Gestalt Applied

Gestalt Applied

In my clinical work, Gestalt therapy serves as the foundation from which I treat.  The interpersonal field, between the therapist and client, is the vehicle for awareness, discovery and transformation to take place. When a person is in pain, emotionally and/or physically, whether spoken of or muted, the pain will be part of the therapist/client field. 

We know that physical pain is the message from the body that something is out of sync, and rather than dismissing or repressing the pain, I encourage you to become aware of and experience the pain in the therapeutic field.  By breathing into the pain that you are feeling, and staying present to  the process of the therapeutic interaction, a new  awareness of the pain, and where it is coming from, is likely to emerge. I Support you, in a moment-to-moment process, in experiencing your feelings, sensations, movements, and  breath. 

Movement

Pain in the body can be a result of emotional distress, or too much, too little or the wrong movements. I look at which one is the case for you and treat according to your needs. 

“I am not good at movement”

For example, you are in pain and imbalanced muscle tone and strength is the source of your pain. However, you diligently avoid exercise as movement and coordination has been an area of struggle since childhood. You feel awkward and nervous when trying to do an exercise or movement. I honor your feelings and create a safe and fun interactive environment for movements, where the experience of the exercise is the focus rather than the performance. A new awareness of your body in motion can now emerge, and you may discover a flow of movements you have never felt before. Your fixed idea of who you are as a moving person, and how you feel about movements and exercise is starting to shift as the experience of your moving body resolves old belief systems. You become a whole person, the pain dissipates, and the energy spent on repressing the fear of movement is freed up and available for other activities. 

I have been working out my whole life

In a different scenario, you have been exercising all your life, performing the same workout routine for the past 20 years. However, now you are in pain all over; you can no longer do your workout and you are depressed, anxious and difficult to be around. This could be referred to as a fixed gestalt, meaning a repetition of a familiar routine without the awareness of how the movements feel and how they impact your body. Perhaps the program was good for your 30-year old body, but now at the age of 50 it is not. I will not tell you to take a 10 days rest from your workout and see what happens. Instead, I will explore your workout routine with you, and help you get in touch with how your body feels while performing your exercises. Through awareness you may discover how some exercises are not agreeing with your current body, and that pushing through the pain is no longer an option.  I  help you tweak the movements such that they are in sync with the abilities of your current body, and as you iron out the physical imbalances your pain subsides.  

I am confused

I am falling apart and I just want to feel better. I have never felt this pain before. “I am 30 years old and I should not be feeling all this pain.” “I am 50 years old, healthy and fit, and yet I am full of pain.” Listening to these statements is part of my work life, and it is with much compassion I listen to the suffering my clients are enduring. 

When there is pain there is interruption of quality of life or in gestalt terms, an interruption of the experience of the whole. Habitual patterns and insufficient awareness of body and mind are often underlying reasons for the pain. Many professional or amateur athletes tend to push through the pain and ignore the red flags the body is trying to wave. And that is a problem. Awareness is a must in any physical endeavor because the body is very sensitive. When the body is repetitively pushed to the limit, pain can emerge as a result of myofascial tissue getting tight and inflamed, or bones being pulled out of alignment. 

The treatment of a fit, strong body in pain revolves much around awareness of your body in motion, so that you can discover how some movements do not flow or actually create pain. By cultivating awareness of your body when working out, and being willing to explore different types of movements, the pain will frequently be silenced. 

Sexuality, scars, identity

Human beings are inherently sexual; it is the expression and acceptance of sexuality that varies. Since Gestalt therapy looks at the whole person, it includes the sexual aspect, not overtly, but it  acknowledges the fact that your sexual self exists as part of the whole you. 

If you have had cancer or other illnesses that directly impacted your sexuality, you may feel that your sexual self has been lost or deformed. In our work, I acknowledge the loss, and support you in experiencing your altered body, while becoming aware of the associated feelings. Being present to the interpersonal field in a safe, therapeutic setting can help bring to clarity your new and different sense of self as a spouse, partner, man or woman. 

If you have scars after surgery I invite you to first and foremost acknowledge the scars and then try to accept them as part of who you are now. I teach you how to touch your scars while staying present in your body. If you have a partner I invite her/him to learn how to touch your scars to help the healing process as well as connecting with you. This will support the process of integrating and accepting the scars as part of who you are post surgery.

Similarly, trauma of sexual or other nature, that manifests in your sexual life as pain, can also be supported and healed by the principles of Gestalt therapy.  Getting in touch with, not only the physical pain, but the feelings; blocked or conscious, is an important part of the healing process. In our therapeutic interactive field we stay true to what is emerging, moment-to-moment, with no agenda, advice or attempt to fix anything.  We focus on the awareness of your experience while using the therapist-client connection to support you in feeling safe.  Repeated experiences of feeling safe can alter the trauma response in the brain and thus create options for pain free intimate connections.