ABSTRACT
In writing this Point I am indebted to the work of Sally Denham-Vaughan (2010a, 2010b) who introduced the concept of liminal space to gestalt therapy. The word liminal is derived from the Latin root limen meaning threshold. ‘Liminal space’ has meaning beyond the world of psychotherapy and is defined as the threshold between two places, these ‘places’ can be states of being, literally places as in locations, situations, eras or moments in time. A liminal space is a place of transition, you are leaving something behind but have not yet arrived somewhere else, we could view it as the space between a gestalt being completed and a new gestalt beginning to form in the fertile void between gestalts. In such a place we might experience a sense of being on the edge of something, ‘you stand on the threshold of the unknown to which the process of change leads you. This place, space and/or moment in time is characterised by a willingness to let go of anything familiar, and an openness to what is emerging. It lies therefore, at the moment of both being and becoming’ (Denham-Vaughan, 2010a: 35).
