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Spirit in Gestalt Therapy

From Presence to Spirit: Gestalt Therapy and the Sacred in Everyday Life

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Introduction

While spirituality is not a specific methodology in Gestalt therapy, it emerges organically through presence, awareness, and relationship. Gestalt therapy honours the human being as a whole—body, mind, emotions, and spirit. It is through this holistic lens that spirit becomes present: not as something transcendent or abstract, but as something intimate, embodied, and woven into the here and now. Gestalt does not ask us to leap over our human experiences in search of enlightenment. Rather, it invites us to inhabit our humanity more fully. Spirit arises not by escaping suffering, but by making meaning of it. As Martin Buber writes, we become more human not by leaving the self behind, but by embracing the richness of the I-Thou relationship—the sacred space that emerges in true meeting.

Embodied Spirituality: Becoming Fully Human

Spirituality often begins as an inner quest, but its deeper unfolding leads us outward—to relationship, responsibility, and connection. It is not about bypassing pain or reaching otherworldly states but about meeting life in all its complexity. This path includes confronting grief, acknowledging our shadows, and deepening our compassion. In Gestalt therapy, the spiritual dimension is found in how we attend to suffering, how we stay present with what is. The client’s process becomes a sacred unfolding, a way of discovering meaning even in despair.

One client, for example, came to therapy quietly grieving the absence of her granddaughter. She was stoic at first, afraid of her own longing and the risk of loving too much. As we worked through her layers of anger and sorrow, she allowed herself to feel the depth of her loss. One day, through tears and laughter, she said with a gentle smile, “I’ll always have her in my heart. And I have the joy of connecting with other families and their children in my life.” She sighed and then drew a heart filled with images and metaphors: people she now shares life with and the bush where she lives. In that moment, we touched the sacred.

The Transpersonal in the Relational Field

Gestalt therapy emphasises that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In therapy, something larger than the two people in the room can emerge—a shared field, a transpersonal presence. This field is where the spiritual dimension often arises. We do not need to transcend our humanness to touch the spiritual. We only need to be present. This presence can open us to wonder, humility, and awe—in relationship, in nature, in a quiet moment of truth. It is in this space that clients can rediscover their sense of belonging to something larger. For some, this may emerge through silence. For others, through tears or creative expression. In every case, it is the therapist’s grounded presence that makes room for such sacred moments to unfold.

Awareness as Spiritual Practice

Awareness, the cornerstone of Gestalt therapy, is itself a spiritual act. Noticing what is, with compassion and without judgment, is a radical form of presence. It is how we meet the world with integrity and grace. Awareness includes noticing our limits and longings, our patterns, and our potential. It invites us to feel what it means to be human. Through this, the seemingly ordinary becomes sacred. In therapy, we often help clients slow down, not to fix themselves, but to notice. To experience a moment fully. Just like meditation or mindfulness, this kind of awareness opens us to something beyond the self—a sense of connection, of meaning, of life unfolding.

Imagination and the Soul

The soul speaks through imagination. It is nourished by images, stories, symbols, dreams, and creativity. Art, poetry, and play are natural expressions of the soul. Gestalt therapy, especially when integrated with creative processes, offers a home for this soulful way of being. The therapist who invites drawing, movement, or visualisation isn’t using a technique—they are offering care for the soul. These methods allow clients to connect with deeper truths, often beyond words. When a client draws a heart filled with images of people and place, it is not just art. It is the soul expressing its way of belonging. These expressions help restore a sense of wholeness, beauty, and peace.

Connection, Community, and Meaning

Many clients today arrive in therapy feeling isolated, disconnected, and overwhelmed by a materialistic culture. There is often a deep hunger for meaning. Gestalt therapy supports clients in finding this not only within themselves but in their relationships, communities, and in their connection to the natural world. Healing is not just individual. It includes finding our place in the greater whole. Spirituality, in this context, includes caring for others, the environment, and the wider field in which we live. It is a movement from individual healing to collective wholeness.

