Contents
Crying in the Face of Beauty 0011 Healing by Storytelling – Introductory Comments 0013 What is Gestalt Therapy? 0017
The Work of the Clients I Was Also Once a Client 0023 Touching the Soul 0027 Two Couples 0033 All Things Between Heaven and Earth 0045 My Father’s Moccasins 0059
The Work of the Therapists My Inner Experience – The Source of My Work 0077 The Male Therapist 0085 Protecting the Client 0097 Protecting the Therapist 0101 Finding th Right Therapist 0105
Autobiographical Sketches How I Came To Gestalt 0109 Spirituality 0117 Political Gestalt Therapy 0123 Gestalt Becomes Clear 0127
Appendix The Art of Gestalt Intervention 0131 The Gestalt Attitude 0139
Read Parts of the Book
Healing by StoryTelling: Introductory Comments
A rabbi, whose grandfather had been a disciple of the Baal Shem, was asked to tell a story. "A story," he said, "must be told in such a way that it constitutes help in itself." And he told: "My grandfather was lame. Once they asked him to tell a story about his teacher. And he related how the holy Baal Shem used to hop and dance while he prayed. My grandfather rose as he spoke, and he was so swept away by his story that he himself began to hop and dance to show how the master had done it. From that hour on he was cured of his lameness. That's the way to tell a story!" (Martin Buber)
In this book, my intention is to present Gestalt therapy in such a way, dear readers, that you can experience it. What I mean by this is best explained by the introductory anecdote above, which I found in the preface to Martin Buber's book "Tales of the Hasidim".
The first time I read it was when I was a student of Catholic theology. At that time we were interested in the question of how experiences of faith could be conveyed to others. We discovered that this could only be done "narratively" - in other words by telling stories.
I am pleased that I have come back to a similar place now - more than 25 years later. Today I ask myself how Gestalt therapeutic experiences can be further passed on. Again I have discovered that this is only possible by telling stories. So I would like to begin now to relate from my Gestalt therapeutic experiences: from my experiences as a client, from my experiences in Gestalt therapeutic training, but above all from the experiences, which I was allowed to make as a Gestalt therapist and later as a teacher of Gestalt therapy.
I like to summarize the goal of Gestalt therapy as "opening oneself up again". All too often we have had to close down. In order to protect ourselves and to survive, we have shielded ourselves with a polished, non-transparent outer layer. In such a way that encapsulated "inflammations" develop - the remains of earlier losses and wounds.
Gestalt therapy invites us to gently open up again so that what requires healing can be brought to the surface and finally completed. In this way we can open again to the interpersonal, to the other, to the "Thou". And so finally meetings and contacts can happen again and relationships and deep connections be entered into.
So let yourself be carried along as I relate "my" stories. Stories, which touch the soul:
These are stories, which I have often told in my therapeutic practice - to individual clients, in therapy groups and also in trainings. They have already often contributed to making it possible for people to open themselves up again and to be deeply touched by others.
Let your soul run freely as you read. Only it knows the way. Trust it. And (please!) do not try to understand "everything" at once. The first step is always the experience. Understanding is only the second, just as important in its own way, but still just the step that follows.
The place, which I would like to reach with my stories, is your soul. Listen to them, go with them, sympathise with them and give yourself space. Then later in the next step you can safely relate with your mind to your experience. From time to time there will be some explanations and I will add some comments "from my card index box", but above all as you read I would like to try to give you a direct experience of how Gestalt therapy "works".
You will surely notice in this book how often I mention that the clients cry, that the group participants have tears in their eyes and that exactly the same is happening to me as the therapist. Does Gestalt therapy absolutely have to deal with crying? It does not have to. But it often does. That is because crying simply happens, when we give up our frozenness, and start to move and flow again.
When we experience "existential moments", it is seen that crying is a part of them - a kind of meeting takes place, the spirit of which the Jewish religious philosopher (and indirectly an important intellectual father of Gestalt therapy), Martin Buber called "I-Thou moments", moments of meeting, in which we know we are being spoken to in our being.
The term "existential moment" comes from the American psychotherapist Len Bergantino. What he calls those life endowing moments of real life, which are not simply a question of survival. Bergantino describes this "existential moment" as a meeting from being to being, as the temporary transcending of roles, as a healing touch, which releases deep emotions - not only in the client, but also in the therapist. Often it is accompanied by tears and also not infrequently by the way with an almost "existential" shame, which shows, how close we are to our being, our centre, our soul.
