Originally published in February 2017 and revised for the new website.
There is a world we encounter when looking outwards and a world that comes alive within us. In the first, events and encounters happen. The second makes itself felt in the body and emotions, but may also appear through a memory or an image.
Attention allows us to notice both. We can turn it towards what we see and touch, or towards what that same experience brings forth within us.
There is what is there, and there is the effect it has.
A continuous interplay
These two worlds are not separate. What I feel influences what I find, and what I encounter changes what I feel. If fear fills the whole field, the world may appear full of dangers; if the world always appears dangerous, fear continually finds new confirmation.
Everyday reality takes shape, moment by moment, within this interplay. Gestalt psychotherapy works in the transitional space where the inner and outer worlds come into contact.
Therapeutic work does not set out to decide which of the two is “true”. It seeks to make their meeting more fluid, listening to what moves within without losing sight of what the world offers or takes away. From here, a more liveable relationship between the two can emerge.