A Gestalt Lens – The Author’s Experience

How I applied Gestalt theory

Transitioning to Bowen Theory

Bowen’s perspective on the therapeutic relationship

Case Study – Shifting Theories in a Clinical Case

Therapy

Transition

Observations about different theory approaches

Clinical Outcomes and Discussion

Conclusion

References

My Perspective on the Therapeutic Relationship

My knowledge of Gestalt therapy emerges from my training and substantial reading about Gestalt theory and its application. Gestalt therapy training introduced me to, and integrated in its thinking and application, developmental psychology, attachment theory and an understanding of psychological pathology as specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Part of the requirement of my Gestalt training was to undertake therapy with a Gestalt clinician. I spent several years in Gestalt therapy with therapists who, in turn, integrated theories and ideas such as psychodynamic approaches, attachment theory, developmental theories and trauma therapies, hence who worked within the therapeutic relationship. This personal therapeutic experience helped me understand my problems not as inherently mine, but as emerging from how I had been parented. Through this developmental platform, I became aware that I had continued to behave in ways that did not serve me. I found the therapeutic process one in which I felt safe, validated and cared for. The process supported insight into how I related to my environment. It also helped me learn to regulate underdeveloped parts of myself whilst in the presence of my therapists. However, in the long term, I found it difficult to sufficiently manage difficult emotional states in my real life interactions with significant others outside the empathic contact with my therapists. While my therapists’ validation helped me understand how others had affected me, it did not help me understand how I equally contributed to or could solve my own relationship problems. It could be argued that my successful transition from Gestalt to Bowen theory (Bowen, 1978; Kerr & Bowen, 1988) was influenced by an earlier positive transferential experience or that my therapeutic work with my therapist was stuck in the transference/countertransference. However, I believe multiple factors contributed to my decision to move frames. It appeared that the more my Gestalt therapists validated my experience, the more my relationship with both my partner and my mother escalated in conflict. In contrast, I appeared more able to regulate myself in the midst of conflict with my partner and mother whilst working with a Bowen therapist who disinvited alignment with me and prompted me to address issues with important others directly. The successful change I made in myself in relationship to significant others was what ultimately convinced me of the efficacy of Bowen theory.