, honesty, courage, persistence, and a willingness to face the unknown. These are not breezy tasks and require a level of commitment. To some this can seem daunting. Perhaps you really want to make a change in your life and think therapy could help but you find convincing reasons not to pursue it. Some of the common reasons people give for not starting therapy are:
If you keep wondering about therapy and hear yourself coming up with one of these excuses or another, this may be a sign that it's time to try it out and see what happens. Like having a baby, the time is rarely “right”. If you really want a baby, you have it, and you work the rest out. It's the same with therapy. If you matter enough to yourself, the time, the money and the rest of it will get worked out.
How long will I need to be in psychotherapy? There is no set answer to this question. Some problems can be resolved in just a few sessions. Others take much longer. Therapy should continue as long as you are making progress and until the problems that brought you to therapy are resolved to your satisfaction.
How often do I come for therapy? While therapy is usually weekly, for some people it is advisable to come more often if their problems are more severe or they want to resolve their difficulties more quickly. As the therapy progresses, you may come less often depending on your needs and progress. This is a decision we should make together.
Many studies have provided solid evidence of the success of psychotherapy. What should I expect from Gestalt therapy? During your first appointment, I will ask you what brought you to therapy, what you hope to accomplish, and what you would like to see happen by the end of your first session to show you that we're on the right track. In the first few sessions, we will begin to establish our relationship and our course of action. This includes your needs and concerns and any goals you wish to achieve. As we continue to meet, you will feel a trusting relationship build between us gradually and this will foster your success in psychotherapy. Over time, you will accumulate and master tools and insights that help overcome behaviors and beliefs that have stood in your way in the past. With a stronger sense of self and ability to cope with challenges, you will achieve positive changes in your life. This depends on your commitment to the process and sincere desire to change. What happens in a typical Gestalt therapy session? Although there is no typical Gestalt therapy session as each Gestalt therapist has a unique style and each session follows the experience of the client moment by moment, I will sketch out a generic session so you have an idea of the kind of things that might happen. Please realize that there are many ways in which a session can unfold. This is just one limited example. Let's take hypothetical client, Mary. She has come for a few sessions already. She believes the therapy can help her and she is willing to try what is suggested. She is not completely comfortable in her body but is willing to pay attention to it as a way of guiding her process. I ask her to check in and see what she's aware of in her body. She tells me that there is a fluttering in her solar plexus. I ask her to breathe and make room for the fluttering. She is surprised because she wants to make it go away not encourage it. I tell her I understand and if she's willing I'd like her to just notice it by breathing and making room for it. She does and after a while she says that it's getting bigger. I ask her to describe anything she notices about it. This could include a shape, a temperature, color, movement. She tells me it's gray and jagged and moving chaotically. I ask if she's willing to be the gray jagged chaotic flutter and speak from there. At first, this seems very strange to her. What do I mean, speak from there? I explain that this is a part of her that is pulling at her attention. It may have a message for her and if she speaks as if she is “it”, she may learn what it wants. She hesitantly gives it a try and begins speaking. “I am grey and jagged and I'm going to control you and shake you up and keep you distracted so you can't shine. I will keep you off balance so that you won't take any scary chances and put us in danger.” With this a dialog has begun. Mary may notice that even though the fluttering is annoying to her or scares her, it seems to be there to protect her. She can now respond to the voice of her anxiety in any number of ways. Let's say she is surprised by its message. She might react in anger or become passive. Or maybe she's been aware of this inner conflict that keeps her from moving ahead in her life and now she is ready to negotiate with it. In this way, she can uncover forces that operate within her unconsciously and gradually come to assimilate their constructive aspects and let go of their destructive ones. This happens slowly as we do other work to build a sense of self support, security, inner trust and confidence. It is important that the work progress at a safe pace.
Will I become dependent on my therapist? At the beginning of our therapy process, you may feel somewhat dependent on me, as I guide you to gain insight and see yourself in a different light. However, as the therapy continues, you will develop your own psychological tools and tap into your inner resources. This will eventually enable you to gain perspective and effectively manage your life. The goal of therapy is to help you develop ways of dealing with life's obstacles on your own, so you can be an independent, healthy, well-functioning individual. How can I get the most out of my therapy?
Do you accept health insurance? Although I am not a member of any insurance panels, my services are reimburse-able out of network. The amount of reimbursement depends on your insurance plan. I am also affiliated with several employee assistance programs. Getting started is easy.
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