Here and Now — Gestalt Therapy | Psychotherapy Library

The main principle of Gestalt Therapy: bringing the past and the future into the present moment. Not "when I was a child, my mother." but "right now, as you remember your mother, what is happening in you?". The past loses its power when it becomes present in a contained setting. The unfinished gets closed through a new response here and now.

Step-by-step guide

The client tells a story: "In childhood my father never praised me"
Interception: "Show me. The father is sitting here. He looks at you. What do you feel NOW?"
The client moves into the experience of the present moment
Working with the live emotion that is alive in the session
An empty-chair dialogue may be used for closure

When to use

The client tells the story instead of living it
Impersonal narration: "They said I was a failure" — bring it to life
Anxiety about the future: "I am scared of the interview" — bring into the present
Intellectual analysis without contact with feeling
The client is stuck in the past, repeating one and the same story

Key phrases

Don't tell me about the past. Show me. This is happening now. Here. What do you feel?

Follow-up questions

Stop. Come back to the present moment. Where are you now? In the room with me. What do you see?

Your mother — here, in this room, is sitting on that chair. She looks at you the way she did. What will you say?

I see you grieving for the past. But who is grieving here and now? You.

Alternative phrasings

Here you are at the interview. It is happening right now. What scares you?

Warnings

⚠️ Do not use in acute PTSD — it may be a re-actualization
⚠️ Care with phobias: "here and now" with fear may be too intense
⚠️ Do not impose against the client's resistance
⚠️ "Here and now" does not mean "forget the past" — it is work with present experience

Source: Perls & Goodman, 1951; Yontef, 1993