An Introduction to Gestalt

by Charlotte Sills, Phil Lapworth, Billy Desmond

This thoroughly revised edition of Gestalt Counselling introduces the fundamental concepts of Gestalt and systematically demonstrates how to apply and use these in practice. Taking a relational perspective, expert authors Charlotte Sills, Phil Lapworth and Billy Desmond explore how Gestalt can be used in a wide variety of ′helping conversations′ from counseling, psychotherapy and coaching to mentoring, managing, consulting and guiding. After placing Gestalt in its current socio-political context, each chapter provides everyday examples and illustrative vignettes from a variety of settings to bring the theory to life and suggest how that concept may be usefully applied.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[John Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a counseling intern, this is a good primer for Gestalt therapy and helped me to clarify some of the philosophy's fuzzier details in my mind.

One criticism I do have for the book (and maybe for Gestalt therapy in general) is that the examples demonstrating specific aspects of the therapy are cherry-picked for the exact response needed for the Gestalt model to work. For instance, to explain Outer Bodily Gestures, Response and Posture, the book provides the following example on pages 40-41:

Anna was explaining the details of her family relationships in the session. As she spoke, she flicked her wrist outwards on a couple of occasions. The therapist invited her to repeat the flick of her wrist and notice what she was sensing and feeling in her body. Anna flicked her wrist a few times and noticed that she was feeling restricted, and wanted to push somebody away. She then became angry and tearful as she became aware of a time when an older cousin had made sexually suggestive remarks to her as a teenager and she felt too frightened to tell him to "go away and leave her alone."

This is an enormous mental leap to make! I'm not sure I could even do that. It requires the client to have a lot of awareness and insight into the symbolism behind bodily responses and emotions (which makes sense, as Gestalt is direct descendant of psychodynamic therapy), and many people don't have those types of resources. Or the inclination to interpret things symbolically. I feel like they're more likely to say, when confronted by an outward bodily reaction, "Oh, I don't know why my wrist is doing that, probably just a tic." And, you know what, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[MarkP · Rating 4 out of 5]

My training is in person centred rather than gestalt therapy but this introduction was insightful, well written and easy to follow, provided some much needed insight into what gestalt therapy entails and left me wanting to find out more.