ABSTRACT
Gestalt’s worldview is grounded within a field paradigm where, ‘the interplay of organism and environment constitutes the psychological situation, not the organism and environment taken separately’. The environment and the individual (organism) are mutually dependent parts of the same whole. As a relational therapy in gestalt it is essential that the readers remember that all energetic effort is relational as well as self-organising, this guides us to look at how the other experiences our reactions. A client may see herself as ‘a depressive’ or ‘anxious’ but in gestalt she is seen as part of a whole dynamic situation and whilst the situation, that includes the client, might have depressive or anxious qualities it is always in a state of flux. In the give-and-take of working with clients in gestalt therapy this would mean considering a broad range of possible influences that may reach far beyond any presenting ‘symptoms’.
