Gestalt is a process-focussed psychotherapy, that in common with Hakomi (below) can also lead to a way of Being in every day life. The emphasis in Gestalt today is on relationship and process rather than dramatic catharsis. The focus is on the here and now and what is happening for the client and the therapist as well as between the client and therapist in the present moment. In Gestalt the aim is for the relationship between client and therapist to be as Martin Buber describes it; “dialogic”: that is I - thou, rather than I – it. . It is hoped that the meeting between client and therapist can  be equal and human. The word Contact is used a lot in Gestalt and can refer to the contact one has with oneself as well as with another or with the environment.

Contact brings in the possibility of nourishment and change. It is believed that healing and change can only happen for both client and therapist where the relationship is as real as possible. Awareness is another key term in Gestalt, and it has two meanings. awareness with a small a, refers to the Gestalt way of working where we become aware of what is going on as a means of understanding ourselves and our needs and how this becomes a way of being outside the therapy room leading to Awareness with a Capital A meaning a kind of aliveness and excitement in how we engage in our everyday living.

Rosemary Fitzgerald is a practicing Gestalt therapist at the centre.