What is the essence of Gestalt therapy? A look into the history of Gestalt psychology

Gestalt - what is it? Many people ask this question modern people, however, not everyone manages to find the correct answer to it. The word “Gestalt” itself is of German origin. Translated into Russian it means “structure”, “image”, “form”.

This concept was introduced into psychiatry by psychoanalyst Frederick Perls. He is the founder of Gestalt therapy.

Frederick Perls was a practicing psychiatrist, so all the methods he developed were primarily used to cure mental disorders, including psychoses, neuroses, etc. However, the Gestalt therapy method became very widespread. Psychologists and psychiatrists working in the field soon became interested in what it is. different areas. Such a wide popularity of Gestalt therapy is due to the presence of a reasonable and understandable theory, a wide choice of methods or patients, as well as high level efficiency.

Main advantage

The main and greatest advantage is a holistic approach to a person, which takes into account his mental, physical, spiritual and social aspects. Gestalt therapy, instead of focusing on the question “Why is this happening to a person?” replaces it with the following: “What does a person feel now and how can this be changed?” Therapists working in this direction try to focus people's attention on awareness of the processes that happen to them “here and now.” Thus, the client learns to take responsibility for his life and for everything that happens in it, and, consequently, for making the desired changes.

Perls himself viewed Gestalt as a whole, the destruction of which leads to the production of fragments. The form strives to be unified, and if this does not happen, the person finds himself in an unfinished situation that puts pressure on him. There are often many unfinished gestalts hidden in people, which are not so difficult to get rid of, it’s enough to see them. The huge advantage is that to discover them there is no need to delve into the depths of the unconscious, but you just need to learn to notice the obvious.

The Gestalt approach is based on such principles and concepts as integrity, responsibility, the emergence and destruction of structures, unfinished forms, contact, awareness, “here and now.”

The most important principle

A person is a holistic being, and he cannot be divided into any components, for example, into body and psyche or soul and body, since such artificial techniques cannot positively affect his understanding of his own inner world.

A holistic gestalt consists of a personality and the space surrounding it, influencing each other. For better understanding this principle you can turn to psychology interpersonal relationships. It makes it possible to clearly monitor how much influence society has on an individual. However, by changing himself, he influences other people, who, in turn, also become different.

The Moscow Gestalt Institute, like many others, includes the concept of “contact” as a key concept. A person is constantly in contact with something or someone - with plants, environment, other people, informational, bioenergetic and psychological fields.

The place where an individual comes into contact with the environment is usually called the contact boundary. How better person feels and the more flexibly he can regulate the contact difference, the more successful he is in meeting his own needs and achieving his goals. However, this process is characterized characteristic features that lead to disruption productive activity individual in different spheres of interaction. Perls Gestalt therapy is aimed at overcoming such disorders.

The principle of the emergence and destruction of gestalt structures

Using the principle of the emergence and destruction of gestalt structures, one can easily explain the behavior of a person. Each person arranges his life depending on his own needs, to which he gives priority. His actions are aimed at meeting needs and achieving existing goals.

For a better understanding, you can consider several examples. So, a person who wants to buy a house saves money to buy it, finds suitable option and becomes the owner of his own home. And those who want to have a child direct all their efforts to achieve this goal. After the desired is achieved (the need is satisfied), the gestalt is completed and destroyed.

The concept of an incomplete gestalt

However, not every gestalt reaches its completion (and then destruction). What happens to some people and why do they constantly form the same type of unfinished situations? This is the question long years interested specialists in the field of psychology and psychiatry. This phenomenon is called unfinished gestalt.

Specialists whose place of work is one or another Gestalt institute have managed to recognize that the lives of many people are often filled with constantly recurring typical negative situations. For example, a person, despite the fact that he does not like to be exploited, constantly finds himself in precisely such situations, and someone who does not have a good personal life comes into contact with people he does not need over and over again. Such “deviations” are associated precisely with incomplete “images”, and the human psyche will not be able to find peace until they reach their logical end.

That is, a person who has an incomplete “structure”, on a subconscious level, constantly strives to create a negative unfinished situation only in order to resolve it and finally close this issue. A Gestalt therapist artificially creates a similar situation for his client and helps him find a way out of it.

Awareness

One more basic concept Gestalt therapy is awareness. It is worth noting that a person’s intellectual knowledge about his external and internal world has nothing to do with him. Gestalt psychology associates awareness with being in the so-called “here and now” state. It is characterized by the fact that a person performs all actions, guided by consciousness and being vigilant, and does not live a mechanical life, relying solely on the stimulus-reactive mechanism, as is typical of animals.

