Gestalt Psychotherapy
Michele Lucas, LCSW, BCD
Certified Gestalt Therapist
Certified by the Gestalt Center of Long Island
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“Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating. You are creating your next |
Gestalt therapy is a phenomenological and experiential rather than interpretive therapy. Phenomenological means what unfolds cannot be known before it happens. Thus, client and therapist remain in the state of unknowing together until something emerges. Then the unknown becomes a lesser place and the known becomes integrated into the concept of who we are. Both client and therapist are changed in this process.
Gestalt Therapy includes the body, mind, emotions and spirit as they are revealed in the here-and-now of the client’s life and relationships; and in the ongoing relationship that unfolds
between the therapist and the client from moment to moment.
At it’s core, Gestalt therapy recognizes that human hearts yearn for connection, for contact, to
be met right where they are by at least one other human heart. Without this experience, we are
left with a deep yearning and emptiness inside; and unable to develop a clear perception of who
we are at our core. “We are inextricably intertwined. Our valuing of another brings value to our
self.” (The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy, by Hycner and Jacobs)
Thus, Gestalt process focuses on this invisible dimension, the boundary between Self and other,
which goes beyond the theories and technical practices of psychotherapy, to the dimension of
human interconnectedness. M.S. Friedman, author and lecturer, describes this dimension as “We
live in an ever flowing interchange.” And this interchange creates change for those involved.
As a Gestalt therapist, I hold a sacred space within myself that allows me to meet you at
the boundary of our interhuman connectedness with awareness, openness and caring about
your uniqueness as another human heart; and an attitude of genuinely feeling, sensing and
experiencing you as a person like I am a person. My role is to hear you as you share your life
story, sense what is unspoken in you and between us, and see what is not visible.
My responsibility also includes acknowledging that because of the goal, the therapy relationship
is limited. Martin Buber, author and lecturer, describes the therapeutic relationship as a “one
sided inclusion rather than mutual inclusion.” He means that I, as the therapist, am striving
to imagine your reality in order to help you achieve your therapeutic goal. The reverse does
not happen and is not intended to happen. Hycner and Jacobs say that “If the relationship
is mutually inclusive, then it cannot be therapy.” Acknowledging and working through this
reality together is another important dimension in the process. As a client, you are invested
in achieving your therapeutic goal, and it’s my job to set aside my personal investments in
order to facilitate your growth. Secondly, my responsibility as the therapist is to meet you
where you are. However, you, as the client, are not expected to meet me where I am. “The
therapist’s willingness and receptivity to the sphere of between is the scaffolding against which
the existetntial trust of the patient is formed.” (The Healing Relationship In Gestalt Therapy,
Hycner and Jacobs)
If you would like more information about Gestalt therapy, please contact Michele at 203-852-9874 or e-mail at therapydoeswork@yahoo.com.
