Dr. Patrick j. Hart
Seattle Gestalt Therapy: Maturity and Creative Aliveness
Excitement ~ Awareness ~ Contact ~ Potential ~ Actualization

Creative Aliveness: The Gestalt Approach to Human Change
Gestalt Therapy is an existential and experiential psychotherapy that focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts in which these things take place. Psychotherapy  self-regulating adjustments people make through the process of psychotherapy. Gestalt  emphasizes personal responsibility for living the vital and fulufilling life. Gestalt Therapy was co-founded by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s–1950s.

Enhancing Awareness: Of The Here and NowGestalt therapy helps the client  awareness, by which perceiving, feeling, and acting are understood to be separate from interpreting, explaining and judging using old attitudes. This distinction between direct experience and indirect or secondary interpretation is developed in the process of Gestalt focused therapy. The client learns to become "increasingly aware" of what they are experiencing and doing in the "here and now."  People are striving to adapt -- and grow psychologically competent -- ? 

By becoming aware . . . develop  acceptance and the ability to adapt so much interference from the conditionings of the past.

Unfinished Life Business: Undigested ExperienceGestalt Therapy might answer a client's yearning to become more "fully and creatively alive" and through enhanced awareness of just how we work, psychologically, and through this process free ourselves from historical blocks and "unfinished business" or "undigested experience" that may diminish human fulfillment and psychological growth.

"The I -Thou Relationship" : Personal Responsibility for ActionGestalt therapy had a variety of psychological and philosophical influences, and in addition was a response to the social forces or zeitgeist of its day. Gestalt is a therapeutic approach that is holistic (mind/body/culture) present-centered, and related to existential therapy in its emphasis on personal responsibility for action, and on the valuing of the "I-thou" relationship in the therapeutic relationship. (In fact, its creators considered calling Gestalt Therapy existential-phenomenological therapy.) "The I and thou in the Here and Now," was one Gestalt therapist's semi-humorous mantra.

The Human Change Paradox: Acceptance of What IsIn what has now become a "classic" of gestalt therapy literature, Arnold Beisser (1970) described gestalt's paradoxical theory of change: The paradox is that the more one attempts to be who one is not, the more one remains the same (Yontef, 2005). Conversely, when people identify with their current experience, the conditions of wholeness, "full psychological presence" and growth thet supports adaptive change. Put another way, change comes about as a result of "full acceptance of what is, rather than a striving to be different" (Houston, 2003).


Need Help Finding the Right Therapist or Psychologist in Seattle?
Mental Health Evaluation and Treatment Matching:
I maintain an extensive referral base to practitioners the work with problems that are beyond the scope of my practice. Therapy and and treatment matching to qualified clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists and mental health counselors. I also keep a referral base of medical and naturopathic physicians, chiropractors, holistic health practitioners, and massage therapist to help people restore their physical and mental health. Referrals throughout Washington State. Practitioners in Seattle, Bellvue, Mercer Island, Bellingham, Olympia Tacoma and Yakima. Matching for addiction recovery centers or "rehabilitation" programs throughout the nation.

Dr. Patrick J. Hart
Seattle Mental Heath Counseling
Gestalt Therapy: Creative Aliveness in Seattle
The Gestalt Therapy Page:

Seattle Gestalt Therapist: Mental Health Counselor

The Gestalt Therapy Network: Psychotherapy and Counseling in Seattle

About Gestalt Therapy: An Overview Defining The Field

The Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy

Mental Help Net: Gestalt Therapy General Description

Psychotherapy Referrals: to Seattle clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. Psychologist and psychiatrist treatment matching for counseling gestalt psychotherapy and various approached to therapy for depression, anxiety and other mental health problems.

Dr. Patrick J. Hart
Seattle Gestalt Therapist