GESTALT THERAPY 

All life is driven forward by an urge to grow. Seeds sprout, cells divide 
and multiply, matter is converted into energy and life is manifested.

Plants are dependent upon the environment to bring life-giving nourish-
ment to the place they are situated in. Animals roam to find their nourishment – as do humans. But humans also grow intellectually and spiritually, and in their roaming must also acquire nourishment of a 
"higher" kind.

We are beings propelled forward by a drive to grow and develop our 
"higher faculties". This drive is fuelled by emotional energy. 
If the energy flow is blocked we cannot grow.

Navigation towards growth is directed by the principle of homeostasis. 
We are constantly seeking nourishment and avoiding harmful or 
dangerous elements in our environment.

Awareness – deep and insightful – enables us to chart an expedient course, to select among the many emerging figures impinging upon 
our attention in the environment, to select the most appropriate for 
our needs.

When all systems are working the result is harmonious, flowing, 
unimpeded, gainfully oriented and useful behavior which contributes 
to our growth.

If we somehow become "derailed", our growth is impeded. 
Our emotions still fuel us but our choices become less effective. 
Our awareness is malfunctioning.

To correct the situation we must work directly on repairing awareness, 
on regaining our ability to navigate the environment. 
This is Gestalt Therapy.

Frederik S. Perls¹ formulated the work of Gestalt therapy in three 
primary questions:

1. What are you doing?
This question is directed at regaining awareness of what you are doing – your navigation in the HERE-AND NOW. In order to steer a proper course, you need to be aware of the fact that you are steering – you need to 
be aware of the steering wheel in your hands, to be aware of the brake pedal under your foot.

2. What are you feeling?
What kind of fuel are you running on? What, at this moment in time, is 
the direction of growth your system is working on? Without awareness  
of your feelings you cannot make expedient choices.

3. What do you wish / or wish to avoid?
What does your system need in order to grow and develop – right now? Here, awareness is necessary in order to make the proper choices among the figures constantly emerging from the undifferentiated background.

These are the three areas towards which our attention needs to be directed in a healing situation in order to increase our awareness and 
make it possible for us to navigate well.

* * * * * * * * * * *

The "Awareness-excitement-contact cycle" (Zinker, 1978)² or "Cycle 
of homeostatic living" (my title) is an attempt to describe the ebb and 
flow of behavior directed at achieving growth and development. 
The cycle consists of: sensation, mobilization of energy, action, 
contact, satiation and withdrawal, repeated in cyclic circle or wave.

Contact is the experience of awareness. It is in contact that we experience growth. Without contact there is life and action but no development towards actualization. Contact is our experiencing of having acted in a growth-promoting direction. Contact follows acting and precedes satiated withdrawal.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Working with: Unfinished business – directs our attention to interruptions in our growth, to situations where contact was not achieved and possibility 
for development was insufficient. To achieve contact it is necessary to complete the "cycle of homeostatic living". Since the interruption to 
growth may have occurred long ago we complete the cycle in our "thoughts" (regarded by Perls as a kind of lower level of "doing").

Fixed gestalts – directs our attention to previously learned patterns 
which once served a useful growth or avoidance function but have 
become stiff repetitions of behavior, out of touch with present 
homeostatic needs and, therefore, useless for growing and developing. Enhanced awareness allows us to make other, fresh, new navigational choices.

Polarities – draws our attention to navigational choices of which we 
are not aware.

Contact boundary disturbances – also called "resistances" or "defence mechanisms" – introjection, projection, retroflexion, confluence, deflexion, egotism and desensitization, are behaviors which disturb or block our awareness, making it difficult or impossible to achieve proper contact 
and grow.

Focusing attention on these behaviors sharpens our awareness and enables us to make growth-promoting navigational choices.

1. “In Gestalt therapy, the goal is always awareness, and only awareness”, Simkin and Yontef, 1984, p.294 i Harmann: Gestalt Therapy Techniques, 1995, Jason Aronsen, New Jersey.2.  Zinker, J., Creative process in Gestalt therapy, 1977, Vintage Books, New York.

2. Zinker, J., Creative process in Gestalt therapy , 1977, Vintage Books, New York



Ilan Wolffberg  September 2005