Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt therapy.

This movie was filmed as part
of a project for a counseling

theory's course at the
University of Texas at Austin.

Any resemblance to
persons living or deceased

is entirely coincidental.

Have you ever found yourself
swinging back and forth

from ruminating on the past
to worrying about the future

without ever being
in the moment?

Gestalt therapy, as
developed by Fritz Perls,

strives to bring the client
into the present moment.

Here is Dr. Perls to discuss the
main goals of Gestalt therapy,

and the notion of
stopping the swing,

and making contact
with the here and now.

My aim is this,
the patient should

recover his lost potential.

Principally, I consider
any interpretation

to be a therapeutic
mistake, as this

would imply that the therapist
understands the patient better

than the patient himself.

It takes away from
the patient the chance

of discovering of
himself by himself,

and prevents him from finding
out his own values and style.

On the other hand,
I disregard most

of the content of
what the patient says,

and concentrate most on
the non-verbal level,

as this is the only one which is
less subject to self deception

than is verbal pseudo
self expression.

Of the non-verbal over,
the relevant gestalt

will always emerge, and can be
dealt with in the here and now.

Now let's see Gestalt
therapy in action.

Hello Rob, welcome.

What's going on
with you right now?

Well, I guess I'm
here because I've just

been having some anxiety,
I guess, and just

stress dealing with
sports and athletics,

and I guess performing.

Whenever I get in
front of people

to perform, I mean athletically,
I just kind of tense up

and freeze up, I guess.

Well, I'd like you to sit with
that experience a little bit,

and tell me how it feels to
be talking about it right now.

What's coming up for you
right now to be sharing that?

Well, I'm definitely tense.

I mean, I can feel myself
I guess kind of tensing up

like I do in the game.

Just thinking about
it kind of brings back

those tense feelings,
like the stress.

Well, I notice you're
making some hand movements.

Can you tell me
what that's about?

Well, I guess when I play--

I play baseball.

So sometimes when I'm out in
the field, I get frustrated.

I hit my mitt like that.

Maybe that's-- I don't know.

Well, it would help
us get a better

sense of what that's about.

I'd like you to exaggerate
those movements.

So really take those
movements, and really do it

just like you feel.

And then how does that
feel to be doing that?

What does that do for you
to make these movements?

I don't know.

It feels kind of
silly, actually.

Like not serious because
that's what I do in my game,

and I'm here, and this is
supposed to be serious,

and it's not a game.

So what does it mean to
be not serious, or silly,

or like it's a game.

Help me understand
what it is to be Rob.

Teach me to be you feeling
like this is a game

or that this isn't serious.

Well, I guess I feel
like I'm not stressed.

It's like a game.

It's like I'm here
in this setting,

and I feel like I don't
have any control, I guess.

Like it's your game
that I'm playing maybe.

I don't know.

I don't want to be here.

I'm just kind of stressed.

I'm noticing that your hand
is coming up to your face.

Do you know what that's about?

What that's doing?

I don't know.

OK, well, one thing
that might help

us uncover that is if we can
give a voice to your hand,

and actually have
your hand speak

as it comes up to your face.

Would you try that?

As it comes up to your face,
what does that hand say?

Maybe it's trying
to hide my face.

And instead of calling it, "it,"
let's rephrase it to ourselves

and say I. So I am doing what.

I am trying to hide.

So sit with that for a
minute, and then share with me

what's coming up about
feeling a need to hide,

and why you want to hide.

Show me what it is to be
feeling what you're feeling.

Well, I don't know.

When I get stressed,
I want to hide.

I guess when I
think of hide, when

I was a kid I had
a baseball game,

and it was a pretty big deal,
and I wasn't doing so well.

And my parents, I guess, got
kind of frustrated with me.

Well, it just looked like they
were in a fighting argument,

and then they walked
away from each other.

But then after that, I
never saw my mom again.

I stopped seeing her.

I lived with my dad.

I felt really like hiding then.

It's a very vivid memory.

Well, I'm sensing a
lot from your past

is he still unresolved
or not complete for you.

So one of the
techniques that might

help you work to resolve
some of the past,

and really come to
present would be

to maybe invite your
parents into the room,

and work through some
of that with them.

So I'd like to invite
you to stand up,

and first some of the movements
that we've been making

are very closed.

You've been hiding,
covering your face,

and putting your hands together.

So I'd like you to
practice the opposite.

So practice opening
up your hands,

opening up your emotions.

Good.

Now, the other thing is
we would like to invite

your parents in the room.

So let's actually look
over towards the door,

and we're going to invite.

Hello, Rob's parents.

Welcome in.

And now that they're
standing right

in front of you, what is it that
you would like to say to them?

I guess sorry for not doing
so well at that game, I guess.

I'd like to see you
actually address them-- mom.

Mom, I'm sorry that I didn't
do so well during that game.

Like that?

And is there anything else
you'd like to say or do now

that you have them
here with you?

Well, my mom used
to hug me a lot,

and now that she's not there,
my dad doesn't hug me a lot.

I guess if she was here
I'd like to hug her.

So why don't you give
her a hug right now.

And really feel how it is to
hug your mom in the moment.

And now I'd like you
to switch places,

and what would your
parents say to Rob?

I love you Rob.

I'm here for you.

I'm not going anywhere.

In contrast to
depth psychology, we

try to get hold of the
obvious, of the surface,

of the situation in
which we find ourselves,

and to develop the
emerging gestalt strictly

on the right and now,
here and now basis.

[MUSIC - THE BEATLES, "COME
TOGETHER"]

I know you, you know me.

One thing I can tell you
is you got to be free.

Come together
right now, over me.