iGCLC™ - Certified Gestalt Therapy Practitioner

One of the important elements of starting sessions with clients is the setting. This gives clients a lot of initial information about therapy before it has even started and to an extent before you have even met.

Our expectations about anything impact our ability to succeed in it. That is the same for therapy. Both the client and the therapist need to turn up to sessions without any misconceptions.

There needs to be an official agreement between you and your clients that outlines the practical side of therapy and what they can expect during sessions. Clients should know what they are getting into.

It is important to listen to the client’s story early in the journey of therapy. It gives you a lot of direct information and it allows them to express themselves. Although language does have its limits.

Diagnosis should be used in a way that aligns with gestalt principles. Any diagnosis made should take into account the wider context and be flexible enough to change when the client does.

Assessments are a great information gathering tool. The focus of gestalt assessments are slightly different. You will be looking at how the client makes contact with their environment.

As therapists we need a good idea of the client’s whole situation to understand how to help them. Having too much of a restrictive view means you could blame irrelevant factors for their current condition.

There are various ways to make contact with the environment. Some of these are observable so you can use the information they provide to work out how to help the client better.

The client’s perspective is important and a big part of that is what they are aware of. When a client is reducing contact with their environment they reduce their awareness on all three levels.

We use information from the past to understand the present and make predictions about the future. This can lead to transference which as a therapist you can encourage even if you don’t mean to.

Therapy focuses a lot on the mind but the physical body has a part to play to. It holds our past and represents how we feel about connecting with our environment. Mental processes reflect in our bodily processes.

The gestalt approach does see therapy as a journey but you still need some level of planning to keep sessions moving in a meaningful direction. Do this in collaboration with clients.

Lifespace is the combination of the individual and the environment. Everyone has a unique lifespace. To help clients you need to understand and influence theirs.

The gestalt approach sees development as continuous. We are always making creative adjustments as our environment changes. Although we do need the right field conditions for healthy development.

There are endless possibilities of what we could experience. As a therapist you need to narrow down your focus and look at what is in the present. This often relates to the past.

Our perspective changes depending on what we need. We organise our field through that need. So to understand a client’s behaviour we need to have some insight into the need they are organising with.

Getting the support we need is essential in everyday healthy functioning as well as therapy. A lack of support leads to disconnection which prevents meaningful development.

Most people would do anything to avoid feeling guilt and shame. These feelings enforce a sense of wrongness but this is not always appropriate especially when it stops us from fulfilling our needs.

Change is always hard but the more it is avoided, the harder it is to embrace. Experimentation will open them up to change but they need to feel supported as they step away from the familiar.

We need to respect the cultural differences we might have with our clients but also the affect Western culture has had on gestalt therapy itself. An equal therapeutic relationship cannot be maintained if the influence of culture is not considered.

The experiments used in gestalt therapy should be creative so the client isn’t pushed towards one outcome. They need the freedom to explore and increase their awareness.

Metaphor and fantasy are tools we can use to open up communication. It is a great way to experiment and even reveal deeper feelings that need to be dealt with for clients to progress.

You need to make sure that progress in therapy sessions applies to the outside world. Testing out experiments and new gestalts is a good way to do this as there are different field conditions outside of sessions.

As we focus in on experience, we need to understand the importance of sensations. They should be embraced even if we don’t have the words to describe them.

Phenomenology is a good representation of gestalt practice. It recognises the co-creation of experience, how the past impacts the future and the importance of horizontal relationships.

Intentionality is how we give our experiences meaning. Based on our own perspective and past experiences. The focus is on the what and how of experience, not the reasons why.

This concept looks at how we find meaning. Some of its elements contradict with the gestalt approach but some are useful to practicing gestalt therapists. This theory definitely made an impact.

Having an open mind is a really important part of your job as a therapist. There are three steps you can take to reduce the impact of your own experiences and assumptions.

Existentialism suits the gestalt approach. It considers awareness, our personal perspective and the freedom of choice we all have when it comes to our reactions and responses.

We walk around with individual perspectives but that doesn’t mean we don’t interact with and affect each other. We are always looking to assimilate the new things we experience.

Being more aware of the body opens clients up to being more aware of their experience and their psychology. The mind and body are connected and reflect each other so understanding one can help us to understand another.

Projective identification is a psychoanalytic concept so it doesn’t fit into gestalt therapy smoothly. There are various viewpoints on how it works and whether it should even be part of the gestalt approach.

Energy levels fluctuating is a pretty normal experience. But it can signal to problems clients are experiencing. Without enough energy, they will struggle to make contact with the environment.

Healthy functioning involves moving along the continuum of awareness depending on the field conditions. Getting stuck in one state makes dealing with the present more difficult.

The patterns of contacting clients use give us information about them. We tend to consistently use the same patterns to keep ourselves organised. There are certain laws of contacting in place.

Gestalt therapy does believe dreams hold insights into the dreamer. This is only relevant to the individual in their current situation so meaning surfaces from the client, not your own interpretation.

How we approach connecting with other people and things varies. We can focus on the separation or the relationship. Both could be appropriate depending on the field conditions.

The between is central to gestalt therapy. It is where contact is made so how relationships form and grow. But it can be intimidating to reach out without the guarantee of making a connection.

