Ever heard the saying, “the whole is other than the sum of it’s parts”? This is a core principle that forms the foundation of how Gestalt Psychotherapy is approached.

Put simply, Gestalt Psychotherapy is a form of talk therapy focused on healing a whole person — body, mind, and everything in between. It’s a co-created, relational exploration between you and the therapist of how you do you.

It focuses on the present moment — getting curious about how you experience the here-and-now as a result of a what happened there-and-then. It also explores how this shows up relationally (i.e. within yourself, with others, and yes — even with your therapist).

It’s built on the belief that humans are inherently designed with the propensity to heal and move their life in a full & fluid way. However, when faced with overwhelming experiences, we can become “stuck” in the body-mind solutions that protected us in the moment — commonly manifesting as fixated patterns, beliefs, thoughts, behaviours, or nervous system adaptations.

In Gestalt, we call these “creative adjustments” because they quite literally (and creatively) helped us survive particular experiences or seasons of our life.

Rather than viewing these as something to be “fixed”, a Gestalt Therapist will work with you to expand your awareness of it, invite curiosity of how it saved your life, explore how it plays out in your relationships, and support your present day access to more choice and agency around it.

The kicker, is that such change can only occur by embodying all of who you are — all parts, all integrated, and all of what makes you, you.