Most problems (if not all) appear in a person’s life for the reason that he is guided by the mind and not by consciousness. But, unfortunately, the mind is a rather limited function, and people who live only by it do not even suspect that they are actually something more. This leads to the replacement of the true state of reality with an intellectual and false one, and also to the fact that the life of each person takes place in a separate illusory world.

Gestalt therapists around the world, including the Moscow Gestalt Institute, are confident that to solve most problems, misunderstandings, misunderstandings and difficulties, a person only needs to achieve awareness of his internal and external reality. The state of awareness does not allow people to act badly by succumbing to impulses of random emotions, since they are always able to see the world around them as it really is.

Responsibility

From a person’s awareness, another useful quality is born - responsibility. The level of responsibility for one’s life directly depends on the level of clarity of a person’s awareness of the surrounding reality. It is human nature to always shift responsibility for one’s failures and mistakes onto others or even higher powers, but everyone who manages to take responsibility for themselves makes a big leap on the path of individual development.

Most people are not at all familiar with the concept of gestalt. They will find out what it is at an appointment with a psychologist or psychotherapist. The specialist identifies the problem and develops ways to eliminate it. It is for this purpose that Gestalt therapy has a wide variety of techniques, among which there are both its own and those borrowed from such as transactional analysis, art therapy, psychodrama, etc. According to Gestaltists, within the framework of their approach, you can use any methods that serve as natural continuation of the “therapist-client” dialogue and strengthen the processes of awareness.

The principle of “here and now”

According to him, everything that really matters happens in the moment. The mind takes a person to the past (memories, analysis of past situations) or to the future (dreams, fantasies, planning), but does not give the opportunity to live in the present, which leads to life passing by. Gestalt therapists encourage each of their clients to live “here and now”, without looking into the illusory world. All the work of this approach is connected with awareness of the present moment.

Types of Gestalt techniques and contracting

All Gestalt therapy techniques are conventionally divided into “projective” and “dialogue”. The former are used to work with dreams, images, imaginary dialogues, etc.

The latter represent painstaking work that is carried out by the therapist at the border of contact with the client. The specialist, having tracked the interruption mechanisms of the person with whom he is working, turns his emotions and experiences into part of his environment, and then brings them to the boundary of contact. It is worth noting that Gestalt techniques of both types are intertwined in work, and a clear distinction between them is possible only in theory.

The Gestalt therapy procedure, as a rule, begins with such a technique as concluding a contract. This direction is characterized by the fact that the specialist and the client are equal partners, and the latter bears no less responsibility for the results of the work performed than the former. This aspect is precisely discussed at the stage of concluding the contract. At the same moment, the client forms his goals. It is very difficult for a person who constantly avoids responsibility to agree to such conditions, and already at this stage he needs elaboration. At the stage of concluding a contract, a person begins to learn to be responsible for himself and for what happens to him.

"Hot chair" and "empty chair"

The “hot chair” technique is one of the most famous among therapists whose place of work is the Moscow Gestalt Institute and many other structures. This method is used for group work. A “hot chair” is a place where a person sits when he intends to tell those present about his difficulties. During the work, only the client and the therapist interact with each other, the rest of the group members listen silently, and only at the end of the session talk about how they felt.

The basic Gestalt techniques also include the “empty chair”. It is used to place a person significant to the client with whom he can conduct a dialogue, and it does not matter so much whether he is currently alive or has already died. Another purpose of the “empty chair” is dialogue between different parts of the personality. This is necessary when the client has opposite attitudes that generate

Concentration and experimental enhancement

His original technology The Gestalt Institute calls concentration (focused awareness). There are three levels of awareness - inner worlds(emotions, bodily sensations), external worlds (what I see, hear), as well as thoughts. Keeping in mind one of the main principles of Gestalt therapy “here and now,” the client tells the specialist about his awareness at the moment. For example: “Now I’m lying on the couch and looking at the ceiling. I just can't relax. My heart is beating very fast. I know there is a therapist next to me.” This technique enhances the sense of the present, helps to understand the ways in which a person is removed from reality, and is also valuable information for further work with him.

Another effective technique is experimental amplification. It consists in maximizing any verbal and non-verbal manifestations that are little realized by him. For example, in a case where a client, without realizing it, often begins his conversation with the words “yes, but...”, the therapist can suggest that he begin each phrase this way, and then the person becomes aware of his competition with others and the desire to always have the last word. .

Working with Polarities

This is another method that Gestalt therapy often uses. Techniques in this field are often aimed at identifying opposites in a person. Among them, working with polarities occupies a special place.