Len Bergantino points out in this connection that these "existential moments" are a part of "a spiritual dimension". The humanistic psychologist Abraham A. Maslow said something similar, when he was dealing with what he called "particularly healthy" people. These people, who often do not see themselves as religious, know about the experience of spiritual moments, ending separation: "peak experiences" - moments of connection and belonging, moments of healing, of totality.
Please note: All the names and the biographical information have been changed to protect the clients. My own therapists and teachers, my colleagues and friends whom I mention in gratitude, naturally keep their real names.
From: "All Things Between Heaven and Earth" Carmen or The Quiet Benediction
Carmen had participated for two or three years in my Gestalt therapy group. Then she started coming to me for individual therapy. It mainly concerned her very strained relationship with her ex-husband Ernst. That might have meant nothing to her - except that they had had a child together, Florian, who was almost four years old. She did not want to "stand in the way" of her son's relationship with his father. Even more than that: she saw it as her duty to make it possible for Florian to have contact with his father.
Once a week Ernst picked little Florian up at home. Then at the end of the day, he brought him back. He did a lot with him on those days. They went to the zoo together, took a boat along the River Rhine to Rodenkirchen, ate ice cream, and eventually still managed to find themselves in the right toy shops and department stores in the city. Carmen thought that it was all too much. This was confirmed for her by the fact that every night following these excursions, Florian would wet his bed.
Then when she asked her son how the day with Daddy had been the little one only gave an evasive answer: "It was OK." Carmen was inclined to take this to mean that Florian was not particularly pleased with the time spent with his father.
I disagreed with this opinion, but rather saw it an attempt by the son to avoid any further conflict between his divorced parents. I assumed that he was afraid that Carmen would be hurt if he told her how beautiful his day with Daddy had really been.
Carmen was surprised at and irritated by this perspective. However because the well-being of her child was so close to her heart, she was prepared to consider my point of view as an experiment.
"Little Flori is carrying a tremendous load," she said. "My God, I really would be pretty upset, if he felt good with his father." She went red. She felt ashamed. She could no longer look at me in the face, and instead looked down at the floor in front of me.
After a while, I told her that I knew how much she cared about her son's well-being. I also knew that it was important for her to encourage the contact between father and son. Finally, I added that I could see the same thing repeatedly in my work with divorced parents: one parent was always hurt if the child was happy to go to the other. This was often the basis for the fear of possibly losing the child to the other parent.
Carmen listened to me attentively and started to relax a little. Then she looked me in the eye, and confirmed that this fear was also "not unfamiliar" to her. Her eyes reddened somewhat and a few tears came into her eyes. After a short while, she said completely peacefully, "It's good to know that it is not different for other divorced parents."
Then we came back to talking about her son. She said that using her child in the conflict with Ernst, her ex-husband, was the last thing she wanted.
This encouraged me to take the next step with her. I told her that it was still not clear to me why Flori wet his bed. It could of course be because of the stressful days with his father, who possibly arranged all these activities during the day, so that Flori would gladly come with him and feel good with him. He does not want to lose his son to you, Carmen.
Again, Carmen looked me surprised and irritated. "Oh, him too?!" she let slip out, and then she relaxed even more. She looked even more peacefully at me. "And what can I do to prevent Flori from being torn between us?"
"Well, for example, you could wish Flori a nice day with his father when he is leaving," I suggested.
"I would rather bite my tongue off!" shouted Carmen indignantly. She looked briefly at me, turned red again and then stared for quite a long time down at the floor.
I asked her after a while whether perhaps she was ready for an experiment. Without saying anything at all, every Thursday when Ernst picked up their son in the morning, she should think as the little one was going down the five steps to the front door, "Flori, have a good time. I wish you a beautiful day with your father." Carmen said she was ready to do it.
About four weeks later, Carmen came to the session completely excited. Before we sat down, she gushed that she had followed my instructions exactly. Flori had already not wet his bed two weeks in a row the night after spending the day with his father. She said it with a mixture of disbelief and great joy. Yes, she truly was beaming because of it, and I rejoiced with her and beamed too.
All of a sudden, Carmen became very sad. "Then it really is true that Flori had been trying to prevent further conflict between Ernst and me. The little chap really took on a tremendous responsibility!" Then she added even more decisively, "That is really not OK with me."
