Gestalt Therapy

Presentation

Gestalt therapy is a humanistic, experiential psychotherapeutic approach developed in the 1950s by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman. 'Gestalt' (German for 'form,' 'configuration') refers to 'organized wholeness': the therapy enables the patient to perceive their situation globally and integrate experiences into a coherent whole.

Gestalt therapy is a contact therapy: it examines how a person makes contact with themselves, others and environment. Psychological difficulties are understood as contact cycle disruptions — 'unfinished gestalts' draining vital energy.

Founders: Fritz Perls (1893–1970), Laura Perls (1905–1990) and Paul Goodman (1911–1972)

Core Principles

Here and now: privileging immediate experience over past narratives.

Contact cycle: pre-contact → contact → full contact → post-contact. Disorders arise when this cycle is interrupted.

Contact resistances: confluence, introjection, projection, retroflection, deflection, ego-tism.

Responsibility: assuming ownership of choices, emotions and behaviors.

Dialogue: authentic being-to-being relationship (Buber's I-Thou).

Main Indications

• Anxiety and stress
• Depression and vitality loss
• Relational difficulties
• Low self-confidence
• Grief and loss
• Burnout
• Life transitions
• Emotional inhibitions

Session Overview

Sessions last 45-60 minutes individually or 2-3 hours in groups. The 'empty chair' technique is emblematic: the patient dialogues with an empty chair representing an absent person or unresolved aspect. Other techniques include amplification, monodrama and directed experiments. Typical follow-up lasts 1-3 years.

Variations

• Individual Gestalt therapy
• Group Gestalt therapy
• Couples Gestalt therapy
• Child/adolescent Gestalt therapy
• Integrative Gestalt therapy (Petzold)

Contraindications

• Acute psychosis
• Severe depression with inability for experiential engagement
• Too fragile personality structure
• Severe structural dissociation