For example, for a person who constantly complains that he doubts himself, a specialist suggests that those who are confident try to communicate with the people around him from this position. It is equally useful to have a dialogue between your uncertainty and confidence.

For a client who does not know how to ask for help, the Gestalt therapist suggests turning to group members, sometimes even with very ridiculous requests. This technique makes it possible to expand the individual’s zone of awareness by including previously inaccessible personal potential.

Working with dreams

This technique is used by psychotherapists of various directions, but the original Gestalt method has features that are characteristic only of it. Here, the specialist considers all elements of sleep as parts of the human personality, with each of which the client must identify. This is done to appropriate one’s own projections or get rid of retroflections. In addition, in this technique no one has canceled the use of the “here and now” principle.

Thus, the client should tell the therapist about his dream as if it were something happening in the present time. For example: “I am running along a forest path. I have great mood and I enjoy every moment spent in this forest, etc.” It is necessary for the client to describe his dream “here and now” not only from own name, but also on behalf of other people and objects present in the vision. For example, “I am a winding forest path. A person is running towards me now, etc.”

Thanks to its own and borrowed techniques, Gestalt therapy helps people get rid of all kinds of masks and establish trusting contact with others. The Gestalt approach takes into account heredity, experience acquired in the first years of life, the influence of society, but at the same time calls on each person to take responsibility for own life and for everything that happens in it.

Gestalt therapy is Psychotherapy method humanistic orientation (humane and respectful)

As an example, I will give other methods: psychoanalysis, existential therapy.

Duration of Gestalt therapy:

Gestalt therapy, among others, is a relatively short-term method. The course can last from 10-20 to 100-200 sessions. The duration of therapy depends on the complexity of the problem and on the client’s desire to solve it more deeply or more superficially, on the client’s readiness to move further or closer to high quality own life.

Who does a Gestalt therapist work with:

First of all, mentally healthy people, although correction of people who are in borderline status is also possible.

What problems does a Gestalt therapist work with:

With the full range of psychological difficulties

• Problems of interpersonal relationships (child-parent, male-female, business and friendly: infidelity, loneliness, flirting, personal attractiveness, love triangles and etc.).
• Intrapersonal problems (difficulties in self-esteem, self-acceptance, emotional states, depression, addiction, psychosomatic disorders panic attacks, physical illness unknown origin)).

Goals and values ​​of Gestalt therapy:

• achieving the client’s internal integrity (gestalt is integrity)
• healthy aggressiveness (activity) of the client
• awareness and overcoming by the client of self-interruptions in achieving the goal
• recognition and implementation by the client of his true needs
• developing the client’s abilities for effective contact and dialogue with others.

Theoretical foundations of Gestalt therapy (features of the method):

1.Figure and background

What do you see in the picture? This is a very famous gestalt picture that demonstrates the characteristics of our perception. It has been proven that a person can only see one thing at a time - a vase or 2 profiles, but not both at the same time!

Looking around, into the world, we see only one of our figures. The rest remains in the background, we just ignore it!

Example: people came to a party. An alcoholic sees first of all the bottle, a lover sees his girlfriend, and someone who wants to communicate sees potential interlocutors. While reading this text, you also hear your own, choose your own figure from the text.

Behind any figure there is always a need, but it is not obvious. One of the first tasks of the Gestalt therapist is to identify the client’s need figure with which he came, and the way in which the person’s fulfillment of the need is interrupted.

I want to clarify that there can be many desires, but basic needs people literally have three: security - trust, intimacy - autonomy and recognition.

2. The principle of unfinished situations

In the course of research and experiments, Gestalt psychologists noticed that people tend to form the same type of negative situations in their lives. The phenomenon was namedUnfinished Gestalt

Have you noticed that in the life of any person you can easily see the same type of unpleasant situations repeated many times? For example, a cheating or drinking husband, or everyone is on someone’s neck, and someone is chronically lonely, poor, abandoned, etc.

So, the principle of unfinished situations is that the psyche cannot calm down and maintains tension until the problem is resolved. That is, a person provokes the reproduction of unpleasant situations with the secret goal of finally resolving them.

An unfinished situation is a source of chronic tension that drains our vital energy. The best thing to do is to end/close/resolve the situation.

As in life, so in the process of psychotherapy, the client recreates his unfinished situation in the relationship with the psychotherapist. And this is very good, since the Gestalt therapist, in the process of work, helps to gain new positive experience within this painful scheme and successfully complete the Gestalt. This new experience completion, the client transfers it to his ordinary life, solving a lot of problems.

