by Timothy Root

Created on: September 18, 2007   Last Updated: December 04, 2007

Understanding How Gestalt Therapy Began.

I think in order to understand Gestalt therapy, we need to look at the creator, and that would be Fritz Perls. Fritz Perls was born in 1893 in Berlin into a middle class family, he saw himself as mostly trouble for his parents, and he managed to fail the seventh grade twice. He was expelled from school because of difficulty with authority figures, if anyone has looked at the German school system; they have strict guidelines, in fact. At the start of every class, the classroom doors lock, and if you are late to class, you are not allowed in until the class comes back from their first break. Fritz Perls despite his lack for authority did manage to receive his medical degree, and in 1916, he joined the German army and he served as a medic during WW1. After the war he decided to work with brain damaged soldiers in Frankfurt Germany. It was this experience that helped Fritz see humans as a whole and not just as functioning parts, it was than that Fritz Perls decided to go to Vienna and start his psychoanalytical training but when he came to the United States, he moved away from psychoanalytical traditions, and in 1952, he established the institute for Gestalt therapy in New York City. Towards the end of his career he settled in Big Sur California, and he did workshops and seminars. Fritz Perls was one of those people that most people described as being either harshly confrontive, or they saw him in awe for his experiences, and others saw him as insightful, witty, bright and provocative. He wrote his autobiography "In and out of the garbage pale" in 1969, and one year later in 1970, he died of heart failure (Corey. G Theory and Practice Of Counseling & Psychotherapy, seventh edition).

The Goal Of Gestalt Therapy.

So, what are the goals of Gestalt therapy? Gestalt therapy is about the now and the present, the Gestalt approach is to put emphasis on the present moment, and if you focus on the past, it can prevent you from coming to terms with the present. Gestalt therapy asks "what" and "how" questions and avoids asking "why" questions, and it can be difficult to keep someone in the present and now because clients will begin to talk, and they will start to reflect on the past, and the goal of Gestalt is, that when the client starts to talk about sadness and pain and the things that are making them confused being able to keep all of that in the present, and making the client work towards a solution that will move them forward tomorrow

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