I asked her not to do anything yet but to "simply" continue the experiment for a few more weeks and to trust that it would have a good outcome.
Carmen agreed. From then on Flori really did not wet his bed again. Eventually, after perhaps two months, something almost unbelievable happened. One Thursday morning, just before Ernst picked him up, Flori came to Carmen full of trust, and said, "Mummy, may I bring my bicycle that's at Daddy's back home?" Carmen really had to control herself, so that her indignation did not burst out. She had not wanted Ernst to give the little one a bicycle on his own. She remained silent for a moment, and then asked for some more details. This is how she found out that Ernst had already given Flori the bicycle as a Christmas present. To use Flori's words: "Father Christmas brought the bike to Daddy's house for me."
Furthermore, Christmas had already been over four months ago. That is how long Flori had kept the present a secret from Carmen. Carmen was appalled. To prevent once and for all such a secret from happening in the future, she agreed. Yes, he could bring the bicycle back this evening - no problem.
Soon afterwards, Ernst rang the doorbell. By then, Carmen had calmed down somewhat. She brought her small son to the door and saw how joyfully he skipped down the stairs to meet his father. She thought her "quiet prayer" to herself again - what she had begun to call her experiment. Completely unexpectedly, she had to smile a little. "These two rogues!" she thought and she felt a warmth for her son - and for the father. It lasted a short moment. Her heart had opened a little bit towards her ex-husband.
From: "My Father’s Moccasins" The Fountain of Life Society
Gudrun had - as she put it - in a "weird" way never felt at home in her family of origin. And what was equally strange for her was the fact that she was so happy to travel around the world, and felt at home everywhere else in the world.
She sat opposite me in the group circle, leaning on the radiator, under the large window. It was a typically grey rainy day in wintry Cologne. There was not even enough daylight coming into our group room through the skylights. We had to turn on the lights.
And then Gudrun began to tell us about her Christmas visit to her family. She had travelled on Christmas Eve with her three brothers and sisters and their families to the small Eifel village where her parents lived. Fifteen people in all had taken a long afternoon walk in the snow, to enjoy the clear, fresh Eifel air and the view over the local hills, valleys and forests. Then they had returned to their parents' house and sat together in the living room for coffee and Christmas pastries. Gudrun began to feel this "weird" way again - like a stranger and not "right" at home.
I asked her more specifically how she felt. She described the huge distance between them all. Certainly fifteen people filled her parents' living room, but to Gudrun it felt as if there were many miles between them all, as if everybody was somehow sitting there alone and lost. Each individual seemed to Gudrun so far apart that their arms would never be long enough to be able to hold hands. I became cold just listening, although it was pleasantly warm in the group room. It felt as if an infinite sadness spread throughout the room. It was totally quiet. You could have heard a pin drop. When I looked around, I saw how some group participants were shivering. They were zipping up their jackets, buttoning up their cardigans one more button or wrapping their feet in blankets. It also seemed to me as if the walls of the group room had expanded, and as if the distance between the participants had become greater. An unpleasant coolness settled amongst us.
I described my perception and my pictures to Gudrun. She said that was exactly the way it had felt to her at home. I froze even more, and was getting goose bumps on my lower arms.
I was uncomfortable. At the same time, of course, as a therapist things like this are familiar to me: sometimes in "the here and now" exactly the same mood (yes, and even bodily sensations!) is experienced as that which the client is talking about.
I have just interrupted my writing for a short while and closed the window, because I was getting a little cold. In front of me on the desk I have lit a candle and made myself a cup of coffee. Yes, now it is more comfortable again. Once again, I realize that even while I am writing, I have deep feelings that are closely connected with what I am writing about. Wasn't I just writing about coolness and darkness?
I am warming my cold hands on the coffee cup and looking over at the candle peacefully flickering in its holder.
OK then, how did things proceed? I asked Gudrun what had happened in her family. Because, what she had related and how that had affected us in that room seemed so remarkable that I wanted to invite her to open it up even more and investigate it further.
She said that the coolness and the distant feeling had always been there for her, at least for as long as she could remember. Her three brothers and sisters had had the same experience, even her nieces and nephews. The smallest of them had said to her mother after a summer visit to their grandparents, it was always so cold there. Impressed by the intensity of the effect, which even I had experienced in this work, I did not let up. I asked Gudrun what had happened in her family in the past. But she had no idea.