3. The principle of “here and now”

In the theory of Gestalt therapy, it is believed that right here and now all unfinished situations appear, which means that here and now, at any moment in life, there is an opportunity to resolve them! There is no great need to remember childhood or past lives. Right here and now, by posture, gaze, voice, words, choice of topics of conversation - the emotional background created by the client, an experienced Gestalt therapist detects and goes to work with current traumas, internal conflicts, unfinished situations, bodily illnesses of the client.

4. The principle of dialogue

A conversation with a client in Gestalt therapy is based on the principle of dialogue, i.e. equal positions (not above, above or below). This is an honest conversation between two equals unique people. It seems like nothing special, but according to research, such a conversation has very strong healing properties.

The client automatically transfers the mastered skill of dialogical conversation with a psychotherapist into his everyday life, and this helps to establish, establish dialogical, harmonious relationships there, and resolve a lot of difficulties.

5.Contact theory

Gestalt therapy is based on contact theory. This theory explains the interaction of a person with the environment in the process of realizing his needs. The so-called arc of contact has 4 stages:

Pre-contact. The person feels vague anxiety, agitation or discomfort. Having listened to his physical and emotional sensations, realizing what is currently attracting his interest in the world around him, he can, for example, realize that he is hungry, and he is attracted to the types of food and grocery stores.The essence of this phase is to, based on your feelings - physical, emotional, etc., identify the figure of your need, and answer the question: what do I want now? If this is successful, the energy in a person increases, and he moves on to the next phase, moving towards the realization of his need. If he doesn't answer the question, i.e. he does not have a clear experience of “Aha, that’s what I want!”, then he hangs in muddy discomfort.

Contacting. At this phase, a person contacts the environment, trying to choose what will most fully satisfy his need. In the case of food, he tries to choose what exactly he wants to eat now - fruit or sausage, perhaps he tries both, trying to decide. The successful completion of this phase is the selection of an object of need (for example, sausage). The choice should not be made arbitrarily, but on the basis of sensations, feelings, trials, experiments. If a person avoids choosing and trying, then he gets stuck in painful doubts at this phase.

Full contact. At this phase, a person comes into direct contact with the object of his need and satisfies it. For example, he enjoys eating sausage. The successful completion of this phase is a feeling of deep satisfaction and relaxation. In case of failure, dissatisfaction and tension remain.

Post contact. The stage of summing up, assimilating and digesting what happened, as well as moving away from the object of need. In the case of sausage, a person puts it aside with gratitude and digests it. Unsuccessful post-contact, when a person, for example, does not move away, but clings to an object, or devalues ​​the contact that occurred.

Any psychological difficulty is associated with interrupting the contact cycle at one or several phases at once through the use of psychological defenses/interruptions.

Psychological defenses/mechanisms for interrupting the contact cycle:

We all use psychological defenses. In Gestalt therapy, they are also called contact interruption mechanisms, since, unfortunately, they not only protect us from unpleasant experiences, but also interrupt the fulfillment of our needs.

Basic psychological defenses/interruptions in Gestalt therapy:

merging - a person becomes weakly sensitive to what he now feels and wants, his psychological boundaries weaken, he poorly understands where his desires are and where others are, where his responsibility is and where it is no longer his. And often voluntarily become a toy in the hands of others.

introjection is swallowed beliefs, such as: “to succeed, you have to work hard”, “all men are...”. Any generalizations that begin with the words “should”, “always”, “never”, “everything” are introjected. These attitudes - introjects - come into conflict with each other and with reality itself, causing internal and external conflict.

projection - when a person fantasizes about what others think, feel, want and sincerely believes in his fantasies. As a rule, he avoids contact with reality, and attributes his own forbidden desires and feelings to others, projects his inner “film” onto their “white screen”. It turns out such a phenomenon as non-contact, communication with oneself.

deflection is a release of tension. The downside is that energy is not spent on achieving a goal, not on solving a problem, but is simply wasted

egotism - when a person, at the moment of a desired event, contact, holds himself back, does not fully surrender to this event, contact and his feelings. So he loses part of his satisfaction, giving rise to a feeling of incompleteness, incompleteness

retroflection - when a person turns to himself those feelings that are actually directed at another, at the world. An extreme example is suicide, when a person turns anger directed at another against himself. In the theory of Gestalt therapy, it is believed that any experiences are born in a person ONLY in contact with the environment and, accordingly, are directed only outward. That is, initially a person cannot be irritated or offended by himself, this is a psychological defense.

Noticing that the client is using psychological defense/interruption, the Gestalt therapist works with this interruption; there are certain methods and techniques for this, helping the client move towards realizing his need.

Gestalt therapist techniques:

The Gestalt therapist's arsenal of techniques is quite large. I will name the most common ones.