Conclusion: Spirit in the Everyday

Gestalt therapy holds space for the spiritual not by naming it, but by making room for it. In the presence of another, in the silence between words, in the vulnerability of authentic contact, spirit can emerge. It may come in a sigh, in a moment of laughter, in a drawing or in the stillness after tears. The therapist’s role is not to create these moments but to be open to them—to meet the client with reverence, to stay with what arises. This is how spirit lives in the field: in ordinary moments, made extraordinary by attention and care. In the shared breath of two people present to one another. In the image of a heart drawn in pastel, rooted in the bush, full of life.

Gestalt therapy, at its essence, offers a path to wholeness through presence, creativity, and relationship. In doing so, it honours the sacred in everyday life.

References

Ham, P. (2024). The Soul. Penguin Books.

Hycner, R. (1993). Between Person and Person: Toward a Dialogical Psychotherapy. The Gestalt Journal Press.

Mackewn, J. (1997). Developing Gestalt Counselling. Sage Publications.

Moore, T. (1992). Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life. Harper Perennial.

Experimentation in Gestalt Therapy

The Power of Experimentation in Gestalt Therapy

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Why Experimentation Matters in Gestalt Therapy

Experimentation is central in Gestalt therapy, offering a dynamic pathway for clients to explore their inner world and gain new insights. This article explores the significance of experimentation, its theoretical roots, practical applications, and the therapist’s role in cultivating a creative, safe environment. Unlike traditional talk therapy, which emphasizes narrative and cognitive insight, Gestalt therapy invites the client into direct, embodied experiences. Experimentation bridges the gap between knowing and doing—it helps translate insight into action, fostering a felt sense of change that can ripple outward into the client’s daily life.

The Roots of Experimentation: Learning Through Experience

Gestalt therapy draws from experiential learning theory. Kolb’s learning cycle—involving concrete experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation—mirrors the process used in Gestalt sessions. This approach emphasizes the unity of body, mind, and soul. Humans learn through experience, and Gestalt therapy supports clients to explore unresolved emotions and behavioural patterns. Experiments help clients move beyond habitual responses and try new ways of being. The aim is not performance, but greater awareness and integration.

Creating Space for Discovery in the Therapy Room

Experiments in Gestalt therapy are co-created experiences that emerge from the unique relationship between therapist and client. Rather than being scripted, they arise in response to the present moment. These may include role-play, guided imagery, metaphor, dream work, or creative media. The “empty chair” technique invites dialogue with parts of the self or with imagined others. Movement and drawing can help give form to inner experiences that are difficult to verbalise. By engaging physically and emotionally, clients step outside of entrenched patterns. The experiment becomes a rehearsal space—a way to try out new responses and observe their effects. This process opens the door to insight, self-support, and integration.

The Therapist’s Role: Holding Space for the Unknown

The therapist collaborates with curiosity and care. Safety and trust are essential—particularly when clients explore unfamiliar territory. A grounded, present therapist makes risk-taking possible. Gestalt values the client’s capacity for self-regulation and growth. The therapist helps the client stay with their experience, reflect on new awareness, and explore how to carry it forward. Therapists also support clients in linking discoveries from experiments to daily life. This might involve noticing how a new posture or tone of voice supports a real-world interaction.

From Insight to Integration: The Impact of Trying Something New

Experimentation allows clients to experience themselves in new ways—more expressed, more connected, or more whole. Rather than only talking about change, they begin to embody it. These lived moments often lead to insights that may not arise through verbal reflection alone. Not every experiment leads to a breakthrough. Some deepen awareness, others plant seeds that surface later. A client may leave with a new image or feeling that shifts something internally over time.

Example: Finding One’s Voice in a Safe Space

A client shares her acute discomfort following a recent group gathering, describing how small and silenced she felt. Rather than staying with words alone, the therapist arranges several cushions on the floor, each representing someone from the group. Gently, the client is invited to choose one cushion to represent herself, and then place near it the cushions she feels safest with.

As she moves the cushions, her body shifts—her breathing deepens, her stance becomes more grounded. In this field she creates, she begins to speak, first to the cushions representing those she trusts, then gradually to those she finds more challenging. Her voice trembles at first, but as she continues, her tone grows steadier. Finally, she stands up, moves into the centre of the “group,” and says clearly what she needed to say all along. She laughs afterward, surprised, and says, “That wasn’t so hard.”

