ABSTRACT
The awareness continuum relates to every aspect of gestalt therapy. The aim of gestalt is awareness, which is being in contact with one’s existence and with what is at this moment in time. Implicit within this aim is the freeing of blocks that inhibit the flow between figure and ground experience. We can probably all relate to getting fixated to some degree on one particular problem that may cloud our awareness of our ability to process problems. A particularly distressing example of such a block can be seen in a person who is experiencing anxiety attacks. They may become figure-bound to their anxiety. It dominates their thoughts and grows into a powerful, all-consuming figure condemning the ground of their history of being able to successfully creatively adjust to situations to the shadows of unawareness3. However, the flow between figure and ground can meet with a blockage upstream or downstream. Someone with obsessive traits may be paralysed by the multiple choices that present in the ground of their experience and projected imaginings of the future, resulting in an inability to form sharp figures in the here and now. Similarly, it is easy to get lost in the ordinary rush of daily life with its various demands and plethora of messages about how we should be in the world. As a consequence awareness of our desires and aspirations can get buried under a mountain of externally imposed shoulds.
