Counselling & Psychotherapy in Bristol, Bath & Online
Image credit: Ashkan Forouzani
"Change and growth take place when a person has risked themself and dares to become involved with experimenting with their own life"
- Herbert Otto
BACP-registered Gestalt therapist
in Bristol, Bath & Online
What is Gestalt psychotherapy?
Developed in the 1940s by Fritz and Laura Perls, Gestalt therapy takes its name from a German word meaning a whole or complete form. It recognises that we are more than our thoughts: our feelings, bodily sensations, relationships and surroundings all shape our experience.
We can become so accustomed to certain ways of being in the world that we lose awareness of what we really feel or need. By paying attention to these patterns, we can begin to understand ourselves more fully and discover greater freedom to make choices that better serve us.
Use the links below to find out more about what it might be like to work together.
Gestalt therapy pays particular attention to your experience in the present moment. This includes what we feel in our bodies, the emotions that arise and what happens in our relationships.
During sessions I will likely ask you at various points 'what's happening for you right now?' I do this to help bring your attention to subtle shifts in your experience as we explore the themes you bring to therapy.
At times I may also share my experience of being with you in the therapy space.
The here and now
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The patterns we struggle with today may once have been ways of protecting ourselves. Responses such as fight, flight, freeze or fawn (appeasing others to feel safe) may once have helped us cope with overwhelming experiences and can continue to influence our patterns of being in the world and relating to others.
In therapy we can gently bring awareness to these patterns. This might involve acknowledging the impact of past experiences that had previously seemed trivial, or, together, giving proper attention to losses that need more space.
Trauma-informed therapy
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Many of the difficulties we experience have their roots in relationships where something important was missing or went wrong.
Perhaps we weren't listened to or taken seriously when we needed to be heard, someone important left before we had the chance to say goodbye, or we put up with things for far longer than we should have.
Experiences like these can shape how we see ourselves, how we relate to others and what we come to expect from relationships.
I see the relationship between therapist and client as central to change. Therapy offers the possibility of experiencing a different kind of relationship: one where you can feel seen, heard and acknowledged, and where there is space to explore things that may have been difficult to express or understand.
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Relational therapy
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In my own experience, deeper change and self-understanding began to emerge after around a year and a half. I had difficulty trusting others, and it took that long for me to develop a real sense of trust in my therapist. I share this not as a measure of how long therapy should take, but to illustrate that building trust and making sense of longstanding patterns can take time.
That isn't to say that shorter-term therapy can't be valuable. Six or twelve sessions can be very effective when working through a difficult period or something more clearly defined. Longer-standing patterns of anxiety, depression, overwhelm, people-pleasing or isolation may benefit from more sustained work over a number of months or years.
Ultimately, everyone is different, and everyone's circumstances are different. We can keep the length of therapy under review and explore together what feels helpful and appropriate as our work develops.
Duration of therapy
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If you're considering therapy, you can book a free, no-obligation 20-minute video call. It's an opportunity for us to talk through what is bringing you to therapy, ask any questions you may have and get a sense of whether working together feels right. If you decide you'd like to go ahead, I usually suggest starting with six sessions and reviewing things together from there.
You don't need to have things figured out before reaching out. Often the first step is making some sense of the place you find yourself in now, together.
Getting started
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