Through this simple but profound experiment, the client experiences herself differently: more expressed, more real, more whole. The transformation is not just in what she says, but in how she inhabits herself—standing her ground, speaking her truth, and feeling the embodied memory of doing so. This lived moment becomes a resource she can carry back into real-life interactions.

Example: Drawing the Way Through a Stuck Pattern

A client feels “stuck” in her relationship with her adult daughter. Rather than continue talking, the therapist invites her to explore the feeling through art. Using pastels, she draws a heavy, dark shape. As the drawing continues, the lines lighten. She begins to feel something new—space and release. The image becomes a mirror of her inner state and a reminder that change is possible. She refers back to it in future sessions as a symbol of openness and trust.

Challenges and Considerations in Experimentation

Experimentation must be handled with care. Some clients resist unfamiliar activities due to fear or past negative experiences. Even small shifts in expression can feel exposing. Therapists create a safe environment for these risks. Flexibility is key: what illuminates for one client may provoke resistance in another. Structured or spontaneous, each experiment must be tailored. Sometimes an experiment misses the mark. If it does, the therapist supports reflection and repair. These moments are also rich opportunities for modelling respect and responsiveness.

A Practice of Trust, Creativity, and Embodied Growth

Experimentation in Gestalt therapy offers a living experience of change—felt, tried, and integrated. Role-play, movement, or art can reveal parts of the self that words cannot reach. Experiments open space for surprise and possibility. The therapist co-creates this with presence, curiosity, and care. In a world focused on certainty, Gestalt experimentation honours the slow unfolding of insight. It’s a practice of trust—in the process, the relationship, and the client’s inner capacity to grow. This process is relational. Every experiment affirms the client’s place in a larger field—family, community, culture. When change emerges from authentic contact, it tends to endure.

References

Joyce, P. & Sills, C. (2010). Skills in Gestalt Counselling & Psychotherapy. London: Sage Press.

Melnick, J. & Nevis, S. (1995). Gestalt Methodology. Sage, California

Zinker, J. (1978). Creative Process in Gestalt Therapy. Vintage Books: New York

Healing trauma and addiction with Gestalt Art Therapy

Numbing to Knowing: Healing Trauma and Addiction through Gestalt Art Therapy

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Understanding Trauma & Addiction

Many people experience suffering in their lives, whether due to a difficult childhood, illness, or a traumatic event such as a horrific car accident. One common response to trauma is addiction—whether to food, alcohol, or other substances—something that provides relief or pleasure, numbing the pain. There is nothing inherently wrong with someone who turns to these coping mechanisms; it is simply an attempt to solve a problem. This understanding shapes my approach to suffering and trauma in my Gestalt Art Therapy practice.

Core concepts of Gestalt therapy include a here-and-now focus, awareness, wholeness, experimentation, and dialogue. Gestalt therapy emphasizes staying in the present moment. Using art in therapy helps clients externalize and explore their current thoughts, feelings, and experiences through creative expression. This process includes addressing intrusive thoughts, memories, and future anxieties. In this way, Gestalt art therapy supports emotional healing through awareness, embodiment, and creativity.

The Neuroscience of Trauma and Connection

Neuroscience has significantly influenced my thinking and ways of working. The parts of the brain involved in addiction are also responsible for love, connection, and a sense of vitality. Human brain development begins in the womb, where stress experienced by the mother releases hormones that impact the child’s developing brain. Even before birth, the unborn baby is exposed to stress. As the child grows, additional stressors—such as a busy parent unable to provide consistent attention—can further shape their neurological development.

Personal Story and Reflection

I was the second of three children. When my brother was one month old and I was 18 months, my mother suffered the first of what was then diagnosed as a nervous breakdown. Decades later, I see myself as one of the many walking wounded. By the age of 16, I was smoking six cigarettes a day. By 30, that number had grown to 60. When I finally quit smoking, I turned to food for comfort and gained weight. Now, I recognize that I am not alone in this struggle—many of us seek ways to relieve our suffering and reconnect with ourselves.

