5 Gestalt techniques to promote your personal growth

Gestalt techniques help us focus on our present to promote self-realization and more accurate decision making. Likewise, it makes it easier for us to grow on a personal level in a more free and congruent way with our needs. We all have the full right to build the type of reality we want, and this approach (with clear humanist influences) invites us to do so.

Born in the 1940s, from the work of Fritz Perls and Laura Perls, this therapy takes its name from the classic German Gestalt school, also incorporating elements of psychoanalysis, phenomenology and existentialism.

This psychotherapeutic current is aimed at strengthening our strengths; to focus on what we feel and think in the present; and the awareness of what makes us uneasy and affects our emotional well-being. It is a therapeutic approach that encourages us to take control of our lives and transform them to achieve our happiness.

Frtitz Perls, precursor of Gestalt therapy, said that Our main anguish as human beings is the gap we open between now and later. Sometimes, our mind moves faster than life and we anticipate things, we obsess over aspects that have not happened, and almost without realizing it we become impregnated with fears, anxiety and many other fragrances that become a steep mountain strewn with suffering.

Thus, one of the purposes of Gestalt techniques is to allow us to understand our problems in a global, more unified way; in parts, but as a whole. In this way, and more than worrying about knowing why such a thing has happened or what has caused that specific event, This perspective proposes us to focus on understanding “how all of these circumstances affect us.”

All this encourages us to understand that the idea we may have of the past or the future is rather due to how we live the present. Gestalt techniques therefore have this and other purposes with which to promote our personal growth, also helping us to become aware of what we are, what we feel and need… then acting responsibly.

Gestalt techniques to promote personal growth

One of the criticisms often made of Gestalt therapy is its eclectic approach.. This therapeutic framework draws on a large number of currents: the humanist, the existential, psychoanalysis, and those postulates enunciated by Wilhelm Reich where we understand that our emotions are located in the body, creating discomfort and various conditions.

If we ask ourselves about the validity of this model, it should be noted that we have extensive scientific documentation. Dr. Valerie Dominitz, from Tel Aviv University published a study talking about its effectiveness in various cases of patients with depression and bipolar disorder.

However, where Gestalt techniques have proven most effective is not in the clinical setting, but in the field of personal growth.

The techniques of Gestalt psychotherapy revolve, for the most part, around what Fritz Perls once called “rules and games.” What do we mean by this? That many of these strategies – dynamic, very original and varied – try to make us more aware of our world to overcome resistance and in turn facilitate our maturation process.

Let’s look at some examples of these techniques.

1. Unfinished business

Pending issues refer to those events from the past that affect our present. They are unmanaged emotions, stuck feelings, personal knots that take away our vitality in the here and now. According to Gestalt, all of us have unfinished business with friends, family, ex-partners, and even people who are no longer with us.

There is no need to avoid them. We must be able to bring these emotions to light to stop clinging to suffering, loss or even resentment. To do this, we can carry out a simulation, a mental process of reunion, coping and farewell.Likewise, we can also mentally evoke the person and express what we need to say.. We will uncover the sorrows, we will air the sorrows, the faults or even the resentment. Once exposed and recognized, we will let them go. We will close the circle to move forward.

2. Dialogue technique: empty chair

This technique will sound familiar to many, which represents the essence of Gestalt very well.. It is used to encourage encounters and imaginary projections of other people, thus trying to promote grieving processes and also to resolve traumas.

However, within the field of personal growth it is also used for other purposes. Generating an internal dialogue is one of them, where “our opposites” must be staged.

For example, we can promote a dialogue with ourselves where, on the one hand, that stimulus that causes us discomfort appears and, on the other, that part that wants to face it to have a more productive, free and receptive life. This would be one way:

I feel more tired and weak every day.You’re already taking away my strength again, you take up too much space in my life. Tell me what happens to you.I don’t like myself, I think that the life I lead is not the one I like.So instead of complaining all the time tell me what you would do to feel better.

It should be noted that Studies such as the one carried out by the University of Palo Alto, support its effectiveness in resolving unresolved traumas..

3. I take responsibility

Another of the Gestalt techniques that can be useful to us on a daily basis is the “taking responsibility” game. On the surface it is simple, but what it requires above all is commitment. The purpose is to allow us to be more aware of what is happening inside us, that we perceive it, accept it and that in turn encourage more active behavior around change.

This would be a small example.

“I realize that my head and stomach hurt, I know that I think about things a lot and that I suffer from stress. I “I take responsibility for it and I assume that I must change things.”“Also, I realize that I have a good voice. I take responsibility for her to be sincere, to speak without fear, to respect and respect myself…”

4. Practice the continuum of consciousness

Within Gestalt psychology it is essential that the therapist make contact with the “how” of the person’s experience rather than the “why.” It is necessary to understand how the patient faces problems, how he experiences them, how he feels them and internalizes them…

To do this, you must open a space in which it will be possible to identify what your present emotions and sensations are, through questions, such as “tell me what you feel”, “tell me where you feel it”, “explain to me what you notice in the here and now”…
We can also carry out this technique on a personal level where we practice this continuum of consciousness by making each sensation, thought and feeling present.. Far from overlooking them or internalizing them, let’s bring them to light, let’s keep them in mind…

5. Transform questions into statements

This is another of the Gestalt techniques that may seem very simple in appearance, but which contains a very valuable therapeutic utility: It helps us declare internal realities and mobilize resources.

How to do it? Very easy. We’ve all had one of those days when we get home and say to ourselves: “But why do I feel this way? Why do I feel so hopeless and powerless?”

Gestalt proposes the following: convert questions into self-affirmations. Let’s look at some examples.

Why do I feel so bad today?⇔ Today I feel bad, I am going to do everything possible to change this feeling and make tomorrow a better day.Why do I have the feeling that my partner is more distant every day?⇔ My partner is distant, I’m going to ask him if there is a problem.

To conclude, as we have seen, Gestalt techniques are as original as they are functional when it comes to allowing us to get in touch with our needs. In addition, They invite us to take responsibility, to be brave with what we feel and act accordingly to promote our advancement, our personal maturation.

These techniques are aimed at self-knowledge and positive management of emotions. Learning to become aware of our responsibilities and our thoughts little by little will help us achieve personal growth and self-realization.

Let’s put these strategies into practice, the benefits are undoubted.

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