Gestalt Therapy

Since the 1940’s mindfulness has been part of Gestalt therapy, either in theory and practice. In the most simplistic terms, Gestalt therapy founded by psychoanalyst Fritz Perls is concerned with teaching people a method of awareness that distinguishes between their pre existing attitudes and their actual perceiving, feeling and acting in a situation.]
Put differently, in Gestalt therapy attempted interpretations and explanations of a situation are considered less reliable in terms of what ‘is real’, and thus it is better to communicate a phenomenological experience directly as it comes to the fore of the mind (saying/noticing it as it is) rather than filtering the experience through perceptional filters.
As such, the aim for practitioners of Gestalt therapy is to create awareness of what it is they are doing in the present moment, understanding how they are actually doing it, and how they can change themselves, while learning and accepting to value themselves at the same time. As such, Gestalt therapy focuses more on process than on content.
Put differently, the focal point is on what is happening right now (process) rather than thoughts of the should’s, could’s and must’s which are thoughts believed to have their origin in past or future oriented schema patterns (content).