About Gestalt
Gestalt is a humanistic philosophy and approach to therapy. You do not need to know about Gestalt to work with me - rather if, when we meet, it feels right for you to work with me then my Gestalt approach is right for you.
However, some who approach me are students of therapy or have a specific interest in experiencing gestalt therapy. Gestalt cannot really be explained, rather it needs to be experienced. Each gestalt practitioner will have trained over many years and developed their own style, so there is no single way of working that is gestalt. But very briefly there are three essential focusses in gestalt therapy:
Very careful attention is paid to what client and therapist experience in the moment. Attending to this is more important than interpreting the client’s world according to theories of human development.
We are not fixed individuals independent of our environment and others in our lives. Rather we always experience ourselves in the context of the moment and we understand ourselves only when we see ourselves in context.
Experimental phenomenology
The field
Dialogue
It is through relating with others that we gain a sense of ourselves — we cannot have that sense in isolation. It follows that the therapeutic relationship is central to the work.