Over the years, I have suppressed my healthy anger. For example, as a child when my mother was hospitalized, I was always sent away to stay with family friends, unlike my brother who stayed home with my dad. I didn’t feel safe enough to express my hurt and anger at being treated differently. To make myself feel better, I learned to suppress my anger, my struggles with belonging, and my discomfort around difference. I even ridiculed others who seemed different, in an attempt to feel more in control. This lack of compassion is neither helpful nor healing.

Like many others, I was conditioned to prioritize the emotional needs of others over my own, suppressing my authentic self. Why do we do this? Because, as humans, we cannot survive without attachment to our caregivers. As we grow and develop, we crave both connection and self-expression, yet we often wrestle with choosing between them. Looking back, I realize that some of my best decisions came when I trusted my instincts rather than what I perceived were others’ expectations or the ‘right way’ to act. As Dr. Gabor Maté says, “The essence of trauma is the tension between the need for acceptance and the need for authenticity.”

Parenting, Intergenerational Patterns, and Responsibility

When parents are under stress, the validation of authenticity is often sacrificed—not through deliberate harm, but through inattention. As a parent, I recognize that I was sometimes emotionally unavailable to my children. Were they accepted, validated, and celebrated enough? Were their emotions truly heard and understood? The lack of acceptance and validation is what ultimately separates us from ourselves. This is the essence of trauma—the tension between the need for acceptance, which ensures survival, and the need for authenticity, which fosters vitality and growth.

I do not blame anyone, nor do I believe in carrying guilt. Instead, I advocate for taking responsibility for healing once we understand what is happening. This journey is deeply personal, yet we do not have to undertake it alone, even if it sometimes feels that way.

At various points in my life, I’ve asked: How do I stop tuning out to protect myself from stress? I’ve come to understand that I was numbing myself. I now know that I do not suffer from a genetic disease. While my mother was diagnosed with nervous breakdowns and hospitalized multiple times, today, her suffering would likely be understood and treated differently. My brain developed coping mechanisms that, while initially protective, later indicated the need for change. Regular therapy has been instrumental in my healing. I take better care of my body, practicing mindfulness, yoga, and strength training to stay attuned to my needs.

One lingering question remains: Is there a genetic component to my experience of coping with life’s challenges? My anxiety? My tendency to tune out under stress? What I do know is that society is more stressed than ever, in part due to the erosion of extended family support systems. This was my mother’s reality as well. What may be genetic is sensitivity. The more a sensitive child suffers, the more they disconnect. They experience a heightened reaction to external stimuli. Looking back, I see what happened, accept it, and carry my doubts and awareness without the need for justification.

The Healing Path: Art, Embodiment, Therapy, and Play

What I have learned—both personally and in my therapy practice—is that we are hardwired for emotions such as anger, grief, and fear. But we are also wired for joy and play. In the final stages of life, people often express regrets about not having played more. That is why, in my Gestalt art therapy practice and daily life, I create space for art, for playing with colour, for movement, and for celebration. Healing isn’t linear, but it is possible—and it begins with awareness, creativity, and the courage to reconnect.

References

Elbrecht, C. (2019). Healing trauma with guided drawing: A sensorimotor art therapy approach to bilateral body mapping. North Atlantic Books.

Levine, P. A., & Frederick, A. (1997). Waking the tiger: Healing trauma. North Atlantic Books.

Maté, G., & Maté, D. (2022). The myth of normal: Trauma, illness, and healing in a toxic culture. Avery.

Rothschild, B. (2000). The body remembers: The psychophysiology of trauma and trauma treatment. W. W. Norton & Company.

Gestalt Art Therapy: Unlocking the power of creativity and imagination by Helen McWilliam

Gestalt Art Therapy: Unlocking the Healing Power of Creativity and Imagination

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‘Art is an extension of the self and can be a meaningful and powerful way to express what words cannot say.’

Art has accompanied humanity from the very beginning. Across time and culture, we have painted, danced, sculpted, sung, and used ritual to express our place in the world, connect with the sacred, and foster collective healing. While Western history once separated ‘fine art’ from craft and everyday creativity, the healing potential of the arts remains universal and enduring.

Gestalt Art Therapy brings this timeless human capacity into the therapy room. It combines the foundational principles of Gestalt therapy—presence, awareness, experimentation, and dialogue—with the transformative potential of art-making. Rooted in the present moment and the therapeutic relationship, this approach offers clients a dynamic path to explore, express, and integrate their lived experience.