Especially from the work of the therapist Bert Hellinger I know that there are also such things as "systemic" forces, which means that sometimes something is at work in a family that had happened previously for instance before the parents' marriage or even in previous generations. So, I changed my line of questioning a little. I asked whether it was possible that something remarkable had happened in her family, perhaps before her parents had married. Or even further back. Some sort of family secret?
All of a sudden it became completely clear to Gudrun. There was definitely something there. It had been and was still kept a secret. Gudrun's grandfather, who she was very devoted to, had told her about it shortly before his death. Her father had been with the SS. But not in a combat troop, no, he had been assigned to what was called the "Fountain of Life Society" and had to breed offspring with specially selected Germanic women. It was somewhere in Sauerland, near Warstein. It was top secret. Even his letters were disguised as post from the front.
"That means you must have a huge number of half-brothers and sisters," I let slip out. Gudrun was completely perplexed. She stared at me open-mouthed for a while. Then she closed her mouth. She swallowed, and then nodded.
"I never thought about it before," she said. "But now that seems totally obvious to me."
"How many half-brothers and sisters do you think there could be?" I asked.
Gudrun became excited. At first her face started to turn red. Then her eyes began to twinkle. "Maybe fifty, maybe a hundred, maybe even more," she said with a broad grin
I had expected that the tragedy and the gravity of this story would take hold of her. But I was completely surprised: lightness, aliveness and joy spread throughout the group. A warmth filled the room. Then someone started taking off his cardigan. Someone else put aside his blanket, with which he had been covering his feet. And what was happening with Gudrun? She was beaming happily!
It was as if everybody in the group room had become physically closer. As if the group room had suddenly shrunk. As if we were all sitting side by side. Of course that was not really the case. In reality, nothing had changed spatially, it only seemed that way.
Gudrun continued. "I had this overwhelming fantasy just now. I imagined a family celebration in the Eifel: hundreds of people, of all ages, many of them sixty years old, and some in their late fifties, with their families, their children and their children's children, from all of God's countries, speaking in strange tongues, but nevertheless all celebrating together. For the little ones there were merry-go-rounds and stalls with sweets, like at a village fair and the older ones had a tent with tables and benches. With the one difference that this celebration was not taking place somewhere on a sports field in a small Eifel village, but in front of my parents' house, in the courtyard, on the road in front of the house, on the side streets and all around the house. Music was being played: German music, Dutch music, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek music. And everyone was dancing with everybody else. It was festive and joyful."
Even now as I am writing my eyes are filling with tears, tears of emotion and joy.
"Finally everybody there made a huge circle around my father," continued Gudrun in her fantasy, "and around my mother - everybody was looking at her with so much friendliness and affection - and then finally around me and my three brothers and sisters and their children. Everybody moved closer together, stood next to each other shoulder to shoulder, gently swaying to a soft humming."
At this point Gudrun broke off her fantasy, looked around the group room and looked at the other participants. She was stretching her hands out to both sides. The two people sitting next to her were reaching out for her hands. Soon everybody in the room was holding hands with the people next to them.
A weightlessness spread throughout the room. Everyone was contributing to it, talking about the freeing effect of Gudrun's family celebration fantasy, of the colourful pictures, which everyone had seen inside at the same time. And they were talking about their own emotions and joy.
Finally I told Gudrun about a marvellous image that my teacher Hunter Beaumont had given us: "You scoop a glass of water out of the sea on the North Sea Coast and then you pour it back in again. Imagine, after maybe ten years, when the sea, which is always in motion, has spread the water from your glass into every sea and ocean around the world, that you scoop another glass of water out of the sea in Australia. This time there would still be tiny particles of water from the first glass." And I added: "So I am not at all surprised that you feel at home like you do everywhere in the world."
Soon afterwards our weekend workshop was over, and we went our separate ways. But this time the goodbyes lasted much longer than they normally did. For quite a while I heard the light-hearted voices of the participants in the hall. Only slowly did silence return to our Institute.
I still remember, how deeply moved I was then and as I went on my way home. The skies over Cologne were beginning to break up a little. For one moment it stopped raining. I saw a little evening red. There were several moments when the setting sun even blinded me a little, as she shone through the breaking clouds.