• Therapeutic dialogue. The purpose of the dialogue is to support experiences, recognize and identify the client’s needs and the mechanisms for its interruption.
• Experiment - here and now the therapist organizes a game situation in which the client’s painful situation is manifested. The Gestalt therapist invites the client to act in a new way, as a result of which the client experiences new positive experiences, which he then transfers into his life.

Experiment options:

• Projective techniques - art methods (drawings, crafts, etc.)
• Psychodrama - arrangements, theatrical scenes
• Bodily practices - work with voice, poses, bodily sculptures
• Empty chair (or hot chair) - client presents on a supplied empty chair significant person from your life, the hero of your dream or part of your own personality and addresses it in a new way. It may sound strange, but it works very well. When a client addresses an empty chair in the present tense, there are always typical methods the client’s behavior and strong actual experiences arise that are not so easy to detect in “talking about...”.

The Gestalt therapist and the client, creatively using techniques, identify and work through the client’s repressed, unconscious material. As a result, the client achieves greater integrity, successfully going through the entire contact cycle here and now, without self-interruptions.

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• A healthy and harmonious person is able to satisfy his needs, but this is impossible without contact with the environment.
• If a need is not being met, the Gestalt therapist's job is to understand why and what to do about it.

As a child, I was attracted to books from the “Everything About Everything” series. In them, the authors contained concentrates of knowledge about a variety of things. The simplified and superficial level of immersion in the topic did not bother me: I still appreciate this format when getting to know non-core areas that interest me. This is an excellent opportunity to quickly navigate the issue and understand what it is all about.

I will try to describe the key points in the work of a Gestalt therapist as simply and clearly as possible, in a popular encyclopedic format.

Any psychotherapeutic approach starts from the idea psychological health, criteria for healthy human functioning.

Health in Gestalt therapy is harmonious and holistic functioning human life systems, the ability for self-regulation, both in physical and psychological aspects.

If we are cold, the body increases muscle activity and trembling appears. It helps us keep warm.
If we are hot, the body sweats, cooling the body temperature.
If the body is tired, it requires rest, we want to sleep.

A self-regulating system is impossible without contact with external environment.

When we are hungry, we cannot satisfy the need for food without interacting with the external environment.
The needs for love, recognition, respect, and communication are also satisfied only through contact with the environment.

We live, we need something, we want something, we strive for something. IN ideal we satisfy our needs, close gestalts. If the need is not satisfied for a long time, we experience internal tension - what is known as "unfinished gestalts".

Each need goes through several stages of development:

Formation and awareness.

Contact of the body with the environment to find an object and a way to satisfy a need.

Satisfying a need.

Understanding the experience gained.

At any of these stages, our contact with the environment may be interrupted, which means that the need will remain unsatisfied. This happens as a result of the action of four mechanisms: projection, introjection, confluence and retroflection.

1. Projection

You are walking through a park at night and see a noisy group of young people ahead. The idea comes to your mind to deviate from the route so as not to meet strangers. This is how the projection mechanism manifests itself.

Based on your experience, you project that young people may be aggressive and the meeting may be unsafe. The projective mechanism, like any other methods of interrupting needs, is initially useful for us.

But here's another example. A young man wants to meet a girl on the street. He stops himself, assuming that she will refuse to meet him: she won’t like him, she doesn’t meet people on the street, she’s married, and so on. In this case, instead of useful protective function the projection mechanism stops the satisfaction of real needs young man: get to know each other, start a relationship.

The task of the Gestalt therapist is to help the client recognize the need, see how he interrupts its satisfaction, and help him find suitable methods her satisfaction.

When the client has realized his true needs, the Gestalt therapist helps him find ways to satisfy them

One more example. A client approached the therapist with a request to help improve his relationship with his wife. The man is jealous of her with or without reason, which leads to family conflicts and scandals.

Jealousy in in this case– projective mechanism. The husband projects his suspicions of infidelity onto his wife, suggesting that she is no longer interested in him. Making claims leads to worsening conflict and constant scandals. At the same time, the husband’s real need for intimacy and love is not satisfied.

When the client has realized his true needs, the Gestalt therapist helps him find ways to satisfy them. Instead of the usual accusations “Where have you been again? You don't need me! the husband tries to behave in a new way. For example, accusations can be replaced with the following phrases: “I worry when you are late, I value our relationship, our closeness is important to me.”

2. Introjection

Once at a party, an acquaintance started a conversation about the fact that many people believe that you cannot divide by zero. “Of course not!” – the majority of the discussion participants emotionally supported. We were taught this way at school, and even if you try to divide by zero on a calculator, the display will show “E,” which means an error. We can't all be wrong.

