Gestalt therapy (Gestalt informed – Mindful co-presence)
As a Gestalt informed counsellor, I support you with an open and receptive, authentic presence, to help you validate your emotions, in the here and now of our contact. Together we put into action the potentiality to find and undo knots that keep you stuck in the past, in the confusion of unfinished situations, to co-create and uncover embodied meaning in your life.
The focus is on what you feel in the moment and how it manifests (your hand gestures, sighing, gaze and other embodied clues, including language). These micro-expressions bring into the circle of our time together, in that very moment of co-presence, some element from the past that prevents you from moving forward.
We safely allow patterns to emerge and expose themselves in the circle of now. Once established, contact is maintained through the felt, sensed, perceived aspects that I observe with and in you, in as much as you are willing to be present, sentient and aware.
As the session progresses, your experience may enable you to reflect on the connection between your emotional and physical bodies. You may gain a direct awareness of the gap between what you experience and what the old interpretation was. This insight about how your emotions discharge and transform encourages the emergence of your self-discovery and your skills to face stressful situations and heal.
My very presence with you changes the conditions and the possibilities for integration and change. I am some kind of “witness”. The field of such intimacy is an essential precondition for the fullest development of self and of self-expression. Trust allows you to work on shame, on support and intimacy, as my empathy supports your process. I provide a safe and a confidential environment.
Shame to disclose something about yourself interrupts your self-process and your growth. Through the process of negotiating a safer field and moving to the riskier level of disclosure with me, you are able to acknowledge that you are not alone with the experience; that your “inside world” can be safely exposed and explored. Conditions of safety and extra support are met to negotiate and join in the relational process itself, in the moment. “How I feel as I’m talking, how your response feels to me… [allow for] the articulation and comparison of my inner world and yours.” (Wheeler, 2000, 280).
