Gestalt psychology, or gestaltism, is a school of psychology that looks at the human mind and behavior in its entirety. Practitioners of Gestalt therapy help their clients by taking into account their personality and the obstacles that affect how they function as a whole in the present context.
The primary goal of Gestalt therapy is to enable the therapist to collaborate with the client to increase their personal awareness and actively challenge the hurdles that have been getting in the way of their healing and improvement.
With this in mind, having a Gestalt approach or integrating its principles in your life or corporate coaching program can give you and your client several benefits.
With a Gestalt approach, you can help your clients get in touch with their whole selves and understand the impact of their reactions to the issues they are working on.
This, in turn, enables your clients to identify how their perceptions and behaviors shape their whole being, and to take the right steps to deal with their issues and improve themselves.
Integrating Gestaltism in Your Coaching Programs
If you want to include the Gestalt principles and approaches in your coaching programs, signing up for a Gestalt coaching workshop can help you go through the whole process correctly.
The right workshop will help you learn about the Gestalt theory on a deeper level. Moreover, you will understand the key principles that drive this school of thought, which include:
- Similarity
- Pragnanz or good figure
- Proximity
- Continuity
- Closure
- Common region
Once you have a deeper understanding of these principles, you will be more confident in using these Gestalt awareness exercises correctly at the right time in your coaching sessions.
1. The Empty Chair
This role-playing exercise is the most widely used Gestalt therapy technique.
This exercise calls for the client to imagine and speak to another person or another part of themselves sitting across from them on an empty chair. Your role is to facilitate the conversation and encourage the client to say whatever they want to say.
The empty chair exercise is highly cathartic for clients. It is useful in drawing out important perceptions, meanings, and other information that can help them become more aware of their emotions and behaviors and how they can start healing.
2. Top Dog and Underdog
Top dog and underdog is another Gestalt awareness role-playing exercise.
Under this exercise, you have to ask your client to speak as the top dog, the dominant and demanding side of their personality, and the underdog, which is their submissive and timid persona.
The main goal of this exercise is to help your client become aware of these two personas and inner conflicts so that they can learn how to integrate and resolve them to come up with a better, balanced overall personality.
3. Locating Emotions
As a coach, encouraging your clients to talk about their emotions is something that you often do.
However, if you want to take the Gestalt approach, you have to focus on helping them experience their emotions.
For this exercise, you simply ask your client where they feel that emotion in their body. The usual responses you would get include “tightness in their chest” and “a pit in their stomach.”
Although this may seem like a simple exercise, when done correctly, you will be able to help your client stay in the present and process their emotions more effectively by enabling them to relate their emotional experiences to specific physical sensations.
4. Turning Questions Into Affirmations
Finally, this Gestalt awareness exercise also seems simple at first glance, but it is a valuable tool that enables clients to recognise and declare internal realities and use all available resources to the fullest.
Under this exercise, have your client write down or state questions that have been bothering them for days. Next, ask them to turn them into statements that will allow them to answer these personal queries and do something about them.
For instance, if your client is asking if expanding their business overseas is a good idea, walk them through the process of answering this question on their own. Your goal should be to encourage them to conduct research and study the feasibility of their plan.
This exercise enables you to help your client come up with solutions on their own and empower them at the same time.
Adequate training is crucial if you want to incorporate these Gestalt awareness exercises in your coaching programs. Sign up for Gestalt coaching workshops and other learning programs to use them correctly as you help and guide your clients toward self-improvement and success.
