Gestalt Therapy

I am a graduate of the Gestalt Institute of New England. I have four years of postgraduate training in Gestalt psychotherapy.

Gestalt Therapy is focused on the present moment, understanding our place in the wider context of the world, and the quality of relationship between the therapist and client. I trained for 7 years with the Gestalt Therapy Training Center - NW, was on the planning committee for The State of the Art of Gestalt Therapy Conference (Portland, October 2015), and organize meetings for the Portland Gestalt Community. I've always thought of Gestalt not just as an orientation but a way of life.

I am a graduate of the Gestalt Institute of New England. I have four years of postgraduate training in Gestalt psychotherapy.

I trained in Gestalt therapy at the Church Street Integral Counseling Center in San Francisco, with Gieve Patel and Debbie Stone. This approach incorporates mindfulness of one's own moment-to-moment experience with a belief in the individual's ability to act out of this awareness of self.

Gestalt therapy is a relational kind of therapy that focuses on your life here and now. It emphasizes your strengths and accepting yourself the way you are. Gestalt therapy is also creative, helping you to work on your issues via different kinds of experiments. Gestalt therapy with me is lively, interactive and engaging. We will focus on options more than obstacles, the present more than the past, and strengths more than weaknesses.

Ongoing training with Pacific Gestalt Institute

We use chairs and parts work to help sub-divide your inner parts so that more self-reflection and integration can take place.

Gestalt Therapy is all about our whole sense of self. That whole self encounters a whole world and that brings on a whole host of difficulties. Being able to understand that dialogue that is always going on within and without our selves can be helpful to increase our satisfaction with ourselves

Gestalt is a way of understanding human experience and the process of change. According to Gestalt, change only happens when we accept ourselves exactly as we are. By paying close attention to the present moment, we discover both new and familiar aspects of ourselves and unlock new possibilities for choice and growth. I receive ongoing training through Gestalt Therapy Training Center Northwest, as well as regular individual supervision and consultation.

Sometimes just talking about a problem doesn't quite get the job done. By engaging in "safe experiments" in session, Gestalt therapy helps us to release ourselves from the bondage of old emotional wounds.

This therapy uses a phenomenological approach that focuses on awareness in the ‘here and now’. Gestalt therapy is very present-central, without concentrating on the past or future, allowing personal growth through insight and clarity of an individual’s needs, goals, and values. This phenomenological approach explores a person’s subjective meaning of existence in the world through the awareness of their own movements amidst their personal life experiences.

Gestalt therapy is oriented around building awareness: of ourselves, of our thoughts & behaviors, of our choices, and of our physical systems that are constantly sending us invaluable data about our experiences. Through the gestalt process, clients learn to become more aware of how their own negative thought patterns and behaviors are blocking true self-awareness.

Gestalt Therapy is a psycho-dynamic, present-centered and relational approach to talk therapy. I believe that a person’s history colors how they experience the present, but that few are fully aware of this process in day-to-day life. We’ll work together to move from judgment to curiosity, so that we can notice what reactions are based on historical assumptions, or grounded in our actual, shared experience of one another in the here-and-now.

Gestalt Therapy is a counseling approach from Germany which centers around "emotional catharsis" and directing clients toward more authentic ways of being in the present moment. I love this approach because it is really great at surfacing blockages in a way that pushes clients to work through them. Without the focus on the "here and now," therapy can get lost in distant, hypothetical conversation that doesn't create the desired change brought people to therapy in the first place.

With this approach, we will work together to focus on your experience in the present moment.

I love Gestalt therapy because I do people that people are more than the sum of their parts. I like how it can help increase awareness of the present moment, and I use a lot of parts work to explore sides of the client that may be less frequently visible. I also use some Internal Family System ideas that are based on Gestalt parts work to help clients be in deeper relationship with themselves and their inner motivations.

Gestalt therapy is a humanistic approach that emphasizes present-moment awareness and personal responsibility. It helps clients become aware of their immediate thoughts, feelings, and actions to foster self-awareness and personal growth. The therapeutic relationship is collaborative, with therapists guiding clients to integrate different aspects of their experiences, promoting holistic