Inclusivity is a much more accurate term to describe a healthy therapeutic relationship compared to empathy. You cannot ignore your own lived experience even though it shouldn’t be imposing.

How present we are in sessions with clients varies. We don’t want to overtake sessions but we still need to participate. Being available to clients is important and so is being reflective.

It is really important that clients are able to acknowledge their whole being. A lack of this confirmation means they will strive to be whoever they think other people want them to be instead of living authentically.

Being committed to dialogue means you are available to fully connect with clients when they are ready to open up to you. It keeps us in touch with our experience and able to explore someone else’s experience.

The dynamics of the therapeutic relationship means exploitation is possible. To avoid that you need to accept it is a possibility and put in preventative measures to ensure you aren’t unintentionally doing more harm than good.

Living the relationship allows you to focus on the here and now of your connection with clients. This contains a lot of useful information that you can use to help the client in their wider field.

Attunement is a way to connect to and understand clients. Being in touch with their emotional states gives you more information about their experience and therefore how to help them.

There are different ways of experiencing I-Thou relating. The attitude is the foundation. Moments can come from this but not always because it is an intense connection.

A level of self-disclosure is inevitable in any interaction. You can moderate just how much you are sharing to ensure you don’t take over therapy sessions with information about yourself. You shouldn’t be completely closed off either though.

Language is powerful but it also has limitations. Looking beyond the content of language can give us more information about the client’s experience and how they are relating.

You cannot expect yourself to be perfect at any point in your career. You still need to attune to every new client you work with. Ruptures can be repaired in a healthy way that grows the therapeutic relationship.

We aggress with the environment when we make contact with it. That is necessary to deal with our emerging needs and complete the figures that come out of our ground.

We need to keep developing to be able to respond to the present. If we get stuck, we will use strategies that used to work but aren’t actually functional anymore. Development is a lifelong process.

Being our authentic selves is a process we have to go through. This model illustrates that. It has received some criticism but it is your choice whether you use it or not.

You can really get creative when it comes to experimentation in gestalt therapy. Most experiments fall into three categories which all provide more information and understanding.

Support is an important part of everyday life. We can’t function properly without it. It is particularly important in therapy when discussing sensitive topics and working towards change.

Without the bad there is no good. So with every quality we have, we have the potential of the opposite quality. This allows us to move along the continuum according to field conditions.

There are moments of payoff in therapy where the client is able to overcome what they have been struggling with and gain new insights. This is a process that can only happen naturally.

Catharsis is quite a notorious technique. Whether it is beneficial or not depends on the client and their whole situation. Any judgement of techniques only makes sense in context.

Beyond being aware of problems, clients need to learn the skill of being aware of the construction of their awareness. That gives them the chance to overcome unhealthy patterns.

The gestalt approach also takes the form of group therapy. The leadership style does change and different practitioners have varying opinions. Use what works for you and your clients.

It is inevitable therapy will end for each of your clients whether you are seeing them on a short term or long term basis. Endings can be difficult so approach it in the most positive way possible.

There are certain conversations you should have with clients before sessions end. How long the ending phase takes depends on the client and what they need from you.

For clients to continue to thrive after they have completed sessions with you, they need to take part in self-therapy. This continued experimentation prevents them from getting stuck in fixed gestalts again.

The therapeutic relationship is one where boundaries are essential. Straying from behaviour that helps the client could cause you to harm the client which needs to be avoided at all costs.

You need to be aware of the risk of clients taking part in dangerous behaviour. Talking about this openly in sessions is the first step in dealing with it and clients moving to a healthier mental space.

Clients will come to you with presenting issues but there is more to the problems they are experiencing. They are at the centre of their field with lots of other influencing factors around them.

You need to be aware of the differences that might come between you and a client of another group especially if they are from a minority community. Your treatment of them needs to be appropriate.

Sex is going to come up during sessions with clients throughout your career. That could be sexual issues to do with other people or a client being sexually attracted to you. Either way, don’t ignore it. Deal with it.

Touch is a natural part of the embodied experience but when using it in therapy, we need to make sure we are maintaining an ethical attitude. Informed consent and supervision are key.

Supervision is important for all therapists. The focus of gestalt supervision is slightly different as the therapeutic relationship is at the centre. It ensures you are working with clients to the best of your ability.

All therapists want to do their job well. But for this to happen we need to look after ourselves. Unless we are supported, we aren’t going to be able to support clients to the best of our abilities.

Gestalt therapy has a diverse range of influences. They do include spiritual ones. Many of the concepts to do with the present and wider field come from Eastern spirituality in particular.

During gestalt therapy, we explore the experience of our clients. It is research in a way. So discussing the methodology of research is relevant to your work with clients.

Gestalt therapy can have an impact beyond sessions. These principles are powerful and can make a positive change in the lives of individuals, groups and organisations.

To get the most out of your experience and continue to improve take time to reflect after the end of each therapeutic relationship. Examining your experience will give you a lot of useful information.

Humans are unpredictable so that means they cause a sense of uncertainty. There are various elements of gestalt therapy that have a level of uncertainty but we should see this as an opportunity for growth.