What is Gestalt Therapy?

Gestalt Therapy is an awareness-oriented approach to working with people that emphasizes context and relationship. The Gestalt approach embraces a person’s physical, psychological, intellectual, emot49361940bbe3aa7dcbd52eda366a8b4aional, interpersonal, and spiritual experience. Each of these interconnected aspects of living is considered inseparable from a person’s environment, history and culture.

Gestalt therapy seeks to develop awareness, self-support, and creative choice. It encourages responsibility in a person’s effort to realize an effective, meaningful, and fulfilling life. From a Gestalt perspective, a well-lived life is grounded in a person’s awareness of how they function in their world and conduct their relationships in the present.
The Gestalt practitioner works to create a relationship with the client that is respectful and attuned. The immediacy of the emerging dialogue created a space in which the client feels recognized and affirmed by the therapist. A delicate balance of support and challenge is used when addressing the client’s hopes and concerns.

The Gestalt approach places more emphasis on describing and understanding the unique experience of a client rather than interpreting and generalizing about the client’s experience. The use of creative experimentation involves the therapist and client co-creating new ways for the client to be in the world with greater satisfaction.