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What is Gestalt Therapy?
A Humanistic, Holistic & Experience-Oriented Approach
Gestalt Therapy – A Humanistic, Experience-Oriented Approach
Gestalt therapy is an experience-oriented, humanistic form of therapy developed in the
1940s by Lore and Fritz Perls, emerging from psychoanalysis. At its core lies the belief that
every human being holds within them the potential for transformation, growth, and
self-healing.
The Human Being as a Whole
The human being is viewed as a unity of soul, mind, body and the environmental field. We are naturally inclined to create what feels complete and integrated.
However, due to biographical experiences, we often had to develop responses that ensured
our survival. These survival strategies can now limit our authentic and free expression in creating what feels complete.
In Gestalt therapy, these survival mechanisms are honoured as forms of creative adaptation.
One goal is to bring these individual survival based responses to awareness, so they begin to de-automate.
Contact – Relationship as Healing
The Gestalt therapist is especially interested in what happens “between” themselves and the
client – in line with Martin Buber’s idea that “All real living is meeting.”
To make this “in-between” space tangible, the therapist slows down the process, allowing
feelings and bodily sensations to come to the forefront.
Internal blockages are also explored together in therapeutic dialogue. The client is invited to
experiment within the therapeutic relationship and to take risks by trying out new behaviors.
Revitalizing the Self
The self is not seen as a fixed structure. In different moments of contact, the self performs
various functions. These functions become tangible in the course of therapy – for example,
you might suddenly notice how you hold yourself back in contact with me, and how this
pattern also shows up outside of therapy.
Another goal for the client is to become aware how he/she uses their energy in contact.
According to Fritz Perls, awareness itself is already healing.
Responsibility in the Here and Now
Gestalt therapy invites the client into an experience of immediacy. The therapist supports the
client in directly experiencing themselves throughout the process.
Responsibility can only be taken in the here and now.
The client’s awareness is refined over time through interventions, active experiments in the
present moment (e.g., the empty chair technique) and through the therapist’s dialogical
stance.The therapist does not simply stay in the realm of “talking about” but instead guides
the client toward a creative, experimental attitude in the present.
By helping the client make the here-and-now experience tangible, the therapist empowers
them to find new responses to current life situations.
Common Gestalt Therapy Techniques
Gestalt therapy is practical and experiential — we don’t only talk about your life, we work with what happens in the room. A few methods you might encounter:
- The empty chair — speaking to an imagined person, or to a part of yourself, to give feelings a voice
- Awareness experiments — noticing what you feel in your body and emotions, moment to moment
- Working with contact — exploring how you reach out, hold back or connect with others
- Staying with what is — meeting a feeling instead of avoiding it, so it can move and change
Who Can Gestalt Therapy Help?
Gestalt therapy can support you with anxiety and stress, low mood, relationship and identity questions, big life transitions, and the particular strain of living between languages and cultures. It is a good fit if you would like more self-awareness and more genuine contact — with yourself and with the people around you, including in your closest relationships. It is not a substitute for medical or psychiatric care.
Where Gestalt Therapy Comes From
Gestalt therapy was developed in the 1940s by Fritz and Laura Perls, together with Paul Goodman, growing out of — and beyond — psychoanalysis. Its name comes from the German word Gestalt: a whole that is more than the sum of its parts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Gestalt therapy in simple terms?
It is a talking therapy that focuses on the present moment — your awareness, feelings and how you connect with others — rather than only analysing the past. The aim is more awareness, choice and genuine contact.
What happens in a Gestalt therapy session?
We pay attention to what comes alive as we talk — a feeling, a memory, a way you hold yourself — and gently explore it together, sometimes with small experiments like the empty chair.
Does Gestalt therapy work online?
Yes. The focus on contact and awareness translates naturally to secure video sessions, so we can work together wherever you are.
How long does Gestalt therapy take?
It is individual — some people come for a few focused sessions, others over a longer period. We find a rhythm that fits you.