The Language We Swim In: Why Words Matter in Gestalt Therapy

A presentation with Steven A. Elkind, PhD

“There are no facts, only interpretations.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche

Gestalt therapy has long emphasized presence, awareness, and dialogue — yet each depends on language, the very medium through which we both connect and distort experience. This presentation explores how linguistic habits shape perception, organize the therapeutic field, and subtly define what is possible in relationship. Drawing on field theory, phenomenology, and Korzybski’s “map is not the territory”, Dr. Elkind examines how words structure the world we inhabit and how therapists can learn to speak in ways that better mirror process, movement, and participation. Participants will gain new insight into how language both reveals and limits awareness, and how refining our use of words can deepen contact, support self-regulation, and enliven the dialogic field.

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GTILA is a non-profit membership organization based in Los Angeles.

Our mission is to be a gathering space for Gestalt therapists, trainees and the Gestalt curious from the Los Angeles area, the United States and internationally. By offering training scholarships, affordable/accessible educational and experimental salons, workshops, newsletters and a therapist directory, we exist to provide an inclusive home for Gestalt therapists while promoting the advancement of contemporary, relational Gestalt therapy. We embrace and respect differences recognizing that our theory and practice must be responsive to the rapidly changing social and demographic field conditions to remain vital, ethical, and relevant.

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About the presenter: Steven A. Elkind, PhD

I am a Clinical Psychologist living and practicing in Madison WI. My lifelong interest in Gestalt Therapy began at the age of 19 when my girlfriend’s father gave me a copy of Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, written by Fritz Perls. I was enchanted with the clarity and freshness of an approach to psychological growth that was both obvious and profound. When I returned home to NYC, I telephoned Laura Perls, who referred me to a Gestalt Therapist. That summer, my earnings as a motorcycle messenger, afforded me two visits/week with my therapist in Greenwich Village. In 1972 I moved to Los Angeles to attend graduate school. To my good fortune, Los Angeles harbored one of the country’s premier Gestalt Therapy Institutes. I trained at the Gestalt Institute of Los Angeles during my four years of graduate school and was awarded my certification in 1976. I am grateful for all the goodwill and efforts of my teachers at the Institute. In particular, the ones I spent the most time with, who I consider my primary mentors, were Robert Resnick, Robert Martin, and Janet Rainwater. My appreciation and love for their generosities towards me, known and unknown, is more than my capacity to express. In spite of my youthful insecurities and doubts, as a result of their teaching, as well as by personal example, I grew as a person and as a therapist. I have since learned from many teachers, within the U.S. and internationally, but my inspiration as a Gestalt Therapist was developed during those early years.

Gestalt Therapy is as fresh and relevant now as it was in 1951 when the seminal Gestalt Therapy by Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman was published. The approach, the methodology, will stay forever young, will never become outdated or reach a date of expiration because it is ever evolving while maintaining its existential humanistic values embedded in Field Theory, Phenomenology, and Dialogue. The heart of Gestalt Therapy is organized around discovering and nurturing the joy of spontaneous relational authenticity.