First Published in 2010. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In the field of Organisational Development and Change, fixed methodologies no longer adequately address the uncertainty and uniqueness of today's more complex change situations and more adaptive approaches to change are needed.Gestalt is a relational, dialogic and emergent approach which means that it views individuals and organisations as embedded in their context, dependent on, and emerging from within a web of relationships and interactions. As such, Gestalt offers a transformative, integral and bespoke methodology for working with this complexity. This approach supports practitioners to attend to their presence, seek out the most pressing issues and mobilise for sustainable change. Gestalt has at its heart the notion of use-of-self as instrument which allows practitioners to be responsive to emergent issues and situations.Relational Organisational Gestalt is at the leading-edge of Gestalt theory and application in organisational settings. It explores key skills and methods of a relational Gestalt organisational practitioner such as inquiry into here-and-now embodied experience, identification and engagement in dialogue and finally, embedding and sustaining change in the field. Developing personal awareness, presence and use-of-self is a fundamental part of facilitating change. Each chapter therefore offers guidance regards application and suggests experiential exercises.Gestalt has long been at the forefront of psychological approaches applied to Organisational Development and change in organisations. This book offers a radically relational approach that is accessible to coaches, consultants, facilitators, managers and other OD practitioners.

Gestalt therapy offers a present-focused, relational approach, central to which is the fundamental belief that the client knows the best way of adjusting to their situation. By working to heighten awareness through dialogue and creative experimentation, gestalt therapists create the conditions for a client's personal journey to health. Gestalt Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques provides a concise guide to this flexible and far-reaching approach. Topics discussed include: the theoretical assumptions underpinning gestalt therapy gestalt assessment and process diagnosis field theory, phenomenology and dialogue ethics and values evaluation and research. As such this book will be essential reading for gestalt trainees, as well as all counsellors and psychotherapists wanting to learn more about the gestalt approach.

In Gestalt therapy, sociological, political, and economic research is often neglected or ignored. Drawing on analyses about current societal conditions, this book considers that there is no such thing as a ‘postmodern’ therapy and offers a new approach to Gestalt therapy. Gestalt therapy is still currently based on the Cartesian worldview, even if relational approaches are in search for an ‘in-between’. The author’s approach of Gestalt therapy is based on an idea by the founders: “Contact is the first reality” – so the field coemerges and coexists with individuals’ perceptions providing specific conditions, demands, limitations and opportunities. An individual’s field is not an afterthought established by the perspective of the first-person-singular (i.e. individuals) but a ‘conditio sine qua non’. Gutjahr reflects on both theoretical and practical aspects of the field’s many processes of resonance. Putting the field consistently at the centre of his approach, the author describes the main tenets expanding on previous versions of Gestalt therapy. This important new book is at the cutting edge of the current discussion of relational and field-oriented approaches to Gestalt therapy, and will be of particular interest to practitioners of Gestalt therapy, psychotherapists, phenomenologists, as well as theorists of philosophy, sociology and therapy.

An international selection of authors provide a detailed exploration of Gestalt as a somatic and relational practice. Covering many aspects of this relationship, the chapters include discussion of our relationships with nature, the role of Eros, energy in Taoism, affect and methods of practice. Both theoretical and practical application of an embodied relational approach to GT are presented, and many chapters include case studies from the contributors’ own work. The overall view of the book is that our bodies are inextricably embedded and co-creating with the environment, and that we know our body and the world through our embodiment.

This compelling and comprehensive volume is an anthology of current thinking by many of gestalt therapy’s leading theoreticians, clinicians, and researchers. Including many well-known voices in the field and introducing several new ones to the current gestalt therapy literature, the book presents a broad-ranging compendium of essays, scientific articles, clinical applications, and integrative approaches that represent the richness and vibrancy of the field. Each contributor brings intellectual rigor, honest personal reflection, and humanism to their area of inquiry. This ethos—the spirit of relational gestalt therapy—infuses the whole book, bringing a sense of coherence to its seventeen chapters. Following an introduction written by Mark Winitsky, PhD, as an entry point into the field for students and psychotherapists from other schools of thought, the book is organized into three sections: Theory, Clinical Applications, and Integrative Approaches. Readers will encounter new ways of thinking about psychotherapy, new skills they can bring to their work, and new ways of integrating gestalt therapy with other approaches. The Relational Heart of Gestalt Therapy is essential reading for Gestalt therapists as well as other mental health professionals with an interest in Gestalt approaches.