ABSTRACT
In geography confluence describes the point where two rivers merge into one. In gestalt it carries a similar meaning – a merging or dissolving of the contact boundary that leads to a lack of differentiation from the other. Such a lack of differentiation can be a beautiful and life-enriching experience such as when confluent moments are enjoyed merging when making love, the sense of losing oneself in a group or crowd singing as one, merging with your environment when completing a creative piece of work or feeling at one with whatever you believe in spiritually. Indeed, as therapists we need an ability to move in and out of confluent moments to understand, empathize and practise inclusion with our clients. A wonderful example of an experience of confluence is when we fall in love, we ‘fall’ from ourselves into the other. Whilst on the subject of wonderful examples of ‘positive’ confluence, let me offer another that I am less qualified to testify on than many women, that of the confluence present in the bonding process with a newborn child.
