How Gestalt Saved My Daughter

My first experience with Gestalt proved to be a watershed moment in my life. At the time I was experiencing a highly successful artistic career and felt on top of the world in my professional life. However, the height of my success coincided with my adolescent daughter entering into a period of inner torment and despair. She discovered illicit substances and her life soon spiraled out of control. The years to follow were a battle with her addiction, which played itself out in her life in many painful ways. She was on the verge of losing everything, her family, her integrity and her future.

During my daughter’s addiction I felt desperate. I did everything I could to try to understand what was happening to her. I sought help from many professionals and went to any person or place that I thought could possibly alleviate her suffering.

We sought many forms of therapy over the years, trying to find someone that really understood my daughter’s situation, ranging from doctors to psychiatrists and psychologists. She was in and out of numerous rehabilitation programs with the same painful outcome of fear and isolation.

In desperation she pleaded with us to send her to a hospital in Israel to undergo a rapid detox treatment for drug dependency. While this provided temporary relief, as always, it was not a sustainable recovery for her. Within six months things were worse than ever and I felt like her life was hanging by such a very thin thread.

Then...

Gestalt Therapy entered my daughter’s life during a residential rehabilitation program. The accepting nature of Gestalt Therapy was able to offer her another way to see her self and her situation. This opened a door to healing that had previously remained locked and allowed her recovery to begin. Gestalt provided a unique view that saw her addiction as a coping strategy. Addiction was a way that she had learnt to support herself in the world and the addiction had now outlived its usefulness. My daughter was not seen as being broken or flawed and this made it so much easier for her to accept her self. Finally we had a way forward, ending a decade of torment, and beginning a healing journey of recovery.

Seven years on and my daughter is clean, healthy and enjoying life!  My daughter and I have both gained tremendous growth and richness from our journey with Gestalt Therapy. As part of my own journey I also joined a Gestalt Therapy group where I experienced and witnessed amazing transformations.

The transformation in my daughter, myself and others in my group inspired me to complete a 4-year Masters degree in Gestalt Therapy. My experiences have proven to be rich resources to help me to provide support and understanding to my clients while they make sustainable changes in their lives.