Awareness

“Awareness” is one of the main tools in Gestalt. 
The quality of awareness is a form of experience that may be loosely defined as being in touch with one’s own existence, with what is.  I think of this as the “quality of the contact or connection” that a person has with themselves and the world around them.  We are all in a constant flow of new events, thoughts and feelings with each second that ticks by.  In Gestalt, my attention goes to what is showing up right now in a person.  I believe that what is most pressing will show for care and attention!  This optimistic viewpoint opens horizons for more possibilities to heal and grow, which is why I love the practice of Gestalt.

Laura Perls, one of the founders of Gestalt states:

“The aim of Gestalt therapy is the awareness continuum, the freely ongoing Gestalt formation where what is of greatest concern and interest to the organism, the relationship, the group or society becomes Gestalt, comes into the foreground where it can be fully experienced and coped with (acknowledged, worked through, sorted out, changed, disposed of, etc.) so that then it can melt into the background (be forgotten or assimilated and integrated) and leave the foreground free for the next relevant Gestalt.” 
(1973, p. 2)