I work with Gestalt therapy because it honours the fundamental equality between us. I'm not the expert telling you how to feel or what you should do, but rather we explore together in the safety of the space we create. Gestalt therapyrecognises that you are more than an individual sitting before me; you are someone carrying the living influences of your family, culture, ancestors, and the environment that shapes you. These aren't just background details, but active forces that show up in our time together.

I’m also drawn to this approach for its attitude towards diagnosis -  that it can be supportive in your process of sense-making, care, and being in the world, whilst also not reducing you to labels or categories.

Gestalt therapy honours the fluid, shifting nature of being human. It acknowledges that you are, all at once, the child who learned to survive, the adult navigating present-day challenges, and the person discovering new possibilities. When we work at your pace with awareness, something meaningful can unfold between us, without force or judgment.

Childhood experiences of trauma and grief taught me to numb myself and stay quiet. Over time, that silence settled into my body as tension and protective holding patterns, responses that once helped me survive, but eventually made it harder to feel alive in myself or truly connected to others. Movement and mindfulness practices, bodywork, breathwork, and spiritual exploration helped me begin to touch emotions I had long struggled to feel. And yet, even with these supports, I often found myself in places that felt emotionally or physically confusing, unsure of how to make sense of what was happening inside.

Gestalt therapy offered something different. It gave me a deeply relational, accepting way to understand my lived experience. Being met with genuine care and curiosity created enough safety for me to explore what felt painful, tangled, or unclear. It helped me find language for what had been wordless, to see how my patterns formed, and to approach them without shame. Gestalt offered practical, grounded ways to stay with and integrate difficult experiences, rather than slipping back into distraction or numbing, and invited me into a fuller, more compassionate relationship with myself.

From its beginnings, Gestalt therapy challenged prevailing ideas about normality and pathology. It emerged in the 1950's as an experiential, evidence-informed approach originally developed by psychoanalysts Frederick Perls (1893–1970), Laura Perls (1905–90), and Paul Goodman (1911–72) as a revision of the popular approaches to psychoanalysis at the time.

Fritz and Laura left Nazi Germany in 1933, settling in South Africa and then the USA, where their innovative therapeutic method gained traction. Paul Goodman, who was openly queer and bisexual, was central in shaping an approach that refused to pathologise homosexuality. This was a radical position at a time when same‑sex attraction was widely treated as illness. This commitment to dignity, difference, and lived experience continues to inform Gestalt’s relational and ethical foundations.

Gestalt therapy has been influenced by a rich variety of approaches, individuals and concepts such as gestalt psychology, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and Eastern philosophies. What distinguishes this approach from other forms of therapy is its basis in making contact with the present moment. Rather than interpreting the past, we may explore its impact on you in the here-and-now, together.

 Gestalt therapy recognises that, as we all exist within a web of relationship, it is only possible to know ourselves in relation to others.

In my practice, I pay close attention to what’s happening between us right here, in this moment. Instead of analysing your past or trying to map out the future, I invite you to notice your experience as it unfolds: the sensations in your body, the emotions that rise and fall, the way your voice, posture, or breath shifts as we speak together.

This way of working is grounded in gentle awareness. We explore with curiosity rather than judgment, noticing the natural patterns you’ve developed for meeting the world and the people in it. When we slow down in this way, things that once felt stuck or confusing often begin to soften or move on their own. New insights can surface, and fresh ways of being may start to feel possible, ways that feel more spacious, more alive.

My role is to be with you in that exploration. I’m here to help you listen more closely to your own wisdom and to the subtle possibilities that emerge when we give ourselves permission to pause, breathe, and really notice what’s here.

It's natural to wonder if Gestalt Therapy is right for you. What I can tell you is that you remain in control of what and how much you wish to share, and we work together at your pace. The inclusive, human-centred and present-focused nature of Gestalt therapy makes it helpful for many different challenges - whether you're dealing with grief, relationship difficulties, anxiety, depression, stress, trauma, or simply feeling stuck in repeating patterns. We can explore together in our first meeting whether this approach feels right for you, and you can decide from there if you'd like to continue.