What is Gestalt therapy, and how can it help you?

Gestalt therapy is a “whole person” approach, which means that it embraces all of a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This form of mental healthcare is helpful for people who want to maintain a present focus instead of dissecting the past. This approach can help you heal from mental health challenges like stress, anxiety, or trauma.

Gestalt therapists play an active role in the therapeutic process as they guide their clients through their sessions. They often use well-known Gestalt activities like the empty chair technique, where the client imagines having a conversation with someone sitting in an empty chair across from them while staying aware of their own internal state. Gestalt therapists use this technique along with many others to help clients strengthen their mental health.

What is Gestalt therapy?

Gestalt therapy is a form of therapy created by husband-and-wife psychotherapists Fritz and Laura Perls in Europe in the 1940s. They developed their methods as a response to Sigmund Freud’s approach to therapy, which viewed the mind as having a three-part structure and focused heavily on exploring the past.

Instead, the goal of Gestalt therapy is to help people gain insight into their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in the present moment. Gestalt therapy focuses on the “here and now” in lively and creative ways to help people make sense of how their unique experiences affect them. This kind of therapy results in a more practical and positive mental state with less worry about the future or dwelling on the past.

To achieve these outcomes, Gestalt therapists use three guiding philosophies:

• Field theory: This concept is derived from physics and states that each part of a whole influences all of the other parts. The Gestalt therapist considers the “total field” of a person, which includes their past experiences and their current thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

• Phenomenology: This concept guides how the Gestalt therapist interacts with the client in sessions. The therapist attempts to guide the person as much as possible without explaining or interpreting. In doing so, the person feels empowered to better understand themselves.

• Dialogue: This concept refers to the way that the Gestalt therapist and the client shape the outcomes of therapy together. The therapist sees and accepts the person as they are, and the client and therapist are mutually involved in the experience of therapy.

How does Gestalt therapy work?

In Gestalt therapy, the therapist takes an active part in the process because the interaction between the therapist and client is one of the foundations of this technique. Each experience in a Gestalt therapy session can be different than the last. But the focus is always on helping you understand how you’re feeling in the present moment — rather than how you felt in the past — and how you might expect to feel in the future.

During sessions, your therapist may ask you to notice your thoughts, emotions, body sensations, or behaviors as they happen. You may also try role-playing, guided exercises, or other activities designed to help you become more aware of your experiences.

A common Gestalt therapy activity is the empty chair technique. In this exercise, you imagine a person sitting in a chair across from you. You can talk to that person and express yourself out loud, with the therapist helping you recognize and understand how you feel along the way.

Research suggests that Gestalt therapy can be effective and may have outcomes similar to other forms of psychotherapy. Other research has found that the empty-chair technique may help people work through unresolved feelings related to important relationships.

Who is Gestalt therapy for?

Gestalt therapy can be helpful for anyone who seeks greater understanding and acceptance of themselves. It can take place in individual therapy sessions, but it’s also particularly well suited for group therapy. In a group setting, members can practice authentic communication, explore interpersonal dynamics, and gain insights into their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. They do this through various experiential techniques, like play therapy.

Research shows that Gestalt therapy can significantly reduce depression, anxiety, and stress in people who have experienced trauma. By focusing on the present moment, Gestalt therapy can help people uncover the thoughts and feelings that make them feel anxious. This approach can also help heal dysfunctional relationships or low self-esteem and support people living with substance use disorder or bipolar disorder.

In addition to its benefits for mental health, Gestalt therapy can encourage physical healing too. Sometimes, unexplained physical symptoms can be the result of unexpressed emotions. Gestalt therapy provides a way to explore those suppressed emotions in healthy ways.

Dig deeper:

• Group therapy benefits

The benefits of Gestalt therapy

There are many benefits to Gestalt therapy. By working with a Gestalt therapist, you can learn to:

• Understand emotional patterns. Gestalt therapy provides a supportive space to explore difficult emotions and identify unhelpful patterns.

• Improve relationships. By examining your experiences and how you feel about them, you can develop more authentic ways of relating to others.

• Build self-acceptance. Gestalt therapy emphasizes understanding and accepting one’s experiences without judgment.

• Increase self-awareness. Becoming more in tune with yourself and how you respond to both past and present experiences can help you understand why you feel the way you do.

The limitations of Gestalt therapy

While Gestalt therapy can be incredibly helpful for some people, that doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for everyone. Gestalt techniques may not be appropriate for people with severe cognitive disorders, impulse control difficulties, or personality disorders. It’s also not ideal for people who experience psychosis or those who need acute crisis intervention. But fortunately, there are many other treatments that may be more effective for people living with these mental health concerns.

Next steps for considering Gestalt therapy

If Gestalt therapy sounds like a good fit, you can start by thinking about what you hope to get from therapy. You may also want to consider whether you’re comfortable with an approach that focuses on the present moment and may include hands-on exercises.

When you’re ready to find a therapist:

• Look for the right experience. Search for a licensed mental health professional who has training or experience in Gestalt therapy.

• Ask questions. Before starting, ask how the therapist uses Gestalt techniques and what you can expect during sessions.

• Consider your goals. Talk with the therapist about your concerns and what you hope to change or better understand.

• Check the fit. Pay attention to whether you feel comfortable and understood by the therapist.

• Review costs and coverage. If you plan to use insurance, check your benefits and whether the therapist is in network.

Clinician’s take

One thing I appreciate about Gestalt therapy is that it can help you notice patterns that are happening right in front of you. You might come into therapy wanting to understand why you keep feeling or reacting a certain way, and begin noticing what your emotions, body, and behaviors are telling you in the moment.

Brandy Chalmers, LPC

Clinical reviewer