Gestalt therapy is a holistic, experiential and relational approach that takes into account the whole individual and the environmental context as inseparable in the understanding and treatment of human suffering. It focuses on building more capacity for living in the present, moment-to-moment awareness, being embodied, and fostering agency and ownership of our inner and outer responses to the environment. Hence, Gestalt Therapy embodies a truly holistic perspective, embracing a person’s physical, psychological, intellectual, emotional, interpersonal and spiritual experience.
Gestalt Therapy is also a growth oriented approach that supports people in their development of holistic and deep self-awareness – of exploring the relationship between feelings, body sensations, behaviour, beliefs, values, context and our ways of making contact with others and the world. Through the process of awareness building, it supports people to have more intention, agency and choice to live a fulfilling and meaningful life.
Central to gestalt therapy is the belief that with the cultivation of awareness, individuals have the capacity to make meaningful choices. In gestalt, change often includes starting with bringing understanding and acceptance of our lived experience as it is. Gestalt therapy understands that some of what causes distress is being stuck in an adaptive response to earlier adversity and challenge (a survival adaption). With support we can identify and begin to update and let go of out of date survival strategies and self-pathologising beliefs or limiting narratives. Instead of trying to be ‘someone else’, we can allow ourselves to be who we are with deep understanding and compassion.
The aim is to be present in the here and now, to attain full energetic expression and flexible skills in in dealing with daily life and be fully who we are in body, mind and spirit.
An increased awareness of contact with others and the environment provides clearer opportunities for individuals to enhance the quality of their relationships and be able to discover new, creative solutions to managing their challenges of their life while at the same time nurturing their wellbeing.
Contemporary Gestalt therapy has moved beyond solely individual application to include couples, families, groups, organisations, communities and ecological considerations. As a relational method many contemporary Gestalt therapists are concerned with developing a sustainable community and fostering responsible relationships with others and the planet.
Somatic experiencing therapy is a trauma informed body therapy geared towards helping people find healing from trauma. Created by Peter Levine, PhD, this therapy works on the principle that trauma gets trapped in the body, leading to some of the symptoms people with Post traumatic stress or stuck in pattern of fight, flight or freeze. Through this method, practitioners work on releasing this stress from the body.
Many people who have experienced trauma, especially those who have experienced physical trauma such as domestic violence or sexual assault, can dissociate or disconnect from their bodies. Somatic experiencing helps them increase awareness of their internal experience (interoceptive, proprioceptive, and kinesthetic sensations), so that they can build the capacity to be present with their body sensations enough to help reignite the wisdom of body move towards healing and back to homeostasis.
The trauma that is held within the body may lead to emotional and physiological dysregulation. It is believed that somatic experiencing therapy works by releasing the trauma that becomes "trapped" in the body. One aspect of this dysregulation is the freeze response, our body’s primitive defence against danger. This response would naturally activate if someone were being chased by a tiger.
Unlike the "fight or flight" response that takes place in response to an acute threat, which causes the sympathetic nervous system to increase heart rate, breathing, and focus, the "freeze" response can cause the opposite, and lead to symptoms of shutting down or collapse, rather like an animal playing dead after its been threatened by a predator.
It is said that the body doesn’t know how to distinguish physical trauma from mental trauma. If the danger is life-threatening, like that tiger, you may be able to physically shake off that fear once the tiger is no longer around. With emotional trauma, however, the brain can get stuck believing that you are still in a state of danger and interrupts the natural process of releasing trauma and returning to a feeling of safety in the body and mind.
Somatic experiencing therapy does not involve and expect a complete retelling and processing of your past trauma like some other trauma therapies might. It may invite you to revisit a sliver of a painful memories or image, to evoke some activation in your body. From this point, a somatic experiencing therapist will work with you to help process the traumatic activation still held in the body, supporting you to develop safe and helpful tools like resourcing, titrating and pendulating to help you navigate and discharge or release painful feelings and sensations while you are still within in a window of tolerance. This helps avoid re-traumatization and feeling over-whelmed. The end result of this process is that people can once again feel regulated and safe in their body, and reclaim feelings of empowerment, confidence and openness to life.
Havening therapy is a psychosensory approach that uses touch, eye movements, and visualisations to ease emotional pain, process trauma and promote healing. It aims to create an internal safe haven by altering how the brain processes emotions, specifically targeting the amygdala and region of the brain that hold trauma. The technique involves safely evoking and processing memories and or experiences that are distressing now or in the past, using gentle touch (often self-facilitated), imagery, attention, visualisation of positive outcomes, and eye movements and other strategies to trigger changes in the brain that support emotional well-being. It aims to help the brain de-link traumatic memories from emotional and physiological activation. Havening can offer rapid relief from stress and anxiety, trauma relief, and improved emotional regulation and resilience. It can be self- applied or facilitated by a trained practitioner, making it a versatile tool for managing various emotional and physical health issues.