Gestalt Therapy

Many counselors have seen the training film of Fritz Perls working with "Gloria." This does not accurately depict gestalt therapy as it is practiced today. So, what is gestalt therapy? Gestalt has been described as an existential field theory and characterized as phenomenological behaviorism. A brief description of the practice of gestalt therapy is offered and presented below under its four primary theoretical constructs, but a more in-depth description following this same development can be found in The Handbook for Theory, Research, and Practice in Gestalt Therapy.