Gestalt therapy is an effective and powerful relational therapy that helps clients raise their awareness about how they are in the world so they can self-regulate and move towards health.
Gestalt therapy is also synonymous with the ’empty chair’ technique made famous by Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy. However Gestalt therapy is much more than this technique and has a rich tradition and evolution to become the modern relational psychotherapy it is today.
So we spoke with world-renowned Gestalt therapists Drs. Bob and Rita Resnick from Gestalt Therapy Training Associates Los Angeles (GATLA) about what Gestalt therapy is and why it is such an effective therapeutic approach for working with individuals and couples.
In this interview Bob and Rita discuss:
- What Gestalt therapy is about and how it works
- Why Gestalt therapy became synonymous with the empty chair technique
- What is character and how it is formed
- How Gestalt therapy works with interruptions to self-regulation in the present
- What Gestalt therapy has that other theories and methodologies lack
- The relevance of Gestalt therapy today in a culture of governments and consumers expecting effective outcomes in limited sessions
- The biggest mistakes people, including therapists, make about understanding Gestalt therapy
Links and resources mentioned in this episode
- GATLA – Gestalt Associations Training Los Angeles
- GATLA Annual European Residential – training in Gestalt therapy and couples therapy
- 018: Two Become One and Then There Are None: Moving From a Fusion Model to a Connection Model in Couples Therapy
- New Contemporary Gestalt Therapy – film screening and discussion, Oct 29, 2015, Crows Nest, Sydney
- One Day Couples Workshops – Oct 30th, Crows Nest, Sydney
- Advanced 2-Day Gestalt Therapy training – Oct 31-Nov 1, Crows Nest, Sydney
About Bob and Rita
Rita F. Resnick, Ph.D. psychotherapist, has been Faculty Chair of GATLA’s European Summer Residential Training Programs since 1991. She is core faculty of both the Couples Therapy and Individual Psychotherapy training programs. In addition to her private practice, Rita is providing training in Couples and Individual therapy to psychotherapists and allied professionals in the Los Angeles, Seattle, Australia, Europe and Asia. Rita has written a chapter in the recent book Catch the Message, Fecova, A. and Levin, J. highlighting important women in Gestalt therapy. Rita’s style is clear, empowering, thoughtful and caring. The Resnicks are frequently happily married. Click here to email Rita.