Reclaiming Creativity

Clients often arrive in therapy saying, “I can’t draw,” or “I’m not creative.” These beliefs are usually the result of early wounding—perhaps a moment in childhood when their art was criticised, corrected, or dismissed. These moments can shape how someone sees themselves, leaving them cut off from the natural impulse to express and play.

In Gestalt Art Therapy, we gently challenge these narratives. Creativity is not about performance; it is about expression. Clients are invited to reclaim their right to create—not for approval, but for themselves.

Core Principles and Creative Expression

Gestalt therapy focuses on what is happening now. It values awareness, wholeness, and the unfolding of meaning through dialogue and experimentation. Art-making provides a direct way for clients to externalize and explore their inner world, whether that includes intrusive thoughts, painful memories, or anxiety about the future.

Creating art in therapy enhances self-awareness. Through the choice of materials, colours, shapes, and movement, clients begin to recognize patterns and parts of themselves that may have remained hidden. Artistic expression often brings to light aspects of the self that are hard to put into words—parts that may have been ignored, dismissed, or judged. With gentle support, clients begin to integrate these aspects and relate to them with curiosity and compassion.

Imagination is central. Art gives form to the inner landscape—emotions, fantasies, and dreams come alive on the page or through movement. In Gestalt Art Therapy, these expressions are not interpreted or analyzed in a rigid way. Instead, they are explored together by therapist and client, opening space for symbolic meaning, embodied feeling, and authentic self-discovery.

The Artwork as a Third Presence

In the therapy space, both the process of making art and the product itself matter. The artwork becomes a third presence in the room—something created by the client, yet also separate. It enriches the situation, enables new communication, and offers fresh perspectives. We do not judge it or ask, “What does it mean?”We explore it.

For example, as a client finishes a bold, chaotic image made with thick strokes of black pastel, they sit quietly, their hands still smudged with black dust. Their breathing slows, and they lean forward, gazing intently at the piece. The therapist notices how the client’s jaw relaxes and their feet press more firmly into the floor. Gently, the therapist asks, “What’s it like to look at this now?” The client might pause, sensing into their body, and say, “It’s strange… I feel more solid, like I’m standing on my own ground.” In this shared space, the artwork is not just an object; it is a living expression that helps bridge inner sensations and emerging awareness, inviting both therapist and client into a deeper dialogue with what has been held inside.

How does it affect us? What happens when we see it as an entity with its own voice? What might it say if it could speak? We may give it a title, or respond to it with a gesture, a poem, a movement, or another image. This dialogue between client, therapist, and artwork deepens the therapeutic field and invites a richer encounter with self.

Experimentation Through Creative Media

A hallmark of Gestalt therapy is the use of experiments—creative, experiential ways to try out new behaviours or perspectives. Art-making itself is a form of experiment. Clients can use drawing, painting, collage, clay, or found objects to explore a situation, clarify confusion, or imagine alternative possibilities.

The therapist may invite the client to work freely or may suggest focused tasks—like drawing a relationship dynamic, a dream, or an emotional state. These visual metaphors bypass cognitive defences and tap into embodied, intuitive knowing. As the client creates, they often discover new insights or notice shifts in feeling and energy.

After creating, the therapist may ask questions like:

  • “What do you see here?”
  • “What part of this feels familiar?”
  • “If this shape or colour could speak, what might it say?”

Through this shared inquiry, art becomes a bridge to deeper understanding.

Safety, Expression, and the Power of Process

Art-making in therapy is not about talent or aesthetics. No prior art experience is needed. It is the process—not the product—that matters.

For many clients, especially those dealing with trauma, grief, or anxiety, creative work can provide grounding and containment. It supports emotional regulation, allowing clients to externalize difficult feelings in a way that feels safer and more manageable. Art can distract from rumination, clarify complex inner experiences, and help reconnect fragmented parts of the self.

The body holds memories of trauma. Often, in order to feel safe or accepted, we learn to conform to what is expected of us—for example, by staying calm and composed. But what happens to the raw sensations of feeling threatened? Our fight-or-flight response? The body’s need to tremble, flee, or push back? These energies can remain stuck in the body, unexpressed.

