Gestalt therapy is an experiential, present centered way of working with couples that explores how to people are with each other. Its approach is relational and thus lends itself to meaningful couples therapy that impacts both partners in the relationship. Gestalt helps couples develop awareness of how their unique personalities affect their relationship and ability to form a connection with each other. It works to help build the channel of emotional intimacy needed to get through both the good times and the struggles.
How Gestalt Couples Therapy Can Help Your Relationship
- Encourage Individual Awareness of the Choices you Make:
The actions and choices that you and your partner make shape what becomes of your relationship. Gestalt couples therapy will help you become more aware of those choices and how they affect your relationship. With this awareness comes more ability to choose new and more connected ways of being with each other. - Bring Awareness of Negative Relationship Patterns:
Recurring destructive and negative actions and patterns, often developed early in our lives, chip away at the foundation on which a relationship is built. They inevitably erode the channel of love between two people. Gestalt couples therapy brings this negativity into the here and now to make couples realize their impact in a relationship and help them make conscious efforts to make positive choices. - Deal with Aspects of the Past that Manifest in the Present:
In Gestalt therapy, the parts of the past needing attention are those that continue to manifest and impact the present moment. Examining those past experiences in the present moment of the session makes partners become more aware of how these events effect the other. Gestalt focuses on sharing thoughts, feelings, and sensations to bring about new options of being different in the present. - Build a Deeper Connection for the Future:
Gestalt couples therapy puts emphasis on discovering, exploring, and raising awareness. It will help you to have a better understanding of yourself and how you relate with your partner. The focus is on the present to discover the choices being made with each other, the patterns of relating, and finding new ways and opportunities of being with each other. The idea is to use couples therapy as a springboard for you to build a deeper connection with your partner through meaningful sharing of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. - Discover Meaningful Dialogue with the Therapist:
What makes Gestalt couples therapy unique is the active participation of your therapist. He is more than just an arbiter of conflicts or a shock absorber of pain and resentment. Your couples’ therapist creates a dialogue and joins you in a meaningful journey of self-discovery and relationship building.