Enchantment and Gestalt Therapy is a personal exploration of Erving Polster’s remarkable career, the value of the Gestalt approach, and the power of enchantment in psychotherapy. Polster points ahead to a vision of a psychotherapy that includes the population as a whole rather than focusing on individuals, highlights common aspects of living, and focuses on creating an ethos for a shared understanding. The book outlines the six Gestalt therapy concepts that have formed the basis of Polster’s work and describes Life Focus Groups, with an emphasis on the communal relationship between tellers and listeners. Polster also describes the phenomenon of enchantment in psychotherapy in detail, with reference to his own experiences. This unique work is essential reading for Gestalt therapists, other professionals interested in Gestalt approaches, and readers looking for a deeper insight into community and connection. In the below link, Erving Polster speaks to Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, the series editor of The Gestalt Therpay Book Series, about Enchantment and Gestalt Therapy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PVG9JgpTQQ&feature=youtu.be

"Enchantment and Gestalt Therapy is a personal exploration of Erving Polster's remarkable career, the value of the Gestalt approach, and the power of enchantment in psychotherapy. Polster points ahead to a vision of a psychotherapy which includes the population as a whole rather than focusing on individuals, which highlights common aspects of living, and which focuses on creating an ethos for a shared understanding. The book outlines the six Gestalt therapy concepts that have formed the basis of Polster's work, and describes Life Focus Groups, with emphasis on the communal relationship between tellers and listeners. Polster also describes the phenomenon of enchantment in psychotherapy in detail, with reference to his own experiences. This unique work will be essential reading for Gestalt therapists, other professionals interested in Gestalt approaches, and readers looking for a deeper insight into community and connection"--

Enchantment and Gestalt Therapy is a personal exploration of Erving Polster's remarkable career, the value of the Gestalt approach, and the power of enchantment in psychotherapy. Polster points ahead to a vision of a psychotherapy that includes the population as a whole rather than focusing on individuals, highlights common aspects of living, and focuses on creating an ethos for a shared understanding. The book outlines the six Gestalt therapy concepts that have formed the basis of Polster's work and describes Life Focus Groups, with an emphasis on the communal relationship between tellers and listeners. Polster also describes the phenomenon of enchantment in psychotherapy in detail, with reference to his own experiences. This unique work is essential reading for Gestalt therapists, other professionals interested in Gestalt approaches, and readers looking for a deeper insight into community and connection. In the below link, Erving Polster speaks to Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, the series editor of The Gestalt Therpay Book Series, about Enchantment and Gestalt Therapy. https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PVG9JgpTQQ&feature=youtu.be

This compelling and comprehensive volume is an anthology of current thinking by many of gestalt therapy’s leading theoreticians, clinicians, and researchers. Including many well-known voices in the field and introducing several new ones to the current gestalt therapy literature, the book presents a broad-ranging compendium of essays, scientific articles, clinical applications, and integrative approaches that represent the richness and vibrancy of the field. Each contributor brings intellectual rigor, honest personal reflection, and humanism to their area of inquiry. This ethos—the spirit of relational gestalt therapy—infuses the whole book, bringing a sense of coherence to its seventeen chapters. Following an introduction written by Mark Winitsky, PhD, as an entry point into the field for students and psychotherapists from other schools of thought, the book is organized into three sections: Theory, Clinical Applications, and Integrative Approaches. Readers will encounter new ways of thinking about psychotherapy, new skills they can bring to their work, and new ways of integrating gestalt therapy with other approaches. The Relational Heart of Gestalt Therapy is essential reading for Gestalt therapists as well as other mental health professionals with an interest in Gestalt approaches.

In Human Interaction and Emotional Awareness in Gestalt Therapy H. Peter Dreitzel explores a model of the contacting processes between human beings and their environments and presents a phenomenological exploration of the emotions guiding such contacts. The book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the role of psychotherapy in the modern world, especially in the context of change and crisis. Dreitzel sets out a new perspective of how we interact with each other, how we frame our encounters and differentiate them from one another, how we give them meaning, and how they are related to our needs and wants. This is followed by a unique phenomenological exploration of the emotions guiding such contacts, the first time the world of human feelings has been explored in depth and systematically analysed in Gestalt thought. These innovative explorations are framed first by a discussion of the historical development of Western conventions regarding everyday behaviour, and secondly by an examination of perspectives on climate change. Dreitzel analyses the mental and emotional states of potential clients as they are affected by these global processes and the book also includes an epilogue which evaluates how to work with climate anxiety. Dreitzel’s conception of social change, with Gestalt therapy at its core, is relevant to all aspects of humanistic psychology. It elevates empathy, emotional development and the prevention of suffering at all levels of society, filling important gaps in Gestalt therapy theory and expanding it into exciting new territory. Human Interaction and Emotional Awareness in Gestalt Therapy also contains an insightful foreword by Michael Vincent Miller, PhD, and will be essential reading for Gestalt therapists, other professionals with an interest in Gestalt approaches and readers interested in social interaction, climate change and the role of psychotherapy in a changing world.

