"Change occurs when one becomes what he is, not when he tries to become what he is not”
Arnold Beisser, MD
Gestalt Therapy is approached from the ‘here and now’ and as such, what is going on in the therapy room is really important. It will provide vital clues as to what might be affecting you in your everyday life. It is also a relational approach to counselling so that I will bring myself fully to the work and from the safety of our working relationship, we can explore any difficulties that may come up between us that you are experiencing in your relationships outside of the counselling room. The relationship between client and counsellor is rich ground for healing old wounds.
Gestalt Therapy is also experiential and so during the work we do together we will be looking at trying out other ways of being. This is not pre-planned or prepared, but ideas will emerge within the sessions and between us; an organic process. There is always choice and you don’t need to try any experiments that you would rather not. We will also be looking at dreams, which can further shed light on parts of ourselves with which we may be out of touch.
From the safety of our therapeutic relationship, I can help you become more aware of what it is like to be you as you describe what you are experiencing through your words and demonstrate it through your actions. I see my role as being rather like an Archaeologist so that although you know much more about yourself than I ever can, you may have buried many parts of yourself behind walls over the years. Your walls will have been built for important reasons and will have protected you from difficult situations and relationships in the past, but may now be getting in the way of you living your life as you would really like to. They may be preventing you from having intimate relationships or friendships; causing you to have lost your drive or stopping you from applying for a new job. Getting to know why these barriers have developed and how we are relating in the world can help us accept why we are doing what we are doing. Accepting why something has come about makes it less frightening and less likely for us to slip into that way of being. It gives us the chance to think of other ways of dealing with an issue. As such, we don’t change, but we just have more freedom to become ourselves more fully.