Cathy Evason Counselling & Psychotherapy
MBACP Accredited Counsellor/Psychotherapist

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Gestalt?
Gestalt is a Humanistic and holistic model of therapy founded by Fritz Perls, a prominent psychotherapist, teacher and writer working in Germany in the 1950s. Rather than analysing our experience, Perls recognised the importance of activating the whole person - our body processes and emotional world as well as our thinking mind - in the healing process.

How does it work?
The German word 'gestalt' means a whole or a complete pattern. A gestalt or whole includes the whole thing or person being considered, its context and the relationship between the two. Imagine a single snowflake against a dark surface and then the same snowflake amongst many others falling during a blizzard - the snowflake depends upon and cannot be separated from its context - this is the gestalt of the snowflake. In the same way, the gestalt of a person consists of the person themselves and their relationship to their environment. Working within a gestalt framework entails bringing into our awareness, within a supportive therapeutic relationship, our problems, issues and conflicts, so that we can understanding and resolve how we are relating to ourselves, to others and to our environment.

For some people, this can mean talking, maybe for the first time, about our experience and being heard.
For others, this can mean getting more in touch with our experience through our bodily sensations - we sometimes cut ourselves off from our experience in this way.
For others, this can mean experimenting, with support and guidance, with new ways of expressing ourselves.
For others, working creatively in sessions with writing, drawing or movement can help to bring our experience into clearer focus and understanding.

The result of this work can mean feeling more alive, freer of our conflicts, more at peace with ourselves.