Individual Gestalt Therapy Sessions

Gestalt encourages individuals to reclaim spontaneity and take responsibility for their lives. By focusing attention, it enables new perceptions of reality that reduce suffering. Based on the principle that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” therapy enhances awareness—distinct from reasoning—through insights that emerge seemingly from nowhere, yet are shaped by the therapist’s questions, silences, and shared experiences.

Practically, the focus is on the client’s current experiences, offering support and understanding while exploring what is avoided. This process recovers energy wasted on outdated conflict management patterns, fostering the ability to live fully in the present.

Three Key Models in Gestalt Therapy

Within Gestalt, there are three distinct models, all aimed at improving the “proper forms” of the O/E relationship (“O” for organism and “E” for environment), in such a way that a person capable of closing their unfinished business remains vital and creatively connected to others, fully inhabiting the present.

1. New York School:

Chronologically, the first was the New York School, with a strong emphasis on the theoretical-practical study of what enables growth and what hinders it, that is, the psychopathological.

• Paradigm: Field theory (vs. individualistic focus)
• Key Emphasis: Co-construction and the environment take precedence over internal maps.
• Core Principles: Preexisting relationship with the environment, interdependence, no use of techniques.

1. Cleveland School (Relational Gestalt):

Next came the Cleveland School, also known as Relational Gestalt, which is based on a combined emphasis on both group and individual processes.

• Paradigm: I-Thou with a focus on the Relationship.
• Key Emphasis: The emphasis is on mutuality between the O and its E, facilitating personal and group growth. 
• Core Principles: Group life stages, mutuality, use of techniques.

1. California Line: 

Subsequently, the California Line emerged, based on atheoretical existentialism, which focuses on dynamic techniques to facilitate awareness, sometimes in very intense forms. An example of this is the empty chair technique, also used by other schools of Psychology, but without the “Gestalt background” that enables the true empowerment it offers.

• Paradigm: Individualistic I-Thou, existential, dynamic techniques
• Key Emphasis: Self-reliance and awareness through methods like the “empty chair technique.” The emphasis is on the O (organism) of the O/E equation, especially on its maps.

Gestalt therapy integrates fragmented, dissociated parts of the self, fostering confidence and creativity to connect with others in new, stimulating ways.

I’ve trained in all three approaches, continually exploring what motivated Fritz Perls’ evolution from New York to California. As he said: “Beware, life is good!” And in the spirit of Hive Mindset, I add: “Life is meant to be both meaningful and fun!”

“Gestalt Psychotherapy services are based on the clinical approach of psychology, adhering to ethical and professional guidelines for therapeutic practice.”

Procedure:

1. Contact me to briefly discuss your concerns, helping define the scope and boundaries of the process.
2. Following this, we’ll schedule your first session, where I’ll listen and begin anamnesis (which may extend to subsequent sessions).
3. Between the first and second sessions, I’ll provide a “Consent Form” detailing your rights and responsibilities in therapy.

Therapy begins with our first meeting but officially progresses once foundational details are addressed. From there, my role will adapt—active or passive—depending on the evolving process we co-create.

I look forward to your inquiry and leave you with a few quotes from Fritz Perls, the creator of Gestalt Therapy:

“Therapy is too valuable to be limited to the sick.”

“Take a moment to put aside what you think you must do and discover what you are truly doing. Take a little risk, if you can. Feel your own feelings. Say your own words. Think your own thoughts. Be your true self. Discover. Let your own path unfold from within.”