CBT – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is the most common approach used by psychologists today in Australia. The Medicare 6-10 covered sessions via a psychologist will use a Mental Health Plan and CBT. When I tell people I’m a Gestalt psychotherapist, they often ask me what that means and because many people tend not to be familiar with counselling/psychotherapeutic approaches, I tend to need to give a brief explanation of wh
at CBT is too.
My general explanation is, where CBT is a directive approach used to help a client make practical changes to thoughts and behaviours. Gestalt is a humanistic, non-directive and holistic approach that looks into how you feel and your body-felt experience of being. It uses a variety of means to help you create change on top of talking about things. I like to work somatically and I when relevant, I use other creative Gestalt interventions including the commonly referenced two-chair/empty chair experiment. Very different to CBT!
I’ve not really been able to find a good clip on Gestalt on YouTube yet, but here’s a great one from Mind UK explaining what CBT is and what to expect: