What is Gestalt Therapy?
Gestalt Therapy: welcoming the present moment, experiential, contact-full, supporting that which is alive in you now.
Wat is Gestalttherapie?
What is Gestalt Therapy?
Gestalt Therapy: welcoming the present moment, experiential, contact-full, supporting that which is alive in you now.
Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt Therapy is the therapy of contact. Contact with yourself and with another in the moment always has something alive and new about it. Whatever arises in the present moment is what we work with.
In therapy, you might find out what the vague unease means to you. Irritation can often help you to find out what you do or do not want. Investigating without judgment, allowing your thoughts, body sensations and emotions to unfold and reveal what wants to be seen. The newness, the immediacy of the experience, requires that we take time to make sure it feels safe enough to proceed. In this way, we provide the ground and support that nourishes growth.
Whatever arises deserves our interest and attention; a distraction, a feeling of hopelessness, anger, sadness, an insight…..the list is endless.
You might wonder how allowing what is here right now can help you?
You could become interested, for example, in how avoiding an emotion or situation is helping you now? Paying attention to the nature of the avoidance, can only be done in the present moment. It is here that you can discover the function of whatever has emerged in your experience, how it helps you now and how it helped you in the past. If you know how your patterns not only hinder but also help you, you create more space to choose what fits you and the situation you are in.
Our patterns began as creative adaptations to the environment in which we grew up. In each pattern there is also creativity.
Something you have not noticed before can surface and give you more information about your situation.
Focus Areas
I offer support in the following areas to adolescents and adults:
- If you are longing for a more meaningful connection with yourself and with others.
- When you are tired for seemingly no reason and/or have unexplained physical complaints.
- If you are feeling shame or guilt but don’t really understand why.
- When past issues are affecting your present situation and you’d like some support with these, eg. (Childhood) trauma.
- Do you notice you are criticizing yourself to such an extent that you have become stuck; nothing you do or say is good enough (see my blog “Coming back to life through the Inner Critic”).
- You have trouble saying “no”, and/or “yes” and would like to be clearer about your boundaries
- You are feeling lost and alone, and want to find your own direction?
- You’d like to understand what is causing you to feel down or depressed.
- You have (had) a burnout and need support to recover and/or support in avoiding remission.
- Life transitions (see my blog “In Transition”); aging, leaving home, starting something new etc.
Special themes
Adolescents; for carers and adolescents.
The form of therapy is dependent on the reason for wanting therapy.From Inner Critic to Inner Aliveness
The body as a loving guide
If you want to experience what unconditional support feels like … call Jean.
Her counseling is an invitation to all that is alive in you. Literally!
Everything is welcome and thus she holds a space for deep transformation to unfold.
Her presence is grounded, wise, empowering and full of humanity and humour.
Her gestalttherapeutic approach is much more than a helpful technique.
It seems like her most natural and authentic expression that brings me in touch with my most authentic self.
After a session with Jean I always feel deeply seen and heard and at peace with myself.