Hi there,
I am studying gestalttherapy and just started my second year. My teacher told us that as a gestalttherapist you can never do anything wrong, because you will allways get a reaction out of your client one way or the other.
Is that not much to simple, is it not a defence mechanism to hide behind if a client does not agree with something? Off course you will allways get a reaction and as a client you can do something with it, but is that a good therapist attitude? Can you come away with anything, as she says it?
That was my first question.

I also ask this because I feel manipulated by the staf of the school. When I wanted to choose the next schoolyear (the first three years you can take in any order) they said it was the best for me to take an other year than I wanted, and they also gave me a reason witch they later said was not the true reason (so they had actually given me a lie). They didn't advise me then, but told me that it was just the best for me, and told me that it was the best to take their advise. (nobody gave me an advise, or even spoke to me about it) When I asked for more clarity and also told them that this was not what I think an advise really is, they gave it back to me, and told me my reaction had something to do with not being able to take authority. I have sometimes problems with that so they know that, but that was not the case here. Then they gave me the reason why they thought it was the best for me. I could agree with them on that, so I finally have choosen for the year they wanted me to do. As a decission of myself, not out of a reaction, one way or the other.
When I told them that I didn't agree with them on them saying it was an authority thing they told me that it was just one big misunderstanding I had.
I feel that something is wrong with the way they handled the situation.
I think it is not fair of them to put it on something old within me, when they at first lied to me and then put it back on my lack of handling authority, while the thing I really did was asking for clarity. I also told them that, but they only said that they did not lie to me (before they cleary told me that they did) and again, that it was just me having misunderstandings.

So, how is it really in the gestalt vision, can you do a thing like that and can you, as my teacher says, never do anything wrong, because then I misunderstanded the whole thing of gestalt. I think that gestalt should be free of that kind of manipulation and that a therapist should be able to have true contact with the client or student, and be honest. I think you should be able to trust the teacher/therapist.
Or am I just confused in it, and I miss a point somewhere?

(my language may be a bit strange sometimes as I am not English )