contact

Weeds or flowers? How neurosis is all about context

Bristol Therapist BlogMay 15, 20184Comments

One of the core concepts in gestalt psychotherapy is contact. Specifically, gestalt therapists are interested in what happens at the contact boundary; itself an emergent phenomenon that arises wherever self meets other. In gestalt's founding text, Perls Hefferline & Goodman's Gestalt Therapy (PHG), the self is defined as "the system of contacts at a given time".…

the gestalt cycle of figure formation and destruction

Rising and falling: the cycle of gestalt formation and destruction

Bristol Therapist BlogFebruary 21, 20180Comments

My first encounter with what pre-gestalt Fritz Perls would have recognised as concentration therapy, came in the form of two exercises from a book called Concentration & Meditation. These were exercises designed to lead into wider Buddhist practice, but I was using them to still and focus my otherwise drastically scattered mind. One of these exercises…

Resentments and regrets: working with unfinished business.

Bristol Therapist BlogApril 12, 20170Comments

Any incomplete gestalt is unfinished business demanding resolution. Usually this takes the form of unresolved and incompletely expressed feelings. Patients are encouraged to experiment with finishing business which heretofore was unfinished... Gestalt therapists have found that resentments are the most frequent and meaningful unexpressed feeling, and often deal with this with a game in which…

Simple questions, complex therapy

Bristol Therapist BlogFebruary 10, 20160Comments

The most elaborate of complexities can arise from the most elegant of simplicities. In gestalt, simplicity is achieved and maintained through a rigorous attention to the present moment, the legendary here and now. Gestalt therapy can be stripped back to three basic questions: 1. What are you aware of now? 2. What do you need now? 3. What does…