What is Gestalt therapy?
Short answer
Gestalt therapy is an approach that centres the present moment and the way a person makes contact with what surrounds them. What happens inside the session — including body, tone of voice and posture — becomes material for the work.
What comes up in session
Rather than treating an account of the past as the main subject, Gestalt therapy tends to ask what is happening now: what you feel while telling it, what changes in the body, what you avoid.
Some professionals use agreed experiments inside the session — staging a dialogue, changing seats, giving voice to a part of what is felt. None of it is compulsory and all of it is agreed.
Frequently asked questions
- Is it the same as Gestalt psychology?
- They are distinct, with a shared root. Gestalt psychology is a school studying perception; Gestalt therapy is a clinical approach that drew on it, among other influences.
- Do I have to take part in experiments?
- No. An experiment is an invitation, not a requirement, and declining is useful information for the work rather than a problem.