Gestalt Therapy for Love Addiction

The increasing scientific interest about dependency has created a need to have clinical and therapeutic responses to this problem. A particular dependency type is love addiction (LA). While various clinical models can take care of people with an affective addiction, we know a little about this disorder in Gestalt therapy (GT), especially if the person’s LA contains many points of comparison to some of the key concepts of this clinical model. This article focuses on the use of GT in the treatment of LA, with the intent to form a theoretical and clinical connection between the two fields. We identify the match among some key aspects of LA with three GT’s concepts: as the self and its relation with environmental; the figure –ground dynamic; and the concept of contact. Besides, we explain some ways that a therapist can use GT's methodological principles to help clients with LA in order to stabilize their mood; to achieve a realistic and integrated sense of their own worth; and a more functional relationship with the other.