Hi, I am new to this forum and would like to ask about Gestalt Therapy. I have been to a counseling session at The Relational Center in Los Angeles, CA. I was going there because I've had to deal with child hood abuse within the Jehovah's Witness religion. During the course of the first session the counselor asked me my girlfriend's name and where she worked. I found that to be an odd question, and I went against my gut and told her. She kept telling me that I could so no to anything at any time and that if I felt comfortable with her and mine connection then I can fill out the paper work and come every week. I don't know much about Gestalt therapy. I have read that it is connected to the human potential movement and LGAT.

Is Gestalt just another form of NLP and LGAT?

Do you have any experiences or know of someone who has had experiences with Gestalt therapy? I am very leery of any counseling that has another agenda besides just helping me get better. If you have any information please let me know. Thank you.

nlp was modeled after gestalt therapy, it can be useful just like nlp hypnosis cbt ect just all depends on the operator and nowadays since companies give out certification like lollies its hard to find anyone that is very successful at it.

NLP was modeled from the work of a number of people, Fritz Pearls just being one of them. Gestalt is widely used by all kinds of therapists because it is helpful for certain things.

If you are concerned if there is another agenda just ask if the centre is associated with any other group, religious organization, corporation, association or whatever.

And ask why they wanted to know your girlfriends name and place of work. It might just have been a next of kin or point of contact thing....or it might have been something else. Ask.

Do they advertize aggressively?

If you want to know about Gestalt go to a library and you will find several good books about it.

Hi - just wanted to know how things have panned out - whether you continue to go or if things have resolved themselves. Not sure if you are still interested in knowing about Gestalt therapy. I have been looking into the history of Gestalt therapy, books, founders, training programs etc. - I have to put my bias out there - I am quite negative about it (through personal experience of those who are in it) but I try to keep an open mind but I find that there is a lot to be concerned about. In a very very general way, Gestalt therapy is the 'psychotherapeutic arm" of the encounter movement of the 60s (Beyond Words, by Back 1984) although it started as one-to-one therapy. Hope all is well...

I just wanted to add to this as I too have had bad experiences with gestalt. I've done quite a bit of research into its roots and I would agree that it is the psychotherapeutic arm of the encounter movements of the 60s. The founder of gestalt therapy, Fritz Perls, was a strange individual. His 'Gloria' counselling sessions are still used as examples of therapy in training institutions. Hopefully, they will be used as examples of bad therapy as in my opinion they demonstrate how a therapist should NOT behave. Gestalt therapy did indeed become very cult-like as Perls became enamoured with large group work. He was very much the guru, demonstrating his counselling techniques in from of large audiences in new age places like Esalin.

My experiences with a gestalt therapist lead me to believe that (at least some) disciples of that school of therapy are still adopting a Fritz Perl's style of counselling: abrasive, manipulative with heavy use of 'mind control' type techniques which keep the client off-balance and confused. The confusion techniques are not therapeutic; on the contrary they serve to further undermine and derail the client. This was certainly my experience with gestalt therapy and it was with a huge sense of relief that I quit therapy.

I think that any type of therapy has the potential to be somewhat 'cult like' especially if the therapist is setting him or her self up as the all-knowing authority figure rather than adopting a facilitator role. I think the thereapist I saw was keen to establish herself as an authority figure who I would end up becoming dependent on. By withholding what I was looking for (kindness, thoughfulness, mutual respect, being listened to) she was effectively trying to manipulate my emotions so that I would get increasingly frustrated and revert to a child-like state. Essentially behaving as a dysfunctional parent would.

Thankfully, I saw through her games and quit before real harm had occurred. However, it is worrying that she (and others like her) are out there practising with the full support of professional accrediting bodies.