Clara Stephan

Clara Stephan đź«€Licensed Clinical Psychologist
🪻Learning Gestalt therapy with you
đź’­Reflections on awareness, emotions, and being human

We often think of ourselves as separate individuals moving through the world.But Gestalt sees things differently.We are ...
29/05/2026

We often think of ourselves as separate individuals moving through the world.

But Gestalt sees things differently.

We are not isolated from our environment.
We are constantly shaped by it and shaping it in return.

Our relationships, culture, family, financial situation, political reality, past experiences, even the spaces we spend time in… all become part of the field we exist within.

Which means that our emotions and behaviors don’t appear out of nowhere.

They make sense in context.

Sometimes we judge ourselves harshly without noticing the environment we are trying to survive, adapt to, or function within.

In Gestalt, we don’t only ask:
“What is happening inside you?”

We also ask:
“What is happening around you?”

Because a person cannot truly be understood in isolation from their field.

“Lose your mind and come to your senses.”One of the things Fritz Perls paid close attention to was the body.Not only wha...
27/05/2026

“Lose your mind and come to your senses.”

One of the things Fritz Perls paid close attention to was the body.

Not only what people said,
but how they said it.

The pauses.
The posture.
The breath.
The tightening of the jaw.
The way someone shrinks, braces, or holds themselves.

In Gestalt, the body is not separate from the experience.
It is part of the experience.

Sometimes we think we are hiding something because we don’t say it out loud, while our entire body is already expressing it.

I think there’s something powerful in becoming curious about these small movements instead of immediately correcting them.

Noticing how we organize ourselves.
How we hold tension.
How we prepare for danger even when danger is no longer there.

Awareness begins there too.

Not only in thoughts,
but in sensation, movement, and presence.

Exile.War.Migration.Starting over repeatedly.Gestalt therapy didn’t emerge in isolation from history or politics.It was ...
27/05/2026

Exile.
War.
Migration.
Starting over repeatedly.

Gestalt therapy didn’t emerge in isolation from history or politics.
It was born through people trying to understand human experience while living through rupture and instability themselves.

And maybe this is part of why Gestalt feels so grounded in reality.

It challenges rigid ideas about how people “should” be.
It questions fixed truths.
It brings attention back to lived experience instead of abstract interpretation.

Gestalt therapy wasn’t created from one single idea.It emerged from encounters.From philosophy, psychoanalysis, theatre,...
27/05/2026

Gestalt therapy wasn’t created from one single idea.

It emerged from encounters.
From philosophy, psychoanalysis, theatre, biology, and lived experience meeting each other.

And at the center of it were Fritz and Laura Perls.

Fritz is often the most remembered name, but Laura Perls played a fundamental role in shaping the depth and philosophy of Gestalt therapy as we know it today.

What I personally love about Gestalt is that it refuses fragmentation.

It doesn’t separate body from mind.
Individual from environment.
Theory from experience.

It sees the person as a whole, constantly in movement and in relationship with the world around them.

We’re used to saying things like:“I have anxiety”“I have back pain”“I’m stressed”As if these experiences exist separatel...
25/05/2026

We’re used to saying things like:

“I have anxiety”
“I have back pain”
“I’m stressed”

As if these experiences exist separately from us.

But Gestalt invites a different way of looking.

Instead of asking only *what* you feel, it asks:

How are you living this experience right now?

Maybe stress looks like holding your breath.
Maybe anxiety looks like tightening your jaw.
Maybe exhaustion looks like carrying your body as if it weighs too much.

Not to blame yourself for it.
Not to force change.

But to notice that your thoughts, emotions, body, and environment are all part of the same process.

A single experience.
A single movement.

And sometimes, awareness begins when we stop seeing ourselves as broken pieces… and start experiencing ourselves as a whole.

We often relate to ourselves as separate parts.A thought to fix.An emotion to control.A symptom to get rid of.But human ...
19/05/2026

We often relate to ourselves as separate parts.

A thought to fix.
An emotion to control.
A symptom to get rid of.

But human experience doesn’t really work in isolated pieces.

A sentence means more than individual words placed side by side.
A car is more than scattered parts on the floor.
And you are more than a collection of “issues.”

In Gestalt, this is the idea of holism:
the whole is different from the sum of its parts.

Your emotions, body, thoughts, relationships, environment… they constantly influence one another.

Which means that what you experience only makes sense when seen in context.

Sometimes we focus so much on “the problem” that we lose sight of the person carrying it.

And therapy is not only about understanding isolated symptoms, but about restoring movement and awareness within the whole person.

innerwork

We’re used to approaching ourselves with a goal:to improveto changeto become something elseBut what happens if, for a mo...
12/05/2026

We’re used to approaching ourselves with a goal:

to improve
to change
to become something else

But what happens if, for a moment, you stop trying?

Not giving up
just pausing the effort.

In Gestalt, there’s this idea that change happens
when we fully become what we are.

Not when we try to be something different.

So instead of fixing the feeling,
try staying with it.

If you feel stuck, notice how you are stuck.
If you feel tense, notice how your body holds it.

Without correcting it.
Without moving away from it.

Just being with it.

It can feel counterintuitive.

But sometimes, the moment you stop pushing against yourself,
something begins to move.

Not because you made it happen
but because you allowed it to be there.

The more you try to change…the more stuck you feel.There’s often a quiet fight happening inside.One part of you pushing:...
07/05/2026

The more you try to change…
the more stuck you feel.

There’s often a quiet fight happening inside.

One part of you pushing:
“I should be different”
“I need to do better”

And another part resisting, withdrawing, or shutting down.

We usually side with the part that wants to change.
We try to control, discipline, or fix ourselves.

But this internal struggle often leads nowhere.

Because the part you’re trying to get rid of
is not random.

It learned something.
It protected something.
It made sense at some point.

What if, instead of trying to win this fight,
you got curious about it?

Not to justify it.
But to understand what it’s doing for you.

Sometimes, what we call a “problem”
is just a response that hasn’t been updated yet.

And change doesn’t happen through force.
It begins when we stop fighting ourselves long enough
to actually notice what’s there.

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