Why "Living Ground"
In Gestalt therapy, ground refers to everything that shapes who we are and how we experience the world — our relationships, our bodies, our past, and what's happening in our lives in the present. It is the context from which we make meaning and grow.
Living is an invitation to try something different. Many of us have had to numb or deaden parts of ourselves to survive. Living Ground is about cultivating a way of being that feels more present, more authentic, and more fully alive.
What Gestalt therapy is
From Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy, where I received my training:
Gestalt Therapy emphasizes the here and now, and seeks to find the balance between accepting our creative adjustments to past circumstances, while also heightening our awareness of the fuller range of creative and spontaneous possibilities that are available to us in the present moment. It is a therapy that respects the integration of mind and body, so its focus is on the interplay between the cognitive and emotional aspects of the self. It is also a relational therapy, predicated on the belief that when we meet in the present moment with fullness and openness, with genuine and unreserved acceptance, we create the ground from which all healing takes place.
What that looks like in the room
We work with what is actually here — what you notice, what you feel, what happens between us as we talk. The ways you learned to adapt were creative and necessary; we treat them with respect while making room for possibilities that were not available to you before.
There is no curriculum and no schedule for your growth. If this way of working resonates, you might read about the ways we could work together, or simply reach out and ask whatever this page has not answered.