However, the friend did not let up: “Why can’t you divide by zero?” None of those present had an answer to this question. More precisely, the answer was: “Because it’s impossible. Dot". Here is an example of a classic introject.

Introjection is a mechanism by which we swallow, without chewing, new information, attitudes, ideas. We remember this information, we consider it obvious and correct, but it is not appropriated or digested by us. That is why we cannot answer the question why you cannot divide by zero. We simply swallowed this knowledge and cannot justify our answer in any way.

If we are “introjected” by certain attitudes, rules and knowledge, this does not mean they are wrong or true. This only means that we cannot consciously use them. Our behavior and reactions are rigid, and this can negatively affect the satisfaction of our needs.

After checking and “chewing”, attitudes are either assigned and become internalized, or rejected as false

When raising children, we cannot do without the mechanism of introjection. We will not ask the child to “appropriate” the knowledge that one should not stick his fingers into a socket. And this will be a useful introject. If the introjected knowledge turns out to be not significant enough for the child to take his word for it, rest assured that he will check.

After checking and “chewing,” attitudes are either assigned and become internalized, or rejected as false. By the way, it turned out that theoretically it is possible to divide by zero. An operation that is considered impossible in algebra can be performed in other areas of mathematical knowledge.

The psychotherapist regularly encounters clients’ attitudes: “you need to build a career,” “a man needs to earn money.” more women“,” “a woman should not take the initiative when meeting men,” “I need to get married,” and so on.

The Gestalt therapist checks how these attitudes correspond to the real needs of the client, whether these are really his attitudes - or whether they are introjects that block the development and satisfaction of true needs.

For example, a woman complains about unsuccessful attempts to build relationships with men. At the same time, she relies on a certain ideal idea of ​​​​what a man should be: loving, faithful, with higher education, a decent income... The therapist helps her realize the introject “ideal man” and her true needs, which most likely do not correspond to him.

3. Confluence (merger)

How do romantic relationships usually develop between couples? At the first stage, the man and woman seem to merge into one, saying “we” instead of “I.” It is difficult for them to part even for a moment.

This kind of togetherness brings pleasure to both partners. In Gestalt therapy this mechanism is called confluence. And in this example, the manifestation of confluence is appropriate and pleasant.

Another example is a newborn baby. In the first months of life, he is in maximum fusion with his mother, and this is the only way to survive, because he cannot yet independently realize and satisfy his needs. However, over time, the child learns to separate from the parents. He begins to realize his needs and learns to satisfy them independently.

A Gestalt therapist helps the client learn to notice and build boundaries, recognize and satisfy needs, and separate

Another example is codependent relationships in the family. A wife may not be aware of her personal needs and boundaries, merge with her husband, his desires, needs, feelings, and live his life. At the same time, both partners feel unhappy.

When working with codependency, a Gestalt therapist helps the client learn to notice and build boundaries, recognize and satisfy their own needs, and separate. The client learns that there is personal space and needs that confluence limits, and there are joint territories and pastimes where merging is appropriate and useful.

4. Retroflection

Imagine being told off by your boss. You are angry: your fists are clenched, your nodules are playing. You want to express aggression, but for one reason or another you are holding yourself back. This is how the mechanism of retroflection manifests itself: you want to react, express feelings, take some action, but it’s as if you are closing the need within yourself.

Your impulse to express resentment to your boss remains within you. Feelings are not expressed, but they do not disappear either. Unexpressed emotions begin to “eat” you from the inside, aggression can turn into self-aggression.

If you regularly restrain yourself and do not express dissatisfaction, emotions will accumulate, and sooner or later the cup will overflow

Retroflexion, like all the mechanisms described above, also has useful feature. It is not always appropriate or safe to express feelings and take actions. However, it is easy not to notice that retroflexion has become a habit and has begun to have a destructive function.

Let's continue the example with the critical boss. If you regularly restrain yourself and do not express dissatisfaction, emotions will accumulate, and sooner or later the cup will overflow. Aggression will spill out at the wrong time, in the wrong place and in unnecessary quantities, and your behavior will seem inadequate to the situation. In addition, this can lead to the development of psychosomatic diseases.

A Gestalt therapist helps clients find ways to get out of the “autonomy mode” and satisfy their needs by contacting the environment and people, rather than limiting the development of needs within themselves.

***

Having all these interrupt mechanisms - necessary condition for the healthy functioning of the body. The Gestalt therapist does not fight them - he, together with the client, explores situations in which these mechanisms begin to fail, and restores the body’s ability to function holistically and harmoniously, self-regulation, and contact with the environment.

