4 Keys Of Gestalt Therapy To Treat Depression

Using Gestalt Therapy to treat depression is as useful as it is an interesting strategy. It allows us, for example, to readjust to our reality in a more creative way, solving emotional blocks to relate to ourselves and everything that surrounds us in a more valid and safer way.

We are facing a type of trend that is still finding its place in the clinical world. However, its effectiveness is evident, and it is worth delving a little deeper into this current of psychology. For example,  the central point that defines it is the idea that people are always in continual transformation.

Thus, and in this constant mutation, it is common for conflicts, maladjustments and tensions to arise. In this continuous interaction between our organism and what surrounds us, there are often pieces that do not fit and that break this balance between itself and the “whole” that surrounds us.

Depression is, without a doubt, one of the most common problems (or imbalances). Furthermore,  according to Gestalt psychotherapy, depressive disorders happen when there is a blockage, when our reality is out of harmony  and we even lose the ability to connect with ourselves and our needs.

It is clear, however, that each psychological focus and each therapeutic school has its particular strategy to address this disease; however, it should be said that  Gestalt therapy is very effective in working these aforementioned blocks and, in turn, favoring our self-realization. Let’s look at 4 keys to understand your line of work a little better.

1. Expressive techniques of Gestalt therapy to treat depression

With the expressive techniques of Gestalt-Therapy, we are looking for something very concrete: to bring out our internal tensions, to channel the energy that the knot of our conflicts generates and to define, little by little and aloud, the root of our problems.

• We cannot forget that, according to this approach,  depression is, for human beings, an adverse experience that isolates us. We are so self-centered that the only thing we do is accumulate negative energy. Feeding ourselves exclusively on this current of sensations and thoughts that are so adverse that they fragment us even more…

2. Suppressive techniques

To treat depression, according to Gestalt Therapy, it is very useful to get the patient to apply a “suppressive” approach. Now, what do we mean by suppressive technique? As the word itself indicates, we are going to eliminate something, something that breaks the harmony of the whole that surrounds us and that, in turn, blocks this healthy union with our inner being.

• We must, therefore, “suppress”, control and manage all those thoughts and dynamics that take us away from the present moment, from the here and now.
• Rather than sinking into an infertile stream of worries that get us nowhere, we must allow ourselves to “live” the moment, feel each second in an open and receptive way.
• It is also necessary to eliminate from our internal discourse the “shoulds”, the “maybe”, the “maybe”, the “it is possible that”… all of this distances us from the here and now.

3. Integrative Techniques

For Gestalt, the depressive experience implies a personal defragmentation. Our reality is decomposed, and we become disconnected from our internal needs and the context that surrounds us, with which we suddenly do not feel identified. Gestalt therapy seeks to favor this integration between our organism and its surroundings, this balance that is now lost. Integrative techniques have this purpose and work through two strategies:

• The intrapersonal encounter. The focus is to foster a skillful and effective dialogue. An exchange with which to become aware of certain elements and circumstances. For example:  “I don’t think I’m worth anything”⇔ what concrete facts made me reach this conclusion?
• Assimilation of projections. For example: “I think all my  coworkers hate me” ⇔ projection ⇔ now put yourself in the shoes of all your coworkers and imagine that you are each one of them. What concrete and logical reasons would they have for hating him?

4. The creative fit

The therapeutic work of Gestalt not only seeks to free us from our blockages or resolve unresolved issues that sometimes also break with this totality that shapes us. What the therapist will try to get from us is that, with therapy, we end up being freer people, more creative  when it comes to solving our daily problems.

Therefore, it is not enough to cure, to overcome depression. You have to learn this process through a creative adjustment, taking something new out of it, an empowering drive to acquire new features and capabilities to create a richer, more nurturing, and, of course, happier gift.

As Fritz Perls said,  creative adjustment is a transformative impulse. An impulse that allows us to move forward, feeling renewed, stronger and also more skillful. Thus, and to conclude, we cannot forget that on this path to recover our internal homeostasis and perfect harmony with our surroundings, it is also necessary to integrate new skills to flow in life’s journey with greater solvency.

It is therefore necessary to  express what is within us, to  make contact with our emotions and let them go, allow them to come to light. It should also be said that  this process between the therapist and the patient achieves excellent results whenever “awareness” happens ,  that is, the step by which the person “realizes”, becomes aware of what he thinks, feels and happens inside him. .