Gest alt - what is it? This question is asked by many modern people, but not everyone manages to find the right answer to it. The word "gest alt" itself is of German origin. Translated into Russian, it means "structure", "image", "form".
In psychiatry, this concept was introduced by the psychoanalyst Frederick Perls. It is he who is the founder of Gest alt therapy.
Frederick Perls was a practicing psychiatrist, so all the methods he developed were primarily used to treat mental disorders, including psychoses, neuroses, etc. However, the Gest alt therapy method was very widespread. What it is, psychologists and psychiatrists working in various fields soon became interested. Such a wide popularity of Gest alt therapy is due to the presence of a reasonable and understandable theory, a wide choice of methods of working with a client or patient, as well as a high level of effectiveness.
Main advantage
The main and biggest advantage is a holistic approach to a person that takes into account his mental, physical, spiritual and social aspects. Gest alt therapy instead of focusing on the question "Why is this happening to a person?" replaces it with the following: "What a mannow feels and how it can be changed? Therapists working in this direction try to focus people's attention on the awareness of the processes that are happening to them "here and now". Thus, the client learns to be responsible for his life and for everything that happens in it, and, consequently, for making the desired changes.
Perls himself considered the gest alt as a whole, the destruction of which leads to fragments. The form strives to be unified, and if this does not happen, the person finds himself in an incomplete situation that puts pressure on him. There are often many unfinished gest alts in people, which are not so difficult to get rid of, it is enough to see them. The great advantage is that to find them there is no need to delve into the bowels of the unconscious, but you just need to learn to notice the obvious.
The Gest alt approach is based on such principles and concepts as integrity, responsibility, emergence and destruction of structures, unfinished forms, contact, awareness, "here and now".
The Essential Principle
A person is a holistic being, and it cannot be divided into any components, for example, into body and psyche or soul and body, since such artificial techniques cannot positively affect his understanding of his own inner world.
A holistic gest alt consists of a personality and the space surrounding it, while mutually influencing each other. For a better understanding of this principle, one can turn to the psychology of interpersonal relationships. It enables a clearsee how much society has an impact on the individual. However, as he changes himself, he affects other people, who, in turn, also become different.
The key concepts of the Moscow Gest alt Institute, like many others, include the concept of "contact". A person is constantly in contact with something or someone - with plants, the environment, other people, informational, bioenergetic and psychological fields.
The place where the individual comes into contact with the environment is called the contact boundary. The better a person feels and the more flexible he can regulate the contact difference, the more successful he is in meeting his own needs and achieving his goals. However, this process is characterized by characteristic features that lead to disruption of the individual's productive activity in various areas of interaction. Perls Gest alt therapy is aimed at overcoming such disorders.
The principle of the emergence and destruction of gest alt structures
With the help of the principle of the emergence and destruction of gest alt structures, one can easily explain the behavior of a person. Each person arranges his life depending on his own needs, to which he gives priority. His actions are aimed at meeting needs and achieving existing goals.
For a better understanding, let's look at a few examples. So, a person who wants to buy a house saves money to buy it, finds a suitable option and becomes the owner of his own home. And the one who wantsto have a child, directs all his strength to achieve this goal. Once the desired is achieved (the need is satisfied), the gest alt is completed and destroyed.
The concept of an incomplete gest alt
However, far from every gest alt reaches its completion (and further - destruction). What happens to some people and why do they constantly form the same type of unfinished situation? This question has been of interest to specialists in the field of psychology and psychiatry for many years. This phenomenon is called an incomplete gest alt.
Specialists who work at one or another Gest alt Institute have recognized that the lives of many people are often filled with recurring typical negative situations. For example, a person, despite the fact that he does not like to be exploited, constantly finds himself in precisely such situations, and someone who does not have a personal life comes into contact with people he does not need again and again. Such "deviations" are associated precisely with incomplete "images", and the human psyche will not be able to find peace until they reach their logical end.
That is, a person who has an unfinished "structure", on a subconscious level, constantly strives to create a negative unfinished situation only in order to resolve it, and finally close this issue. The Gest alt therapist artificially creates a similar situation for his client and helps to find a way out of it.
Awareness
Another basic concept of Gest alt therapy is awareness. It is worth noting thatintellectual knowledge of a person about his external and internal world has nothing to do with him. Gest alt psychology associates awareness with being in the so-called "here and now" state. It is characterized by the fact that a person performs all actions guided by consciousness and being vigilant, and does not live a mechanical life, relying solely on the stimulus-reactive mechanism, as is characteristic of an animal.
Most problems (if not all) appear in a person's life for the reason that he is guided by the mind, not consciousness. But, unfortunately, the mind is a rather limited function, and people who live only by it do not even suspect that they are actually something more. This leads to the replacement of the true state of reality with an intellectual and false one, and also to the fact that the life of each person takes place in a separate illusory world.
Gest alt therapists around the world, including the Moscow Gest alt Institute, are confident that in order to solve most problems, misunderstandings, misunderstandings and difficulties, a person only needs to achieve awareness of his inner and outer reality. The state of mindfulness prevents people from doing bad things, giving in to impulses of random emotions, since they are always able to see the world around them as it really is.
