ABSTRACT
During that period, I encountered the Gestalt approach, first in 1 975 in the field of psychotherapy and counseling, but later as a possible way of dealing with larger groups and systems in education and health care. After finishing my Gestalt training, I started to integrate the Gestalt method in my work as a trainer, consultant, and coach. I discovered that the first basic idea of Gestalt therapy-the ability and willingness to stay in the "here and now" and accept a situation the way it is, helped my contact with people with dementia. Being "present;' Gestalt therapy's second basic notion, led to many wonderful and deep contacts with people who were diagnosed as demented, which literally means "having no mind" or, in other words, people whose behavior "does not make any sense:' From my long experience, I can say that the behaviors of people with dementia do make sense. The only problem is that we do not always understand them. From this background and experience, I started to stimulate and support many teams and organizations to implement a more person oriented approach and culture in their department or organization.
