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The Gestalt system of therapy is based on a model for understanding how we as human beings put our experiences together. This view is founded on the idea that our experience—or our understanding of our experience—is not given to us as a complete whole. Instead, each individual constructs his or her understanding of life as he or she lives it, piece by piece. In this sense, Gestalt therapy's viewpoint is similar to constructivist therapy. Through this process of constructing experience, people develop a deep-rooted pattern of how they "make contact" with the world. The primary goal of the Gestalt therapist is to understand how a client makes contact with the world.
The Gestalt approach is very present-time oriented. Throughout therapy, a Gestalt therapist always checks in with the client to see how he or she feels here and now. The therapist discerns a client's self-organization by constantly checking how what the client is discussing makes the client feel, both emotionally and physically, as in where those emotions are found in the body. As the therapist attunes him or herself to how the client is feeling, the client begins to feel safe with the therapist, and a relationship forms between them. The relationship allows the client to open up further and deepen the therapy process.
After a therapist–client relationship forms, the therapist can begin the deconstruction phase of therapy, in which the therapist seeks to help the client work through any problems by understanding how the client has organized him or herself. Deconstruction begins by understanding and analyzing this self-organization, and presenting these observations back to the client.
Although Gestalt therapists have traditionally used dramatic techniques such as the empty chair dialogue to deconstruct a client's problems, Dr. Wheeler's own approach involves the therapist using his or her own thoughts, feelings, and observations as avenues for understanding the client. In this way, the therapist's here-and-now experience of the therapy is as important as the client's, and it may help the therapy process by provoking dialogue and jogging insights in the client.
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