ABSTRACT

A gestalt practitioner working with an individual, group or organisation could choose to focus on a particular aspect of functioning and raise awareness of id, ego or personality. The term awareness and self-awareness are notoriously ambiguous and philosophical, psychological and neuroscientific literatures are filled with competing, conflicting, and complementary definitions. Awareness raising stays close to the present-moment experience of the client. A central way of heightening awareness of a client is to stay close and inquire into their ongoing experience. This method of inquiry is called phenomenological and is a key skill in gestalt practice. To intervene and raise awareness in clients, a gestalt practitioner needs to work at heightening their own awareness. Awareness leads to change. This short yet powerful principle of gestalt work emphasises the importance given in gestalt to both the practitioner's own self-awareness as well as the fundamental skill of awareness raising.