What is Gestalt Counselling?
Gestalt counselling is a type of talk therapy that focuses on your present-moment experience while exploring how past patterns may still affect you. It’s an active, collaborative process where client and therapist work together in dialogue to build awareness, resolve unfinished emotional business, and create more freedom in how you live now.
A more in-depth explanation
Gestalt counselling is a dynamic, collaborative approach to therapy. Some counselling styles involve the client doing most of the talking while the counsellor says very little — Gestalt is different. Here, the dialogue between client and therapist is seen as a vital part of the process and a powerful way for discovery and growth to happen.
Where Gestalt comes from
Gestalt therapy was developed in the mid-20th century by Fritz Perls, a German psychiatrist influenced by psychoanalysis, as well as Zen and other Eastern philosophies. Perls was curious about how the ways we adapt to early experiences shape our personality — and how those same adaptations can limit us in adult life.
He described these unresolved influences as unfinished business. Often, the challenges we face in the present are connected to this unfinished business, even if we’re not aware of it. Gestalt therapy helps you bring these patterns into awareness so they have less power over you.
Awareness at the heart of change
In Gestalt counselling, awareness is key. It’s about making the unconscious conscious, noticing how you experience yourself and others in the here-and-now, and discovering more choices in how you live.
People often find that Gestalt work helps them:
- Be more aware of their feelings and experiences without being overwhelmed
- Respond to life with greater freedom rather than old, automatic patterns
- Feel more alive, present, and able to draw on their own creativity in solving problems
Living more fully
Gestalt counselling is ultimately about helping you get out of your own way so you can live a fuller, richer life. It has been described as a way of “waking up” to the aliveness of the present moment — and finding more space to live in it.