Art-making offers a safe way to explore these embodied sensations. Using finger paint, rhythmic mark-making, or large gestural movements, clients can begin to express long-held fears, anger, or the impulse to run or strike out. These creative acts help bring awareness to the inner world of sensations, feelings, and needs—and what is being called for in life now.

Art can also be playful, joyful, and life-affirming—a source of vitality in the therapy space. Clients often report feeling more whole, expressive, and connected after engaging in art.

Conclusion: Creativity as a Gateway to Healing

Gestalt Art Therapy harnesses the healing potential of creativity, imagination, and presence. By integrating Gestalt principles with artistic process, it provides a powerful way for clients to explore themselves more fully and reconnect with their inner vitality.

Whether expressing the unspeakable, making sense of the confusing, or celebrating the beauty of simply being alive, art becomes a trusted companion on the therapeutic journey. Through it, clients find new ways of seeing, feeling, and being in the world.

References

Ebrecht, H. & Atkinson, S. (2014). Presence and process in Expressive Arts work.

Elbrecht, C. (2019). Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing.

Mackewn, J. (1997). Developing Gestalt counselling. Sage, London: Sage Press.

Oaklander, V. (2007). Windows to Our Children. The Gestalt Journal Press: Maine.

Shakhova, O. & Mavinushkina, A. (2023) Artistic creativity as a resource in psychological support group of Kharkiv Institute of Gestalt Psychodrama during wartime. British Gestalt Journal 3 (2).

Zinker, J. (1978). Creative process in Gestalt therapy. Vintage Books: New York.

What is gestalt therapy? The philosophy, theory and the therapy space by Helen McWilliam

What is Gestalt therapy? Gestalt philosophy, theory and the therapy space

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Gestalt Philosophy, Theory, and the Therapy Space

Gestalt therapy emerged in the 1940s and 50s as a fresh, dynamic response to the limitations of Freudian psychoanalysis, which privileged the expertise of the analyst. Gestalt turned the focus back to the immediacy of human experience—the living moment between client and therapist, where insight arises naturally from presence and connection.

Rather than interpreting from a distance, Gestalt therapy invites a sharpening of perception: to feel, see, and know one’s experience in its totality (Yontef & Jacobs, 2000). In this article, I explore the vibrant, relational, and deeply human foundations of Gestalt therapy—the heart of the work I love.

Holism: Treating the Person as a Whole

Gestalt therapy sees people not as a collection of separate parts, but as whole beings—body, mind, soul, language, spirit—woven together. Life often teaches us to split off parts of ourselves: to ignore the body’s signals, to hide emotions, to overthink instead of feel. In Gestalt therapy, we work gently to reunite what has been divided, trusting in the natural, self-regulating wisdom that wants to move us toward wholeness. We don’t “fix” people. We accompany them as they reconnect with parts of themselves that have been silenced, forgotten, or hidden away.

Organismic Self-Regulation: Trusting Our Inner Compass

At the core of Gestalt theory is the beautiful idea that we are inherently self-organizing beings. Our needs, when heard and honoured, guide us toward balance and vitality. But in a busy or painful world, we can lose touch with what we need. We may stop noticing hunger, grief, joy, restlessness. In therapy, part of the work is helping clients slow down, listen again, and trust what arises. As we learn to feel our discomforts and respond with awareness, we come back into a more fluid, alive relationship with ourselves and our environment.

Phenomenology and Present-Centred Awareness

One of the gifts of Gestalt therapy is the emphasis on being here and now. In the therapy room, we explore what is alive in the moment: sensations, emotions, thoughts, memories, images, dreams. Often, we move naturally from body awareness into meaning-making, connecting the threads of past, present, and future that are vibrating right now in the client’s world. Presence is not about perfection. It’s about daring to notice—with compassion—what’s already unfolding within and between us.

The Therapeutic Relationship: A Space for Meeting

The therapeutic relationship in Gestalt therapy is not clinical or distant. It’s real, alive, and co-created, moment by moment. Practicalities like fees and scheduling matter, of course. But the deeper work is about contact: being willing to meet the client where they are, with openness, attunement, and respect for their unfolding process. I often think of therapy as a kind of shared listening—both of us listening together to the life that wants to emerge.