The first peer-reviewed book of its kind, this important volume addresses a current gap in the field of gestalt therapy: that the practice—and psychotherapy more broadly—still suffers from pervasive hetero- and cis-normativity. This book offers gestalt-therapy-based research and training material on gender, sex, and relationship diversity (GSRD), including chapters on a variety of GSRD issues and how therapists can become more GSRD-sensitive. The contributors position themselves across the whole spectrum of GSRD and offer their voices as an invitation to further queer the gestalt community with diverse content ranging from academic, research-oriented pieces to experiential, reflective perspectives. Featured chapters explore topics including gender-radical clients, sex and sexuality, relationship diversity, integrating GSRD and gestalt therapy, and addressing heteronormativity in gestalt therapy training. Queering Gestalt Therapy is for everyone who is interested in gender, sex, and relationship diversity, especially as they relate to gestalt therapy practice. This book will be especially useful for therapists, supervisors, coaches, and students of gestalt therapy.

This collection explores the impacts and new ways of treatment of difficult clinical situations, in the uncertainty of a world in crisis, through a phenomenological and aesthetic field-oriented lens. Each author offers a Gestalt-centered perspective on clinical issues – a situational window, which includes the therapist and avails itself of tools configured to modify the entire experiential field. Through clinical case studies and theoretical reflections, the book examines the experience of children, difficult childhood situations (such as separations, abuse, neurodevelopmental disorders, adolescent social closure), the experience of dependency, couples and family therapy, the condition of the elderly and the end of life, interventions for degenerative diseases, and the trauma of loss and mourning, all of which are considered according to two cardinal points: first, the description of the relational ground experiences of patients, and second, the aesthetic relational knowing, a field perspective which allows the presence of the therapist to be modulated. Psychopathology of the Situation in Gestalt Therapy: A Field-oriented Approach is essential reading for Gestalt therapists as well as all clinicians with an interest in phenomenological and aesthetic understanding of the complexity of clinical situations.

This essential new book gives the reader an introduction to the fundamental concepts of gestalt therapy in a stimulating and accessible style. It supports the study and practice of gestalt therapy for clinicians of all backgrounds, reflecting a practice-based pedagogy that emphasises experiential learning. The content in this book builds on the curriculum taught at the Norwegian Gestalt Institute University College (NGI). The material is divided into four main sections. In the first section, the theoretical basis for gestalt therapy is presented with references to gestalt psychology, field theory, phenomenology, and existential philosophy. In the later parts, central theoretical terms and practical models are discussed, such as the paradoxical theory of change, creative adjustment, self, contact, contact forms, awareness, polarities, and process models. Clinical examples illustrate the therapy form’s emphasis on the relational meeting between therapist and client. Detailed description of gestalt therapy theory from the time of the gestalt psychologists to today, with abundant examples from clinical practice, distinguishes this book from other texts. It will be of great value to therapists, coaches, and students of gestalt therapy.

Christianity and Gestalt Therapy is a unique integration written for psychotherapists who want to better understand their Christian clients and Christian counselors who want a clinically sound approach that embraces Christian spirituality. This book explores critical concepts in phenomenology and how they relate to both gestalt therapy and Christianity. Using mixed literary forms that include poetry and story, this book provides a window into gestalt therapy for Christian counselors interested in learning how the gestalt therapeutic model can be incorporated into their beliefs and practices. It explores the tension in psychology and psychotherapy between a rigid naturalism and an enchanted take on life. A rich mix of theory, philosophy, theology, and practice, Christianity and Gestalt Therapy is an important resource for therapists working with Christian patients.

How can we reconcile our desire for freedom with the limits or routines that orgainize our existence? How do we affirm our personality while adjusting to the world? How can we be nourished by exchanges with others without losing our autonomy? Gestalt Therapy responds to these essential questions of our daily lives. An important branch of humanistic psychology, Gestalt Therapy emphasizes the importance of communication and contact, the ways that we maintain relationships with ourselves, others and our environment. It helps individuals to develop potential by going beyond rigid patterns and to finally become creators of their own existence, each of us creating our own life rather than merely submitting to it. Gonzague Masquelier presents the history of fifty years of the Gestalt movement as well as its development in today's world. He begins with the story of its founders: Laura and Fritz Perls, and their associate, Paul Goodman. He explains how this unique therapeutic path developed little by little, through the meeting of European existentialism with American pragmatism. Then, he clearly explains the principal concepts which form the basis of this approach, illustrated by numerous clinical examples taken from his own professional experience. Finally, the author reviews the current areas of practice of the Gestalt approach: not only individual or group psychotherapy, but also within organizations, executive board rooms and the training professions. He offers an excellent synthesis of differing aspects of this important perspective within the field of psychology today.