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, and staying present to the process of the therapeutic interaction, a new  awareness of the pain  is likely to emerge. In a moment-to-moment process I support you in your experience of feeling, sensing, moving, and  breathing 

Pain, what is it about?

Pain in the body can be a result of emotional distress, immobility, or too much or incorrect movements. Together we discover what is the case for you and what can we change. 

Pain and stress

You have pain in your back and shoulders, and we discover that anxiety and immobility is the source of your pain. However, you diligently avoid any kind of exercise as movement and coordination has been an area of struggle since childhood. You feel awkward and nervous when trying to do any kind of  movement. I honor your feelings and create a safe and fun interactive environment  where the experience of the movement  is the focus rather than getting it right. A new awareness of your body in motion may emerge, and you discover a flow of movements you have never felt before. Your fixed idea of how you feel about movements may start to shift as the new experience of your moving body resolves old belief systems. Physical pain and anxiety are firmly interwoven; tight myofascial tissue feeds the anxiety and anxiety feeds the muscular tension in a vicious cycle. As movement massages the myofascia, the anxiety subsides and the pain dissipates.

I am falling apart 

“I am falling apart and I just want to feel better.” “I have never felt this nervousness before, and everything in my body hurts. I am 30 years old and I should not be feeling this way.” “I am 50 years old and I used to love working out and now I have no motivation. I am full of pain and life sucks.” Hearing these statements is part of my work life, and it is with much compassion that I listen to the suffering of my clients. 

When there is anxiety and/or pain there is interruption of quality of life or in gestalt terms, an interruption of the experience of the whole. Stress, habitual patterns and insufficient awareness of body and mind are often underlying reasons for the symptoms. By becoming aware of what makes us nervous, uninspired  or what induces pain, we have the option of creating healthy changes. The key is to change habitual patterns that are no longer useful. Anxiety is fed by thinking ahead, what is going to happen in the future?. We can interrupt that thought by staying in the present moment, which movement can help us do. When we move with awareness we have to focus on the movement in the given moment and thus we think less about what is coming next and the anxiety subsides. The movement serves as lubrication to  creaky muscles and joints and little by little the pain fades away.  By cultivating the skill of living in the moment and not thinking ahead, along with moving the body in sync with the body’s current abilities, you are on a path to a pain free, less anxious life.  

I have lost my identity as a sexual being

Human beings are inherently sexual; it is the expression and acceptance of sexuality that varies. As Gestalt therapy looks at the whole person, it includes your sexual self as part of the whole you. 

If you have had cancer, hormone treatment, or other illnesses that directly impacted your sexuality, you may feel that your sexual self has been lost or deformed. In our work, I support you in  acknowledging the loss and experiencing your altered body while becoming aware of the emerging feelings, be it grief, anger or frustration. 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. 

Scars

If you have scars after surgery I invite you to first and foremost recognize the scars before slowly trying to accept them. You don’t have to immediately like the scars, but they have to be acknowledged.  I support you in seeing and maybe touching your scars while staying present to what you are feeling. If you come to me as a couple,  I invite your partner to be included in the process of seeing and  accepting your scars as a means to help the healing process and connect with you. This will support the process of integrating and accepting the scars as part of who you are post surgery.

Trauma

Past trauma can manifest in your sexual life in a variety of ways, such as pain, fear of intimacy, lack of pleasure and so forth. The principles of Gestalt therapy can help heal and transform trauma responses.  Getting in touch with the feelings whether they are blocked or conscious, is important for the healing process. In our therapeutic interactive field we stay true to what is emerging, moment-to-moment, with no agenda or attempt to fix anything.  We focus on the process and the awareness of 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 the possibility of safe,  pleasurable  intimate connections.