Why Gestalt Therapy?

A personal journey

The simple answer to this is that this was what I found the most powerful and beneficial for myself when I began my journey of self discovery.

I had graduated from University majoring in Sociology having switched out of a commerce degree after a few years studying to be an economist. In one of those life changing events that can set the course of our future I met someone on the break after graduating and he suggested I apply for the job he was leaving in the small therapy department of a 70 bed private psychiatric hospital in Sydney.

I had previously trained in body work, rebirthing, meditation techniques, voice dialogue and psychodrama so I was in some ways a good fit for the job. However I was soon running daily groups in the hospital, and curious to learn more, I joined Dr Barry Blicharski’s gestalt training program in Balmain. As a psychiatrist he was a pioneer in this country in offering experiential training for personal development and healing.

It was in one of the weekend workshops run by a visiting trainer I had my most powerful initial experience of working in this modality and I knew then that this was what I wanted to learn for myself and for my work in the psychiatric hospital. I also wanted to know how it worked so one day I could also train therapists.

I loved the group work which was such a challenge to us all and in the 70’s and 80’s radical and groundbreaking.

Gestalt was presented to me as a wholistic and engaging form of therapy. Discover what we are actually experiencing in the present moment and being offered a different experience in a safe supportive environment.

Gestalt was presented to me as a wholistic and engaging form of therapy. One of the fundamental ideas I picked up on was that with greater awareness we have a greater range of choices. The other idea that really rang true for me was that we are shaped by our experiences as well as our nature or makeup. The most effective way to grow and to change was a combination of discovering what we were actually experiencing in the present moment and being offered different experiences, in a safe and supportive environment, to get different outcomes for ourselves.

There were several different aspects of ourselves we were invited to tune into and these explorations had the effect of shining a light on the habitual ways we had each learned to be in the world depending on the family or background we had each grown up with and the roles and positions we took up in our respective families and the world.