Hello all. ;) I graduated CIIS drama therapy program last year and am currently working on an acute, inpatient adult psych unit doing various creative groups and 1:1's (and far too much paperwork, but that's a whole other story!). Anyway, I have always been into psychodrama and do some with the dual diagnosis unit, but I have never actually studied gestalt. I know there are some things in common with psychodrama and I plan to at some point attend one of the intensive Esalen Gestalt workshops. Have any of you studied Gestalt and/or used it with clients?
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SF Bay Area
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Re: Gestalt Therapy
Fri, November 17, 2006 - 1:20 PMI haven't studied more than a chapter of Gestalt, but I am familiar with Psychodrama.
My understanding of the main difference is that in Gestalt, it's less structured and you don't have other members of the group participate in auxiliary roles; the 'protagonist' does "all" of the roles.
I say "all" in quotes, because in Gestalt, the perception seems to be that the protagonist does NOT perform all the roles in Psychodrama, which is of course inaccurate. While in Psychodrama, the protagonist relinquishes some control to the person playing the auxiliary role, role training and role reversal ensure that the protagonist remains in charge of the process, the work being done, and receives important feedback from the auxiliary.
Perhaps this was more rant than an explanation, but hopefully it helped even a bit. :)
I leave the more on-target explanations to those who've actually studied & practiced Gestalt....
