is an holistic approach to human functioning; the mind, body, emotions and spirit entwined as an interactive whole, constantly working to achieve balance.

An individual’s personal growth is encouraged through development of self-awareness and self-support for appropriate, spontaneous and creative contact with others.  

The learning and application of Gestalt Therapy is experientially based and experimentally oriented.

The therapist works with what is immediately obvious and available to awareness, in the ‘Here and Now’.

From there they proceed in small steps using mini-experiments with novel behaviours to expand awareness.

It’s an interactive process where past experiences and future longings are appreciated but are explored as manifested in present thinking, feeling and behaving.  

Gestalt theory is grounded in phenomenology, field theory and dialogue.

Gestalt Therapy honours present coping skills, while exploring more holistic ways of problem solving and getting needs met.

The Gestalt approach is much more than a psychotherapy that enables people to cope with their daily lives, as a philosophy it also provides a practical method of transformation, leading progressively to the evolution of the authentic self.

The aim is the awakening of a person’s full potential, supporting what is most alive and energizing.  

Gestalt Psychotherapy is based on the philosophy of trusting the human potential for a growing relationship with their environment and is based on a core belief that the desired outcome of psychotherapy is achieved within the therapeutic relationship with creative and active experimentation.

As the therapist pays attention to the stories or reports of events that a client shares, the focus is on the lively signals that indicate underlying material of which the client may not be aware — how the client is experiencing their world in the present moment. 

Awareness is always of something that is present; even if I am aware of remembering an experience I had years ago, I am remembering it now, in the present.  

If I am not aware, I may lose myself in the memory, in the emotions it engendered then.  

If I am aware I may not lose myself; my awareness gives me a sense of distance from the memory and an opportunity to reframe it in line with what is emerging for me in my present internal and external circumstances.  

In Gestalt therapy theory the awareness process is construed as an on-going contact with a continuum of experiences in “zones”: 

Negative beliefs about the self are built up in early years of life as a reaction to the input from significant others. 

Often this self-concept, or sense of personal identity, is a response to the lack of validation or the negativity and criticism as experienced by the child that are addressed to them. 

Although there may be praise also, these criticisms are built into a set of beliefs about the self that is based on the perceived truth of the criticisms. 

The person will behave then in a way that reinforces the negative concept. If I have been convinced that I am stupid, I will behave in stupid ways although in fact I may be quite intelligent.  

If I believe that I will never amount to anything, I will sabotage any way in which I might be successful, and this is how self-defeating behaviours or self-sabotage can occur in successful people.

However, in keeping with the Gestalt belief in the wholeness of each person, in the possibilities that are present in the “core” self, there is also an inner knowing of the truth, a knowing that I am not stupid or that I can be whatever is in me to be, that it is wonderfully unavoidable being oneself and making one’s own decisions—that I am important and want to do important work.  

This knowing is the foundation for interacting appropriately with the natural and personal environmental field. 

All of the attitudes, beliefs and skills discussed as aspects of “maturity” come together in considering that each of us does not exist in a vacuum, but always in relation. 

Thus, the goal in the “both/and” perspective is to be both personally mature and also to have mature, healthy, satisfying relationships. 

For example, the ability to distinguish, the awareness and ability to make healthy, self-empowering choices, the trust in my knowing, the faith in the processes that are not yet known, all these are present in the “dialogic,” in the relational aspect of the human experience. 

In this process of becoming “independent of the environment” and also “being in healthy interactions with it,” I set up a “between” that may be of many differing qualities depending upon the kind of contact:  “I-It” contacts;  “I-You” contacts; as well as “I-Thou” contacts (Buber). 

Persons need contacts of all kinds. 

The “I-It” relationships keep the business of the world going, myriad kinds of arrangements and interactions in which I am not very much personally engaged. 

“I-You” contacts involve me more personally, more emotionally; I am more engaged because in most cases I will have some personal involvement with the “other” in the encounter. 

“I-Thou” experiences are those in which I am totally engaged as a person, peak experiences to use Maslow’s term. 

In “I-You” interrelationships, the persons involved are able, based upon their experience of themselves and each other, to make a choice to co-create a shared space, with shared responsibilities and commitments. 

This personal involvement is a matter of personal choice, which involves an element of risk and a lot of conscious compromise. 

There are an “I” and an “Other” with personal needs and investments that must be negotiated. 

And there is also an “Ours” (both/and) in which both persons share and to which each chooses to sacrifice some more personal agenda, some measure of perceived independence, for a gestalt that is greater than that of each individual alone or both together. 

The “I-Thou” is a special “meeting” as Buber has said.  It is not consciously created, and has an additional element of the “numinous”

(having a deep spiritual/religious quality or connection. Cambridge dictionary)

The “dialogic” announces a model of a mature relationship where giving and receiving — as well as reciprocity — are, or may be possible. Gestalt therapy is about change.

The Gestalt therapist approaches clients from the perspective that individuals and the systems they operate in are fundamentally able to adapt and grow.

By discovering impediments to growth, the Gestalt therapist helps the client develop new, creative solutions to issues.

The Gestalt approach balances intellectual understanding with an appreciation for action and experience.

Rather than interpret and analyze from the outside, the Gestalt practitioner attempts to heighten and illuminate the client’s experience of life, self and others.

Because of the emphasis on fostering real lifelong change in the self, the Gestalt approach is one of the most respected working models for mental health professionals throughout the world.

Neil Benbow

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