ABSTRACT
Gestalt therapy’s emphasis on awareness and contact can lead to misunderstandings with a devaluing of resistance (moderations to contact). Contact and resistance are part of the same continuum and both can be supports depending upon the situation. Resistance is often a way of protecting oneself from an actual or perceived threat or lack of support and as such needs to be respected by the therapist. This chapter illustrates the need to develop a range of responses by using developing a model based on the work of MacKewn. Within such a model, healthy functioning is defined as an ability to flexibly move along the above continuums in a way that is congruent in relation to the person’s situation. The greater our capacity to extend our ability to move along these continuums with awareness the healthier our relationship with our world becomes.
