| | Gestalt therapy focuses on process (what is actually happening) as well as on content (what is being talked about). The emphasis is on what is being done, thought, and felt at the present moment (the phenomenality of both client and therapist), rather than on what was, might be, could be, or should have been. Gestalt therapy is a method of awareness practice (also called "mindfulness" in other clinical domains), by which perceiving, feeling, and acting are understood to be conducive to interpreting, explaining, and conceptualizing (the hermeneutics of experience).<ref>Brownell, P. (2010) Gestalt Therapy: A Guide to Contemporary Practice. New York, NY: Springer Publishing</ref> This distinction between direct experience versus indirect or secondary interpretation is developed in the process of therapy. The client learns to become aware of what he or she is doing and that triggers the ability to risk a shift or change.<ref>Beisser, A. (1970) The Paradoxical Theory of Change. In J. Fagan & I. Shepherd (eds.) Gestalt Therapy Now: Theory, Techniques, and Applications, pp. 77-80. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books</ref> | | Gestalt therapy focuses on process (what is actually happening) as well as on content (what is being talked about). The emphasis is on what is being done, thought, and felt at the present moment (the phenomenality of both client and therapist), rather than on what was, might be, could be, or should have been. Gestalt therapy is a method of awareness practice (also called "mindfulness" in other clinical domains), by which perceiving, feeling, and acting are understood to be conducive to interpreting, explaining, and conceptualizing (the hermeneutics of experience).<ref>Brownell, P. (2010) Gestalt Therapy: A Guide to Contemporary Practice. New York, NY: Springer Publishing</ref> This distinction between direct experience versus indirect or secondary interpretation is developed in the process of therapy. The client learns to become aware of what he or she is doing and that triggers the ability to risk a shift or change.<ref>Beisser, A. (1970) The Paradoxical Theory of Change. In J. Fagan & I. Shepherd (eds.) Gestalt Therapy Now: Theory, Techniques, and Applications, pp. 77-80. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books</ref> |