ABSTRACT
In Chapter 8, we address one of the most basic and important concepts in gestalt therapeutic theory and practice: being aware, sometimes formulated as having awareness of something, or more precisely, being aware of something in the situation. The concept undoubtedly has a direct connection with phenomenologists’ and gestalt psychologists’ call to return to the senses, which also has support in Zen Buddhist thinking. We discuss what it means to be aware, the three awareness zones, and the awareness–consciousness continuum. We examine awareness and attention in the therapy room and supply the reader with questions that can be used to raise awareness of the three zones. The task of the therapist is to increase the client’s awareness and attention, either by awareness questions, phenomenological descriptions, or various exercises and experiments. Becoming self-aware causes a change in how the client views herself and her problems, which in turn leads her to become aware that she has more choices in the situation she brings to therapy