I hope that by reading this article, you have remembered and realized how your own interruption mechanisms manifest themselves, and can take a step towards liberation from their destructive manifestations.

About the expert

– psychologist, gestalt therapist, psychodrama therapist, organizational consultant, trainer, teacher Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis.

In general, a unit of analysis of consciousness and psyche. The trick is that you cannot take a person’s psyche, divide it into parts, and then put it back together and get the psyche back. The human psyche has the property of supersummation - we cannot simply take and sum up its component parts, there is something else. Gestalt psychology was looking for this something. And gestalt is, roughly speaking, already integral formations of human consciousness.

So to speak. Initially, Gestaltists studied human perception. This is when you feel something (hear, see, etc.), and it is processed in your mind, known by you. Before the Gestaltists, psychologists wanted to decompose consciousness into elements and study the psyche using these elements (there was no talk of Freud’s unconscious at that time). In general, before the Gestaltists, consciousness and psyche were considered a Lego constructor that could be disassembled and assembled, while simultaneously enjoying life and how smart we all are. "Figurines!" - said the Gestaltists and came up with integrity. (This is how the word Gestalt is actually translated from German.) In fact, of course, they didn’t come up with it, but put forward it after analyzing such things as insight(more on this below), phenomenon figure-ground(here he is:)

What do you see here? An old woman or a young woman? It depends on what you take as the whole and what as its part, how you distinguish the figure and the background. I personally see an old woman, it’s probably because I’m evil and nasty, God knows. There are a lot of such pictures, they are all funny and interesting.

Now about the insight. It does not have a normal translation into Russian, but it can be described as insight, although the essence is a little different. This is something like isolating a figure from the background, only in reality. Insight occurs when you are trying to solve some problem, but still nothing, you are already beginning to doubt your mental abilities, you suffer, cry, drink vodka with absinthe, but then suddenly! and all of a sudden, the whole picture of the problem comes together, becomes holistic, and you reach a solution.

Classic experiment: monkey in a cage. The monkey really wants bananas, but bad luck - they hang very high under the ceiling, and she can’t get it herself. These sadistic psychologists are such bastards: they put a monkey in a high cage and made it so that it could not reach the banana. In fact, these sadists also put a stick there. The stick is exactly long enough for a monkey to knock bananas off the ceiling with it. And so the monkey fights, fights, and then gets up from such an angle that he sees a stick and bananas in the same field of view. And then insight arises. The monkey grabs a stick, knocks down the bananas and happily eats them.

Ovation, tears of joy from the audience, shouts of “bravo”. The monkey got bananas, and I hope you understand at least a little Gestalt psychology.

What is it like to study at Moscow State University? Why do children in Japan give up their personal lives in favor of knowledge, but ours cannot be forced to study with a whip? Is the problem in the education system or culture as a whole?

Gestalt therapy - this is the method practical psychology, aimed at patients’ awareness and analysis of everything unspoken, suppressed and unfinished in life, with the aim of getting rid of problems and harmonizing the personality.

The Gestalt approach is based on its own theoretical theses, the postulates of psychoanalysis, elements of psychodrama and bioenergetics.

The founder of this direction is the German scientist - Fritz Perls, he used the theory of psychoanalysis for its development, which he constantly supplemented with his own conclusions. The holistic approach (the unity of soul and body, feelings and emotions) in Gestalt therapy appeared thanks to the works of psychologists Wertheimer, Koehler, Kurt Goldstein. The development of bodily sensations was positioned by the researcher Reich, and introduced elements of psychodrama Jacob Moreno.

Having undergone Gestalt therapy, a person begins to see, feel and understand his own personality not as a set of individual character traits, qualities, desires, prohibitions and abilities, but as a whole as a single organism that he can control. During the treatment process, the therapist helps the patient to “extract” “painful” memories, images, thoughts, feelings from the subconscious and “work” on them.

In the end it should be gestalt(internal image of the problem and barriers to expressing emotions). His step-by-step analysis allows people to build harmonious relationships with themselves, loved ones and the world around them so as to receive pleasure and positive emotions.

Changing the usual perception of oneself, one’s behavior, reviving sincerity and the ability to rejoice, rethinking actions and relationships - this is what Gestalt therapy is in simple terms.

In their consultations or group trainings, Gestalt therapists teach patients:

• always rely on your desires and needs, taking into account reality and circumstances;
• do not suppress your feelings and do not accumulate negativity;
• express oneself in communication, creativity, and activity.

