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Gestalt therapy
Present-moment, experiential work: what you're feeling and doing right now in the room, and what it tells you.
2 of our 62 therapists use this approach.
Gestalt therapy is less about talking about your life and more about noticing what's happening in you as you do: the clenched jaw when you mention your father, the way you change the subject when it gets close, the sentence you never finish. The idea is that awareness in the moment, not explanation, is what creates change.
It's experiential. Your therapist may invite you to speak to an empty chair as if someone were in it, to exaggerate a gesture, or to stay with a feeling rather than move past it. It can be powerful and it isn't for everyone, which is why a couple of our clinicians use it and most blend elements of it into other work.
What we use it for
Is it a fit?
A good fit if you're more in your head than in your feelings, if you tend to intellectualize, or if talk-based therapy has felt like it never gets at the thing. Not a first choice for acute trauma, where stabilization comes first.
What the evidence says
Gestalt therapy has research support for depression, anxiety and relationship difficulties, and its techniques, such as the empty chair, have been adopted into emotion-focused therapy, which has strong evidence. It's practiced here by a small number of clinicians.
Common questions
Will I have to do role-plays?
Only if you want to. Experiments are offered, not imposed, and plenty of Gestalt-informed work is simply a therapist helping you notice what's happening as you speak.
Where to find it
Based on our clinicians' current specialties, this approach is offered at two locations:
Closer to Carolina Forest, Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach, Murrells Inlet, West Columbia, Forest Acres, Irmo, Greenville or Anderson? Call (843) 894-0000; the right therapist may be available by video, or we'll suggest the nearest office with the right fit.
Ready when you are.
Call us or submit a short intake form. A Patient Account Representative will match you with a therapist, and most new clients have their first appointment within a few business days.