From: "Protecting the Client" Reinhilde's Generosity
It happened on the last evening of my open supervision group. Colleagues, who are themselves trained and work as Gestalt therapists, come once a month, for the evening, to our Institute, to get support from me for their practice. For Gestalt therapists supervision is a matter of course. We are not social technicians, but rather something like artists who are creatively active. We "create" our therapeutic interventions from the perceptions of our clients and out of our own inner experiences. The idea behind this is that the more we perceive, the more we become able to act. Therefore, most problems in life arise because we limit our ability to perceive.
In the same way as artists are dependent on the flow of their creativity, so are we, Gestalt therapists. If this flow is inhibited, cannot be felt or does not reach the surface, then we need supervision - and of course also good friends, good food, good sex, and perhaps now and then a visit to the sauna or a long vacation … But actually we always need supervision.
Reinhilde was talking about her work with a young woman, perhaps in her mid-twenties. The young woman, Gabi, had come to her for the first time nearly a year and a half earlier. She was suffering from a variety of fears. During the course of her therapy she had put most of them aside - at least in so far as they no longer limited Gabi's everyday life as much.
In addition, Reinhilde described her client as quite a controlled woman, who was disconnected from her own feelings - or more precisely, was a long way away from expressing and communicating them. What was striking was the warmth I felt while I was listening to Reinhilde's description, warmth in an emotional sense - in the sense of being moved. As if tears and joy were all at once tied together and very tangible.
And yes, I also remember - as I write this - at exactly which point I clearly became aware of my emotions in this process for the first time. Reinhilde had spoken affectionately of how her client Gabi "controlled" her feelings - and added, "Actually that is a very good solution for a person, who has so many fears - I do not think there is anything at all wrong with it. I also told Gabi that some time ago, and she was very relieved, and also relaxed somewhat." This is also a beautiful example of what Gestalt therapists mean, when we say everything has its value, has been needed, the way it is, because it has made it possible to survive through difficult times in life. Neuroses are actually an extremely creative contribution on the part of our clients.
Then Reinhilde talked about the therapy session with Gabi, which had taken place almost one week before. The young woman, who had always come for therapy on time, was on this occasion 40 minutes late. As Reinhilde greeted her in the hallway of her practice, she said that Gabi was very scared and had started crying violently.
Reinhilde pushed her gently into her consulting room and towards an armchair, motioning her to sit down. She "simply" began to work with Gabi, and asked the next client to come back half an hour later, which was possible without any problem. But, then Reinhilde added, she would have taken this time for Gabi, even if the next client had not had the time. She would have asked the client, in this extreme circumstance, to come back another day.
Gabi told her - as she continued to cry violently - that her mother had very suddenly become extremely ill. Two days ago, she had been diagnosed with a malignant, already far-advanced, stomach cancer. Her mother, who anyway had often talked of dying and wanting to die, had begun to do this again, and so intensely that Gabi became extremely frightened. That her mother's suicidal tendencies were very significant in Gabi's fears had become clear to both of them - Gabi and Reinhilde - earlier in their therapeutic work together. Now, however, it was even more serious. Gabi's mother would probably die soon.
This was when our actual supervision process began. Reinhilde spoke about her doubts, whether she should be allowed to continue working with her client Gabi, whether it was at all professionally acceptable, because she herself had "such a thing going on with death". Her sister had had a fatal accident seven years earlier, when she had driven her car into a tree. That was why she had not been allowed to see her sister's body at all until the funeral. Reinhilde was crying, as she was telling us this in the group. Lately, she had been thinking constantly of her sister and her death. And now, since Gabi had told her about her dying mother, she had been thinking even more about it. Now she was crying even harder. Then all of a sudden I felt shame inside. As I followed this in myself, Reinhilde continued that nobody really knew whether her sister's death was actually a suicide or not. Her sister had become so unhappy and melancholic. It happened at the same time as Reinhilde's daughter, who was still quite young, was very seriously ill. Consequently, at that time she had had very little strength left to support her sister, who was living in another city.
I asked her whether she was in conflict because of that. She answered, "Not any more. Since then, I have come to accept it. At that time I really did not have any extra strength. At the same time I am so dreadfully sorry, even though I do not feel any guilt. But it is clear to me, that if I continue to work with Gabi, while her mother is dying, that I will also have to keep thinking about the death of my sister. My own pain and my own mourning will then keep on taking up a lot of space. I am afraid, if that happens, of not being able to give enough attention to Gabi and her pain." She turned round to face me directly, "Erhard, do you think, as my supervisor, that it is reasonable for me to continue to work with Gabi?"
