Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt is my foundational theory that aligns with my views of human nature and counseling. I lean to the side of relational, nondirective gestalt therapy that utilizes dialogue and talk, rather than the popularized gestalt techniques. I am a gestalt nerd and love counseling gestalt therapists.

Be here now, with me, talking. Gestalt therapy draws on the power inherent in creative dialogue grounded in embodied awareness of the present moment. This style of therapeutic interaction grows out of earlier psychodynamic styles as they encounter mindfulness traditions from Asia. After training five years, I became credentialed as a certified Gestalt therapist and psychoanalyst. Before and during that, I did a lot of meditating, retreats, and ran a dharma center. Still do, still no expert.

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 is a type of parts work therapy, which means we see the human psyche as a combination of different parts that sometimes have quite different feelings and needs. Parts work can be incredibly helpful when we conceptualize inner conflict, and can help bring compassion to parts that hold challenging or outdated beliefs about ourselves, others or the world. I use Gestalt therapy to support my clients in growing awareness and understanding of our complexity as human beings.

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

Trained in the Laura Perls-tradition of Gestalt Therapy.

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.

I focus on the here and now, understanding the past exists, but not allowing the to define your future.

It can help you increase your awareness of what you are experiencing (psychically and emotionally) in each moment.

In Gestalt psychotherapy, we bring attention to your present moment experience, the therapist–client relationship, environmental and social contexts, and the myriad of adjustments we make from moment to moment to bring to light beliefs and ways of being that are not in our awareness but are deeply impacting our behavior and choices. We engage in real-time therapeutic experiments to deepen our awareness + try out new behaviors to co-create organic coping skills.

Together we will work to understand how you holistically experience the present moment in your mind, body and emotional self. This work seeks to uncover and accept the fullness of who you are and what you need to find contentment, joy, and meaning in your life. We may explore your family system or notable events from youth if they are creating an interruption in your life 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.

As a relational body-centered gestalt therapist, I believe in the power of embodied presence, creative resilience, and the application of here-and-now approaches to counseling/psychotherapy. My approach allows us to get to the heart of how your past may be living in your present and manifesting in ways that may once have been helpful but are currently maladaptive and counterproductive.

I am a Certified Gestalt Therapist and trained at the Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy 4 year Clinical Fellowship Program.

I have a passion for gestalt psychotherapy.

Nearly seven years of clinical experience using gestalt therapy.