Therapeutic Philosophy and Orientation

My therapeutic orientation is Gestalt therapy. Gestalt therapy places a large emphasis on the quality of relationship and contact that a client is able to make with them self, the significant people in their life, and with the therapist. Every experience and relationship that a person has had in their life creates a field of experience from which we learn how to relate to the world and the people in it. These experiences may require a person to hide certain parts of their personality, while other parts become more prominent. The process of Gestalt therapy is to deal with present moment situations or issues that exist in the therapy session as a way to explore the client's field of experience and how it has affected the behavioral choices that they make in their daily lives. Gestalt is very client centered, emotionally expressive, and requires that the therapist respond to the client in a real and authentic manner. Various “experiments” may be used during the course of a session in order to help the client gain awareness of how they respond and/or act to similar situations in their real life. The central goal of Gestalt therapy is to identify and integrate all components of a client's personality so as to gain awareness of the existence of the alienated parts and allow for the client to have a full range of choices in their behavior as a result. Gestalt is an interactive style of therapy and requires a good working relationship based in truth, openness, and a willingness to be curios about how we function as human beings on the planet.