The main provisions of the Gestalt approach are:

• developing an attentive attitude and quick response to any of your own emotions;
• enrichment, increase and preservation of internal energy;
• relaxed manifestation of bodily reactions;
• desire for authenticity (building harmonious relations with your body).

Gestalt therapy is most effective for women(due to their emotionality), for men such long-term attention and careful analysis of feelings may seem like an exaggeration; they are usually guided by the arguments of reason and easily ignore their desires and needs for the sake of achievements and success.

Moreover, in society there is too emotional man is considered weak, so it is not easy for many representatives of the stronger sex to talk about their problems, even when meeting with a psychotherapist.

Basic methods and techniques

The Gestalt approach uses:

• working with feelings;
• exercises to express your state with body movements;
• analysis of dreams and memories;
• working with fictional characters (playing out situations and feelings).

The therapy process is considered effective:

• if it lasts no more than 2 years;
• shows patients the strengths of their personality;
• promotes a positive perception of oneself in the world.

Stages of Gestalt therapy:

• searching for problems, obvious and “disguised” negativity among clients, weaknesses their personalities;
• analysis and “release” of detected obstacles;
• building trust in one’s own sphere of feelings and learning to freely express emotions (taking into account social norms and rules).

The main role in any Gestalt methods is given to emotions, the movements of the mind are considered secondary, they are taken into account if they do not suppress the sphere of feelings.

Task Gestalt therapist help the patient see how he “prevents” the satisfaction of his needs, what psychological blocks he puts up and together find acceptable ways to satisfy them.

Task client- reflection (awareness and expression) of one’s feelings and related actions.
The main strategy of Gestalt therapy is the development of the desire to accept oneself (personality change techniques are practically not used in it).

Therapists of the Gestalt approach use special terms in their work:

1. Interprojection. Substitution of real needs of people with imposed ones (by society, traditions, significant people).

2. Confluence (lack of boundaries between the external environment and the body). Merging of feelings and actions in order to obtain maximum satisfaction from life.

3. Retroflection. “Freezing” in the subconscious of your needs and desires.

4. Cycle contact. The process of forming an image of an obstacle in the client’s mind, expressing feelings regarding the problem, and destroying the gestalt.

5. Pre-contact. The stage of formation of a gestalt with a predominance of the sensations of its background (based on bodily sensations, an image of the dominant feeling arises).

6. Contacting. Free expression of feelings and overcoming emotional “clamps”.

7. Final contact. Identifying oneself with a gestalt image, awareness of the unity of feelings and actions.

8. Egotism. Self-interruption of the Gestalt therapy chain. Avoiding awareness of the need, preventing the transition to final contact and getting stuck in contacting.

9. Post-contact. Dissolution of the Gestalt figure into the background. Gaining and consolidating the experience of emotional and bodily expression of feelings.

Thus, the entire process of traditional Gestalt therapy is the formation of a figure and ground in the minds of patients and a gradual reflection of them internal work over psychological problems.

Here's what it is in simple words:

• awareness of your emotions in a state of rest;
• analysis of feelings and desires when a stimulus occurs;
• formation of a holistic image (gestalt) of the provoking factor and reaction to it;
• emotional response to it;
• catharsis (stress relief and satisfaction);
• return to a harmonious state

Exercises

Individual or group sessions with a Gestalt therapist allow
step by step, “expose” the emotional “trash” in the subconscious of clients, bring them to awareness of the problematic situation, teach them to express themselves according to their inner impulses and live in harmony with their body.

At the beginning of therapy, exercises are used to focus feelings and reflect them, then techniques for releasing negative emotions are used. The doctor performs general leadership through the process of forming a gestalt, it focuses patients’ attention on problematic issues, encouraging awareness of the need to freely express their emotions.

Examples of exercises:

1. “Hot chair.” The client sits in the center of the group (at trainings, participants usually sit in a circle) and is asked to talk about what worries him. After a dialogue with the patient in the “hot chair,” the trainer asks to express the feelings and sensations of other participants. They all must be in the center of the circle.

2. Awareness. Here patients talk about feelings and thoughts in the present moment.

3. Increased bodily manifestations during exercise. The therapist asks the training participants to exaggerate any non-verbal gestures, for example, turning finger tapping into a “drum roll”.

4. Shuttle movement. Injecting the background into the figure. If the client reports loneliness, the therapist tries to “color” the background as negatively as possible, i.e. focuses on bodily manifestations (trembling, clenching of arms or legs, etc.).

5. “Empty chair.” In this center chair exercise, patients do not engage in dialogue with real person, but with the imaginary, the dead or oneself.

6. Making circles. All members of the group speak to each other in a circle.