Gestalt therapy provides us with amazing tools that help us to be in alignment. But what is it to be in alignment? We are in alignment when our thoughts and feelings match our actions.

So, imagine someone who knows that eating fast food is bad for their health, but does it anyway because they want it and end up not feeling proud of themselves. This is a simple example, but this kind of contradiction happens more than we think and some tools would help us make better choices.

“I help my clients align what they feel, what they think and what they do. Many times we are totally out of alignment. Maybe we think one way because of the way we have been instructed, but we are not in alignment with what we really feel. My role as a therapist is to help the client understand themselves and look into things that are impeding them from being their best version – whatever it looks like”, Emma said.

Background

Before she started working as a therapist, Emma was a teacher. First, she was a pre-school teacher and then she started teaching business English. That's why her English is so perfect that I wouldn’t even know she was Spanish if she hadn’t told me.


"The difference between working as a teacher and as a therapist is that as a teacher you have the answers and you are giving people instructions. As a therapist, I help them find the answers for themselves because my answers are not my clients' answers."

Gestalt therapy

Gestalt therapy was developed by Fritz Perls and his wife and is based on three pillars: “the here and the now, self-awareness and self-responsibility.

In Gestalt therapy, the client doesn’t sit in front of me and tells me all about their life because we believe that we are going to work with what is here now. Whatever is annoying is what we should address, because the past is not here and the future hasn’t yet arrived”, she said.

“Then we have awareness, which is realising what we have in front of us, becoming aware of how we are feeling, becoming aware of the patterns. Without awareness, nothing exists, so bringing things into awareness, that’s the second pillar. The third pillar is self-responsibility, which means is finding out what I can do about my situations in life because blaming others for what’s happening keeps us in the victim space. If it is your fault, then I cannot do anything about it because it is your fault, but if I look at the relationship and ask how am I contributing to what is happening? Then, I can change that”, she said.

Who can benefit from a therapy process?

“Everybody should have therapy because a therapy process is not only for people who are going through difficult times. It is also an amazing tool to get to know yourself better. When we know ourselves, we can be in alignment with who we are and therefore we live in peace. When we feel and act in congruence, we are much happier”, she said, adding that more than happier, “we are more at peace”.


Santarém retreat

Emma is running a seven-day retreat in Quinta Carvalhas, in Santarém, from 16 July to 23 July, which will be an opportunity to reconnect with yourself. During this week you’ll be able to enjoy sessions of Gestalt therapy in a group, which will be like individual therapy within the group. “So the person who has an issue to bring forward can come and sit next to me and we will work together, so that’s individual therapy within the group. It is a very good opportunity to become your best version – whatever it looks like”.

In addition, “everybody will have a 90-minute individual coaching session with horses, shamanic meditation in the field with the horses and a full body massage. Then there is a lot of time to just enjoy ourselves. That’s a week of self-care”, she said.


If you would like to get in touch with Emma, please find her at http://www.gestalttherapyinbarcelona.com/ where you can also find all the details about her upcoming retreat