How Is Gestalt Therapy Similar to Contemporary Psychodynamic Therapy and How are They Different?
• Although the classical form of “Freudian” psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, used to require that the therapist be neutral so as not to influence the client’s free associations, contemporary psychodynamic work understands that any therapist will have an influence. So, they now embrace the influence which both therapist and client have on one another as they meet in therapy; it has become the “stuff” of their work together. Gestalt therapy has been doing this from the beginning • Gestalt therapy is intentionally interested in the nature of the relationship between therapist and client, as that is relevant to other relationships in life and has a tremendous impact on the outcome of therapy. Thus, Gestalt therapy is dialogical and interpersonal • While psychodynamic therapists make interpretations (stories they tell themselves and the client to explain the client’s actions, feelings, thoughts, avoidance of relationship, etc), Gestalt therapists strive to refrain from mere interpretations in
