last week I participated in Gestalt intensive as supervisor the first gestalttherapie. Interesting experience for me . Especially since it was face-to-face supervision, that is, I attended the sessions.

I would Like to share my observations and thoughts. Maybe this will help novice therapists. Especially that he was recently on their site.

the First thing that strikes you when you see the work of a beginner therapist is that he absolutely does not feel, his body, his emotions and excitement. Immersed in any ideas, as it is taught, how it should be. These thoughts actually drives itself in inadequate state.

So the first tip is to carefully feel about yourself.

In airplanes , when flight attendants give the safety instructions , they say that oxygen mask first, you need to put on, and only then to the child. And it does make sense. If adult faint, he will not be able to help the child.

How the physician would take good care to treat yourself ? First of all, to monitor their condition, breathing, your body, and secondly , if emotions are going through the roof , it is necessary to tell the client, thirdly, banishing the thought that You have something to match. Emotions such as anxiety, fear, shame, guilt the novice therapist arise from the idea that he needs something urgent to do, and afraid to make a mistake. Best of all, all these ideas aside and just sit and listen to the customer. To be near him. Often this is enough at first.

My coach, Alexei Smirnov, often refers to beginner therapists "poor seals" , which everyone can offend. Such an ironic view really helps to treat yourself carefully, knowing their insecurity and vulnerability.

the Second piece of advice - take good care of the client.

After the novice therapist cannot remain complete, intact , he learns to respect himself, control his excitement, he has a bunch of ideas , desires and energy towards the client and what you can do with him. He recalled the anxious mother, who muffles the child, so that he can neither walk nor move, feeding it ad nauseam, because he always think that he or cold or hungry . How to cope with this anxiety and reduce the flow of the intervention,the therapist needs to learn to containerevent, that is, to monitor the needs of the client, his ability to learn , not to overfeed, and all excess energy, emotions, ideas, desires to keep in the mental container.

the Third piece of advice - always think of the process.

When the therapist is already able to monitor their condition, the condition of the client, there is often a situation that resembles driving a novice motorist who slows down in front of each mound, and carefully inspects every hole, and before a speed bump does can stop. Yes , he saves himself and the car, but the process drive is suffering from it. That is, if everything is intact , then you should still pay attention to the process itself. To select the route , pace and adhere to this flow.

to sum up, at first it is not necessary to strive for virtuosity and conform to some ideals , enough to be gentle to themselves, the client and process. And then it happens. :)