Reflections on ethical making in clinical gestalt: an exploratory study

Abstract

The discussion of the topic Ethics sometimes is limited to deontology. However, this discussion goes beyond this cut and reaches another dimension in ethical making in psychotherapy, not only based on laws and guidelines. This research discusses the ethical making in Gestalt therapy. It was used a qualitative approach driven from the phenomenological method of Sanders. The project was approved by the Ethics Committee in Research to ensure the ethical issues related to research. Interviews were conducted with six psychologists of Belem, chosen from the snowball method with two criteria: have professional degree in Psychology and have a specialist title as Gestalt therapist. The interviews were analyzed using the phenomenology and Gestalt concepts. It was possible to expand the understanding of making ethical gestalt highlighting the importance of taking care of those seeking care, the need of the psychotherapist to suspend their “a priori”, the refined technical preparation, the importance of a personal psychoterapy work for the gestalt therapist; and personal ethics as a premise for a professional ethic. Future research in the area is important to make possible to maintain the fluidity of these insights about the theme