Basic therapeutic skills in Gestalt Therapy

Remembering the different interventions that I have been able to carry out in different workshops and therapeutic processes, specifically those that dealt with the establishment of roles, I want to reflect on the important role that therapeutic listening has, in concrete the gestalt listening.

Observations and analysis that have given me many conclusions about the role that it maintains in that double direction about the self that every therapist seeks: inward and inward. outside.

Know more: "Gestalt therapy: what it is and on what principles it is based"

Clarifying some concepts

Internal listening

The internal listening, like the ability to question oneself from self-observation, is nothing more than the virtue of looking at oneself inside, to allow us to become aware of ourselves and attend to those processes that are awakened in communication established.

And it is that although "being available for the other does not mean forgetting about ourselves" (Peñarrubia, 2012), the harsh self-criticism, arising from that "keep up appearances" in therapy - such as attention to the self in the experiential process - forgets that gestaltists not only attend to what happens to the other, but they must also keep in mind (be aware) of what is happening to them at that very moment (in the here and the now).

Listen inside

Is listen inside, which at the beginning we thought was a drag on full attention in the patient, gives way to a more friendly version, exemplifying the excellence of its method as an accompaniment, without having to interfere in the attention of our interlocutor.

Paraphrasing J.B. Enright (1973) exemplify this new vision and awareness of what is referred to here: "To lead to performing an appropriate clinical task, mental health professionals need access to the flow of their expertise inside. The first and most subtle clue to understand anguish, hostility... on the other, it is the consciousness of some similar or complementary state in oneself ".

External listening

Refering to external listening, it is forgotten that more important than listening to what is said, is deciphering how it is said. It is therefore common to observe how listening to verbal content is important (showing our ability to listen once again with the repetition of what we have attended with the utmost fidelity: words and textual themes transmitted), but even more important is the listen to the non-verbal content.

And it is that in my experience in group dynamics, although we develop attention and concentration on words and issues, we relegate gestures, tones of voice, body posture, which, more than words, provide us with more sincere information than their narration in phrases.

Undoubtedly, this shows that a good therapist must not only limit himself to passive listening to what is exposed, but also he must actively attend to the sound of the voice, its tones, the rhythm of the musicality in his words, because ultimately, verbal communication is nothing more than a lie (Peñarrubia, 2006).

My experience in congruence with the above has allowed me to understand that in addition to listening to the words, we must attend to a more consciously what the voice tells us, what the movements, posture, facial expression, language narrate psychosomatic; in short, and in the words of the very Fritz perls (1974): "it's all there, if they allow the content of the phrases to only act as a second violin."

Keys and benefits of therapeutic listening

Therapeutic listening must be attended as an attitude: availability, attention, interest in the other... If we materialize it in two inseparable operational lines (listening to content and perception of the form) we will understand the purpose of the training that every good therapist must attend:

• Listen to the content (what the other says), retain and reproduce it literally; it is a test of attention. Attending to the merely theoretical character of his explanation, we find that, in an almost permanent way, the forgotten, the changed, corresponds or indicates conflictive areas of the therapist, referring us to unfinished issues of our own and that allude to the world itself internal. We could conclude that memory is therefore selective and that both what is rescued and discarded alludes to the neurosis of the therapist.

• Listening to the non-verbal requires the therapist to be a good observer, capacity and perception that transcends beyond the word. The attention of the how over the what, bet on the non-verbal in case of dissonance.

Communication in Gestalt Therapy

We have talked about the attitude of Gestalt listening, which inevitably leads us to also talk about a certain communication attitude (Gestalt communication). It is already common in workshops, the correction in several colleagues, among whom I find myself, of forms of expression that distort the communication rules in Gestalt.

We go on to state and exemplify the most common (Peñarrubia, 2006):

• Speaking in the third person and in the past / future tense is perhaps the most frequent correction during therapeutic processes. The theoretical basis that supports this correction of the tutor that forces us to "speak in the first person and in present tense ", affirms that impersonal language dilutes the responsibility of what is being saying. Speaking in the present tense (even when talking about the past) facilitates the experience, making the emotional content that the narrated experience contains accessible and available.

• Do not take responsibility for the expression, highlighting the recommendation to incorporate it as the speech progresses, with the introduction of phrases (that facilitate taking charge of what is being narrated. Examples of these experiences in real sessions are: expressions about "I feel that my neck is tense", being able to hold the patient responsible for this experience in a more committed way from the "I'm feeling tense".

• Use of the conjunction "but" instead of "and" and the question "why" instead of "how". It is common in the clinic to ask questions about the "why" trying to achieve some rationalization or explanation, having to exercise the return of that relational dynamic. This will never lead us to a global understanding and that if we change to "how" we will look at what happens, we will observe the structure of the process and it will provide us with perspective and guidance. Likewise, with the use of "and" instead of "but" we will avoid the dichotomy of language, integrating instead of dissociating.

Gestalt Therapy and the therapeutic relationship

To conclude and return to the origins of Gestalt Therapy, we are indebted (either by position or by opposition) to Freud and his psychoanalysis (Rocamora, 2014): "what one relationship harms in its origin or childhood, another can heal it- psychotherapy ", allowing when speaking of therapeutic relationship, to detect certain models of relationship patient-therapist. A relationship that when talking about Gestalt listening, highlights the peculiarity that in relation to its fundamental principle of "realizing", points out to an interaction where the therapist (the self) is used as a reference or experience map with his patient (gestalt balance).

So what attitude should we maintain: "hear? or listen? " If listening is something that is done intentionally and hearing is something independent of the will, in Gestalt Therapy it is the first priority. This, in congruence with its objective (focused more on processes than on content), puts the emphasis on what is happening, is thinking and feeling in the moment, above what could be or have been. Listening globally, as shown in the workshop (verbal and non-verbal), is therefore the key to the success of a therapeutic process.