Psychological resilience is the ability of a person to cope with stress, adapt to changes, and successfully overcome difficulties while maintaining their psychological health. It is a vital component for achieving personal growth and a harmonious life. The Gestalt approach offers unique methods and techniques for developing psychological resilience, emphasizing awareness, self-acceptance, and authenticity.
What is Psychological Resilience?
Psychological resilience is the ability to recover from difficulties and stressful situations while maintaining emotional balance and a positive outlook. This does not mean the absence of stress or pain, but rather the ability to effectively experience them, learn from them, and use them as opportunities for growth and self-improvement. Psychologically resilient people are not only better able to adapt to new conditions, but also have a deeper understanding of themselves and their needs.
Issues of Psychological Resilience in the Gestalt Approach
In the Gestalt approach, psychological resilience is seen as the ability to be in contact with one’s own feelings, accept one’s experiences, and take responsibility for one’s reactions to events. Issues with resilience can arise when a person:
Avoids their own feelings: If a person is not aware of their true feelings or avoids experiencing them, they cannot effectively cope with stress or challenging situations.
Leaves gestalts unfinished: Unfinished situations from the past, such as unexpressed emotions or unresolved conflicts, can keep a person in a state of constant tension and stress.
Gets stuck in roles or behavior patterns: For example, the role of a victim or a rescuer can limit a person’s ability to adapt and solve problems.
Methods for Developing Psychological Resilience in the Gestalt Approach
Developing Awareness: Awareness is the foundation of Gestalt therapy. Developing awareness of one’s feelings, thoughts, and physical sensations allows a person to better understand themselves and their reactions to stress. This provides an opportunity to pause and choose a new, more adaptive way of responding to difficulties. For example, when a person becomes aware that their anger is caused by a fear of losing control, they can find other ways to cope with the situation without expressing anger destructively.
Acceptance and Integration of Emotions: An essential component of psychological resilience is the ability to accept all of one’s emotions, even the negative ones, and integrate them into one’s experience. This means not avoiding pain or fear, but viewing them as a part of life and using them as sources of learning. Gestalt therapy helps clients work through difficult emotions using techniques like the “empty chair,” where the client can “talk” to their emotions or imaginary figures that evoke these emotions.
Completing Unfinished Gestalts: Unfinished gestalts can create constant stress and hinder the development of resilience. Completing such situations, for example, through expressing unexpressed feelings or making unresolved decisions, helps release energy for adaptation and growth. This can include acknowledging past experiences and deciding to move forward without constantly returning to old painful memories.
Developing Flexibility in Behavior: Psychological resilience often requires the ability to change one’s approaches and ways of reacting. In Gestalt therapy, clients are encouraged to experiment with new behavioral strategies and roles. For instance, if a person usually avoids conflicts, a therapist may suggest trying to express their needs directly and openly, exploring new ways of interacting.
Establishing Healthy Boundaries: In the Gestalt approach, it is crucial to learn how to establish and maintain healthy boundaries in relationships with others. This means being able to say “no” when necessary and understanding where one’s own needs end and the needs of others begin. Healthy boundaries help prevent emotional burnout and conserve energy for personal development and self-realization.
Developing Contact with the “Here and Now”: Being in contact with the present moment means not only being aware of one’s feelings and thoughts but also actively interacting with the surrounding environment. This includes the ability to focus on current needs and opportunities, allowing for better responses to challenges and using them for growth.
Psychological resilience is an essential element of personal growth and a harmonious life. The Gestalt approach provides unique methods and techniques for developing it, focusing on awareness, emotional integration, completing unfinished gestalts, developing flexibility, and establishing healthy boundaries. By developing psychological resilience through Gestalt therapy, a person gains the ability to better adapt to life’s changes and challenges while maintaining their integrity and emotional balance.