In Gestalt therapy, the whole of a person’s experience is considered important; thoughts, feelings, body sensations. The approach focuses on the ‘here and now’ – what is happening moment by moment.
Staying with present experience allows you to become more aware of who you are. ‘Unfinished business’ from the past that causes fixed ways of being can emerge and be completed. Different aspects of the self come into awareness, allowing more fulfilling relationships and a freer way of functioning in the world.
So, to say in one paragraph:
Gestalt therapy is an existential and experiential psychotherapy that focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts in which these things take place, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of the overall situation. It emphasizes personal responsibility. Gestalt therapy was co-founded by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s–1950s.
info link:
1. http://www.psychotherapybristol.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/0911?opendocument&part=4 and
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_therapy
