ABSTRACT
The founders of gestalt therapy referred to organismic needs, so named to emphasise the lived quality of experience. A gestalt represents a whole experience of such a need that can span varying periods of time depending upon the need. A gestalt represents a whole experience of such a need that can span varying periods of time depending upon the need. Gestalts are organised according to principles researched by the predecessors to gestalt therapy, the gestalt psychologists, that have become known as gestalt laws of perception. The process of an emerging need journeying through to completion has been described in a number of stages that have been elaborated and modified over the years since the founders described their conceptualisation of a gestalt as journeying through four phases: fore-contact, contact, final contact, post-contact.
