Handbook for Theory, Research, and Practice in Gestalt Therapy

Many books have been written about gestalt therapy. Not many have been written on the relationship between gestalt therapy and psychotherapy research. The Handbook for Theory, Research, and Practice in Gestalt Therapy is a needed bridge between these two concerns, and a timely addition to scholarly literature on gestalt therapy itself. In 2007 an international team of experienced gestalt therapists devoted themselves to create this book, and they have collaborated with one another to produce a challenging and enriching addition to the literature relevant to gestalt therapy.

The book discusses the philosophy of science, the need for research specifically focused on gestalt therapy, and the critical realism and natural attitude found in both research and gestalt praxis. It provides discussions of qualitative and quantitative research, describes the methods of gestalt therapy as based in a unified theory, and illustrates the application of research in the contexts of emerging gestalt research communities. The discussion contained in this book is needed at a time when warrant for the practice of psychotherapy is increasingly sought in the empirical support available through psychotherapy research–the so called evidence-based movement–and at a time when public policy is increasingly driven by the call for "what works."

This book is part of a series. View the full series, "The World of Contemporary Gestalt Therapy", here.

Philip Brownell, M.Div., Psy.D. is the Director of the Gestalt Training Institute of Bermuda. He is a registered psychologist, organizational consultant, and coach in practice in Bermuda and a licensed clinical psychologist in Oregon and North Carolina, USA. He is the author of Gestalt Therapy: A Guidebook for Mental Health Professionals, consulting editor for The European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy and has contributed to numerous

books and journals in Australia, the UK, and the USA. He is the founder and facilitator of Gstalt-L, an eCommunity started in 1996 for gestalt therapists, trainers, trainees, theorists, and writers, and he serves on the Board of Directors of the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy, an international community.

"Handbook for Theory, Research, and Practice in Gestalt Therapy is a long overdue book. It is a Herculean attempt to provide a blueprint for demonstrating that the value of this powerful psychotherapeutic model can be shown through qualitative and quantitative research, and that it can take its place in the world of normal science. Brownell and his erudite contributors have combined to produce a volume that will be of great value to practitioners and theorists. They point the way for collaboration of these groups to help Gestalt Therapy take its rightful place among academically respected psychology by studying the world of the clinic as scholar-practitioners would do. In so doing they invite us to complete the unfinished business of Gestalt therapy. As one trained as a classical research psychologist, and then becoming one of the early people trained by the founders of Gestalt Therapy, reading this book felt like coming home. The "revolution" that I joined in 1956 is not completed, but in this volume we are given a guide to how to do so. I recommend this book to anyone who is serious about practicing his or her craft better by supporting it with a broader base, one that demonstrates that merging existential phenomenology with phenomenological behaviorism can produce verifiable, replicable results for what is essentially an ideographic pursuit."

Edwin C. Nevis, Ph.D., President, Gestalt Institute of Cleveland (1959-1973), Founder, GestaltPress and Gestalt Review, Co-Founder Gestalt international Study Center

"The Handbook for Theory, Research, and Practice in Gestalt Therapy will immediately become the classic reference to research and application in the Gestalt community. Edited by one of the premier scholars in the field and filled with rich contributions from a vertiable "Who's Who" of Gestalt researchers and therapists, this is certain to be the defining work on the integraton of practice, theory, and research in Gestalt work. The handbook is jam packed with concise theoretical summaries, gestalt therapy procedures, and a wide range of promising research approaches for scholar-practitioners in this growing discipline within mental health. Always loyal to the here and now of Gestalt tradition, this handbook also delivers the what and how with striking clarity and pragmatism. This seminal volume should occupy a prominent place on the desk of any serious Gestalt Therapy practitioner, teacher, reseacher, and student."

W. Brad Johnson, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Leadership, Ethics and Law, U.S. Naval Academy, Faculty Associate in the Graduate School of Business and Education, John Hopkins University

"I applaud Dr. Brownell's thoughtful perspectives on expanding gestalt therapy's dimensions. By his focus on the role of research he is creating the third leg of a tripod composed of theory, practice and research, promising increased balance and support for gestalt therapy's theoretical and procedural positions."

Erving Polster, Ph.D., Director, The Gestalt Institute of San Diego, Author: Gestalt Therapy Integrated, Every Person's Life is Worth a Novel, From the Radical Center: The Heart of Gestalt Therapy, Uncommon Ground

"I found myself entranced by this elegant little hardback book...At this point inthe development of therapy, when we can so readily (and with good reason) feel our work is unappreciated and undervalued in the politically driven demand for evidence based research, it is heartening to see how an international group of gestalt theorists and clinicians have found it possible to band together to make a strong case for their approach - and make it on their own terms and from a deepening of their own philosophy. It is worth saying (since aesthetics have a role to play in the way we relate to books as anything else) that the production quality of this text to make it a delight to hold. It is beautifully constructed and formatted on thick paper. Still more importantly, it is intellectually weighty and provides that rare thing - both a sound and engaging commentary on gestalt psychology (contributors are well-respected figures within the gestalt community) and an exploration of the contribution of this approach to psychotherapy research."

Simon Du Plock in Existential Analysis; 20.2 (2009)

Paul Barber

Dan Bloom

Todd Burley

Siobhán Conway-Hicks

Sylvia Fleming Crocker

Victor Daniels

Seán Gaffney

Eva Gold

Leslie Greenberg

Anna Johannson

Jungkyu Kim