I answered with a counter question, "Are you willing to continue working with Gabi, also with the price then of knowing that your sister will always be present in your work. That she will always be there with you as you work with Gabi?"
Reinhilde did not hesitate for a single instant. "Of course, I am willing to do that. No question about it."
"There is a tremendous generosity in that, that I can really appreciate", I said. For a short moment, Reinhilde cried silently. Then she became completely calm and beamed - with tears in her eyes. "What you just said, has touched me so deeply", she said. "I really would like to continue working with Gabi, even at the price that you have named. Gabi is very close to my heart."
An easiness and a friendliness spread throughout the group room. Like a fresh warm breeze which filled the room. With tears of emotion in my eyes I looked around the group room and saw numerous touched faces. Feelings of gratitude and joy overcame me. I felt how close my trainees are to me and to my heart.
Praise for the German Edition of "Touching the Soul in Gestalt Therapy"
"Thank you for your new book. Your honesty and openness touched me very much. After I had begun reading, I could not put the book down. You have explained the flesh and blood of Gestalt therapy to me, not only the bare bones." (Herbert Greif, Nideggen, Germany)
"During an extremely difficult time for me your narratives have touched me to the depths of my soul. While I was reading I could already feel the hardness of my 'diagnostic psycho-analytical view' in my therapeutic work begin to dissolve and I was again able to approach my patients openly and uninhibitedly (with laughter and tears)." (Elke Geser-Schellkopf, Gestalt therapist, Bayreuth, Germany)
"Dear Erhard, Thanks for your marvellous new book. It truly reached my depths. I could not stop reading it. I have just emerged from a time in my life in which I felt I had closed myself down. It was as if I had developed a protective shield, because so many situations around me had been occupying and moving me. Then your book arrived and I felt my heart opening up … my tears starting to flow … and that the protective shield was no longer needed!" (Carina Gadebusch, Remscheid, Germany)
"Once again you have sent me a very beautiful book. One, which really is touching on many points, and which reveals so many alive facets of Gestalt therapeutic work as well as your Gestalt therapeutic work and you as a person. Here are a few examples,
This fits with what you describe later about becoming aware of the 'sacredness' of practicing therapy." (Detlev Kranz, Gestalt therapist, Hamburg, Germany)
"I really enjoyed reading your new book and have been very impressed by its aliveness. As I was reading, I often had the feeling that you were there explaining everything to me in person. In my opinion you could not have explained it better or made it more understandable for those who are not so particularly familiar with the special terminology of Gestalt therapy or this subject matter." (Gabriele Önal, Tübingen, Germany)
"I liked your book very much. I was often touched and close to tears. The story about your father has encouraged me once again to see my mother differently and to find new ways of coming into contact with her. I have already passed my copy of the book on and also have recommended it to other people - their resonance was totally similar to mine." (Martina Feldmayer-Ott, Cologne, Germany)
"A profound respect for humanity, openness, honesty, warmth, tenderness, tears and joy, are only a few of the words that spontaneously occur to me about this book. With his stories, Mr. Doubrawa has also touched my soul and opened my heart. I can recommend this book to everyone who wants to come in touch with their feelings and thus find healing for themselves. This book is a great help for both therapists and clients." (Karin Soukup, psychotherapist)
"An appropriate title - this book touched my soul and I felt spoken to and understood. Everything in the book is pure personal experience, sometimes with an astonishing openness. Mr. Doubrawa answers many of the questions and problems that often present themselves to future as well as currently practicing Gestalt therapists. I myself am in training to become a Gestalt therapist and can highly recommend this book." (Francisca Benz, Oberkirch, Austria)
Erhard Doubrawa has worked as a Gestalt therapist for many years. He is the founder and director of the “Gestalt Therapy Institute of Cologne”, where he is also active as a trainer. In addition he publishes the German Gestalt Therapy Magazine “Gestaltkritik”. Along with his wife Anke, also an established Gestalt therapist, he has edited a series of books about the theory and practice of Gestalt therapy, published by Peter Hammer · Publisher. Another of his publications, “An Invitation to Gestalt Therapy: An Introduction with Examples” (with Stephan Blankertz), will be available soon as an English language edition.