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Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy (GTP) is a method of psychotherapy based strictly on Gestalt psychology.Its origins go back to the 1920s when Gestalt psychology founder Max Wertheimer, Kurt Lewin and their colleagues and students started to apply the holistic and systems theoretical Gestalt psychology concepts in the field of psychopathology and clinical psychology.
Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility and focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist–client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of their overall situation.
The founders of Gestalt therapy, Fritz and Laura Perls, had worked with Kurt Goldstein, a neurologist who had applied principles of Gestalt psychology to the functioning of the organism. Laura Perls had been a Gestalt psychologist before she became a psychoanalyst and before she began developing Gestalt therapy together with Fritz Perls. [20]
The Gestalt theory was founded in the 20th century in Austria and Germany as a reaction against the associationist and structural schools' atomistic orientation. [2] In 1912, the Gestalt school was formed by Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Koffka. The word "gestalt" is a German word translated to English as "pattern" or "configuration."
Once reaching graduate school, she became an advocate for Gestalt therapy; a therapy aimed towards self-awareness. Polster was the co-founder of The Gestalt Training Centre. Polster was the co-author of two books on Gestalt therapy theory (Gestalt Therapy Integrated and From the Radical Centre), and the sole author of Eve’s Daughters.
Gestalt Psychotherapy, a term coined by Campos to name her theory, is different from Gestalt Therapy (developed by Fritz Perls). [6] [7] [8] The difference is in the methodology as well as in the theoretical basis, especially regarding the unconscious, [i] a concept accepted by F. Perls and denied by V. Campos. [9]
Gestalt theory involves helping clients become aware of their true selves. This includes present moment awareness of self and environment. Gestalt therapy techniques include active and experiential methods and the main goal of this approach to counseling is a reintegration of the self, including parts that have been metaphorically cutoff.
The Gestalt prayer is a 56-word statement by psychotherapist Fritz Perls that is taken as a classic expression of Gestalt therapy as a way of life model of which Perls was a founder. The key idea of the statement is Gestalt practice: the focus on living in response to one's own needs, without projecting onto or taking introjects from others. It ...