Existential Dialogue: Inviting Curiosity and Responsibility

Existential dialogue invites clients to explore not just what they believe, but how they live those beliefs. As therapists, we offer perspectives, not prescriptions. We walk alongside, gently opening spaces for new possibilities. We trust in the client’s capacity for growth, authenticity, and meaningful choice. This kind of dialogue isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about creating a space where deeper questions can arise and be lived into.

Field Theory: We Are Never Separate

Gestalt therapy teaches that we are never separate from our environment. Everything that shapes a client’s current experience—family, culture, relationships, history—is part of the field we attend to. In therapy, we don’t isolate symptoms. We stay curious about the whole context: what is happening here and now in the client’s life, and between us in the therapy room. The therapy space itself becomes part of the field—an unfolding relational dance of gestures, pauses, emotions, silences—where change can happen naturally.

The Paradoxical Theory of Change: Becoming More Fully Ourselves

This central tenet of Gestalt therapy holds that change happens not by trying to be different, but by becoming more fully who we already are. In therapy, this means attending to what is present—sensations, feelings, longings, resistances—and trusting that awareness itself gently shifts the field. Real change arises naturally from presence, not from force.

At the same time, I hold with deep respect that the ways my clients have learned to be in the world—compartmentalizing feelings, withdrawing, striving—have often been hard-won strategies that helped them stay safe. I can only invite this kind of deep work when I feel the client has enough safety and support to explore it. Together, we listen for the rhythms of readiness, honouring the protective patterns that have served them so far, and moving at a pace that feels safe, compassionate, and true to their unfolding.

Experimentation: The Courage to Try Something New

Gestalt therapy is alive with experimentation—playful, creative ways to explore new possibilities. Experiments might involve movement, drawing, dialogue with different parts of the self, or trying out a new way of being in relationship. They invite clients to step outside familiar patterns and experience themselves differently. An experiment isn’t a performance—it’s an invitation to curiosity, embodied discovery, and growth.

Conclusion: A Path Toward Wholeness

Gestalt therapy offers something simple yet profound: a space to slow down, to listen, to meet what is truly here. It honours the client’s courage, creativity, and natural movement toward healing. It invites a reconnection with the authenticity that is never truly lost, only waiting to be remembered. In this work, I am often humbled by the beauty of what unfolds. Gestalt therapy reminds me again and again: we are not problems to be solved. We are living beings, full of potential, mystery, and possibility. Gestalt therapy is not about fixing what’s broken—it’s about discovering what is alive. It’s about slowing down enough to notice what’s already here, and daring to meet it with curiosity, care, and the creative possibility of change.

If you would like to know more about Gestalt therapy visit my frequently asked questions page or please feel free to send a message through the contact page.

References

Beisser, A. (1970). The paradoxical theory of change.
Clarkson, P. & Mackewn, J. (1993). Fritz Perls. London: Sage Press.
Joyce, P. & Sills, C. (2010). Skills in Gestalt Counselling & Psychotherapy. London: Sage Press.
Yontef, G., & Jacobs, L. (2000). Gestalt Therapy. In Corsini & Wedding (Eds.), Current Psychotherapies.
Zinker, J. (1978). Creative Process in Gestalt Therapy. New York: Vintage Books.

Helen McWilliam Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt Art Workshops and Courses:  Helen facilitates Gestalt Art Experience Workshops that are held over one day. Art Therapy Courses are held over a four week period, this course is suitable for therapists and counsellors and is endorsed by PACFA for CPD hours.

Counselling:  Helen offers counselling sessions online and in person. Sessions are offered online on Tuesdays, and in person on Wednesdays and Thursdays at West End, Brisbane.

Supervision:  Supervision is offered to counsellors, psychologists and students.

All services are offered online and in person in Brisbane, Australia. Online appointments are offered on Tuesdays, and in person appointments are available on Wednesdays and Thursdays at West End, Brisbane.

Contact Helen for more information or to book an appointment

Helen can be contacted via email at hmcwilliam@gmail.com or phone 0428 876 791. Alternatively please send a message through the contact form below.