The aim of this blog is to:
- Add content with a gestalt psychotherapy perspective to the many existing perspectives of the blogosphere
- Raise the profile of gestalt as a unique and valuable psychotherapeutic orientation
- De-mystify psychotherapy as a profession by demonstrating the relevance of psychotherapeutic concepts, in particular gestalt theory, to my experience of living
- Raise my profile as an individual therapist, and explore and develop my own voice, theories, and professional presence
I decided to write a mission statement because whilst I could feel a pull towards setting up a blog about gestalt therapy, I couldn’t explain what the point of that would be. Possibly that meant there was no point, but that answer didn’t ring true. Instead, I felt my reasons were implicit, felt but not in my awareness. So, like a true gestaltist, I stayed with what I was feeling until something started to come into my awareness.
It is a la mode in therapy at the moment to be concerned with boundaries. A good mission statement is a way of establishing boundaries for any body of activity. Ethically speaking, I consider it important that if I’m going to blog overtly as a practitioner of gestalt therapy, I explore my motivations ahead of time.
Hopefully, what will come through in this blog will be my love of gestalt therapy; not just the practising of it, but the body of theory that gives rise to the practice. Psychoanalysis has had a distinct impact on Western culture, influencing how we understand what it means to be human. I often wonder what impact gestalt would have if its concepts were as recognisable and available as its psychoanalytical counterparts. One of the impacts of an intensive training in any body of theory is to see that theory everywhere, so I thought sharing some of that process might make interesting alternative viewpoints available.
In gestalt, everything exists in relationship with everything else; it’s all about context. Blogs don’t exist without bloggers, and bloggers don’t blog without being influenced by their own needs. Furthermore, psychotherapists can’t exist without clients, so I also need to recognise how my own need to raise my profile as a practitioner influences this blog. I’ve seen a couple of therapist blogs that end posts with ‘if this is an issue for you, contact me on xxxxxx’ and I don’t like the feeling of blogs as glorified infomercials.
I do run groups, and I do have ambitions as a writer, so will publicise that sort of thing here. But the blog itself is principally about my interest in looking at the world through a gestalt therapy lens.