Responsibility
From awareness of a person, another quality that is useful for him is born - responsibility. The level of responsibility for one's life directly depends on the level of clarity of awareness of the person's environment.reality. It is human nature to always shift the responsibility for one's failures and mistakes onto others or even higher powers, however, everyone who manages to take responsibility for himself makes a big leap on the path of individual development.
Most people are not familiar with the concept of gest alt at all. What it is, they learn already at the reception of a psychologist or psychotherapist. The specialist identifies the problem and develops ways to eliminate it. It is for this that Gest alt therapy has a wide variety of techniques, among which there are both their own and borrowed from such types of psychotherapy as transactional analysis, art therapy, psychodrama, etc. According to Gest altists, any methods can be used within their approach, which serve as a natural extension of the therapist-client dialogue and enhance awareness processes.
Here and now principle
According to him, everything really important is happening at the moment. The mind takes a person to the past (memories, analysis of past situations) or to the future (dreams, fantasies, planning), but does not give the opportunity to live in the present, which leads to the fact that life passes by. Gest alt therapists encourage each of their clients to live "here and now", without looking into the illusory world. The whole work of this approach is connected with the awareness of the present moment.
Types of Gest alt techniques and contracting
All Gest alt therapy techniques are conditionally divided into "projective" and "dialogue". The former are used to work with dreams, images, imaginary dialogues, etc.
The second is painstaking work that is carried out by the therapist at the border of contact with the client. The specialist, having tracked the interruption mechanisms of the person with whom he works, turns his emotions and experiences into a part of his environment, after which he brings them to the border of contact. It is worth noting that the Gest alt techniques of both types are intertwined in work, and their clear distinction is possible only in theory.
Gest alt therapy usually starts with a contract. This direction is characterized by the fact that the specialist and the client are equal partners, and the latter bears no less responsibility for the results of the work performed than the former. This aspect is just stipulated at the stage of concluding a contract. At the same moment, the client forms his goals. It is very difficult for a person who constantly avoids responsibility to agree to such conditions, and already at this stage he needs elaboration. At the stage of concluding a contract, a person begins to learn to be responsible for himself and for what happens to him.
"Hot chair" and "empty chair"
The "hot chair" technique is one of the most famous among therapists, whose place of work is the Moscow Gest alt Institute and many other structures. This method is used in group work. A "hot chair" is a place where a person sits who intends to tell those present about their difficulties. In the course of work, only the client and the therapist interact with each other, the rest of the group listens silently, and only afterat the end of the session talk about how they felt.
The main Gest alt techniques also include the "empty chair". It is used to place a significant person for the client with whom he can have a dialogue, and it is not so important whether he is currently alive or has already died. Another purpose of the "empty chair" is the dialogue between different parts of the personality. This is necessary when the client has opposing attitudes that give rise to an intrapersonal conflict.
Concentration and experimental amplification
The Gest alt Institute calls concentration (focused awareness) its original technique. There are three levels of awareness - inner worlds (emotions, bodily sensations), outer worlds (what I see, hear), and thoughts. Keeping in mind one of the main principles of Gest alt therapy "here and now", the client tells the specialist about his awareness at the moment. For example: “Now I am lying on the couch and looking at the ceiling. I can't relax at all. My heart is beating very hard. I know I have a therapist next to me.” This technique enhances the feeling of the present, helps to understand the ways of detaching a person from reality, and is also valuable information for further work with him.
Another effective technique is experimental amplification. It consists in maximizing any verbal and non-verbal manifestations that are little conscious of him. For example, in the case where the client, without realizing it, often begins his conversation with the words "yes, but …", the therapist may suggesthe begins every phrase like this, and then the person realizes his rivalry with others and the desire to always have the last word.
Working with polarities
This is another method often used in Gest alt therapy. Techniques in this branch are often aimed at identifying opposites in personality. Among them, a special place is occupied by work with polarities.
For example, for a person who constantly complains about doubting himself, a specialist suggests presenting himself as confident, and from this position try to communicate with people around him. It is equally useful to have a dialogue between your insecurity and confidence.
For a client who does not know how to ask for help, a Gest alt therapist suggests contacting group members, sometimes even with very ridiculous requests. This technique makes it possible to expand the zone of awareness of the individual by including in it a previously inaccessible personal potential.
Working with dreams
This technique is used by psychotherapists of various directions, but the original Gest alt technique has its own characteristic features. Here, the specialist considers all the elements of sleep as parts of the human personality, with each of which the client must identify. This is done to assign their own projections or get rid of retroflections. In addition, no one canceled the use of the “here and now” principle in this technique.
Thus, the client should tell the therapist about his dream as if it were something happening in the present. For example meI run along the forest path. I am in a great mood and I enjoy every moment spent in this forest, etc.” It is necessary that the client describe his dream "here and now" not only on his own behalf, but also on behalf of other people and objects present in the vision. For example, “I am a winding forest path. A person is running over me now, etc.”
Thanks to its own and borrowed techniques, Gest alt therapy helps people get rid of stereotypes of thinking and all kinds of masks, to establish trusting contact with others. The Gest alt approach takes into account heredity, the experience acquired in the first years of life, the influence of society, but at the same time calls on each person to take responsibility for their own life and for everything that happens in it.
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