ABSTRACT
Since contact is the central task of human life, therapists are concerned with the ways in which processes of contact somehow go awry, producing less than satisfying--often crippling--results. Distortions in processes of contact, which most often result from cognitive distortions and/or incongruities between internal process and outward expression, have been an important focus in the theory and practice of Gestalt therapy. Therefore, much of the work of the Gestalt therapist is devoted to helping clients discover how they habitually and dysfunctionally distort their interactions with others, and how these distortions can lead to the problems which bring them into therapy. Contact serves two major purposes: survival and growth. In inhospitable circumstances, particularly in early life, distortions of cognition and incongruity between internal process and external expression frequently serve a person’s survival needs but inhibit normal growth. Later, in more normal conditions, when these habitual patterns are no longer adaptive, they often inhibit a person’s growth and the ability to live happily and well.
