Dr. Nicole Chew-Helbig, PhD
A detailed comparison of five major approaches to couples therapy — examining their philosophical foundations, theories of change, and clinical implications. Companion essay to The Dance of Difference (Routledge, 2026).
A century of relational thinking — from Jaspers' phenomenology through psychoanalysis to Gestalt field theory — offers a radical alternative to the medical model of mental suffering.
How Gestalt therapy synthesised psychoanalytic theory, Gestalt psychology's principles of perception, and Lewinian field theory into a distinctive therapeutic approach.
The Dao De Jing (or Tao Te Ching 道德经) is a foundational text of Chinese philosophy and Taoism. The Dao De Jing, an essential text in both traditional Chinese culture and world philosophy, is...
How the neuropsychologist Kurt Goldstein's holistic organism theory shaped Fritz Perls' development of Gestalt therapy.
In today's fast-paced and interconnected world, many of us find ourselves grappling with feelings of disconnection and fragmentation. From the pressures of work and social media to the demands of...
Melanie Klein emphasises the role of unconscious defence mechanisms in shaping our perceptions of the world and ourselves. This essay will delve into the core tenets of Klein's theory, focusing on...
Wilhelm Reich was a prominent figure in the early development of psychoanalytic techniques, particularly noted for his integration of body movements and psychological experiences, as well as his...
Gestalt therapy, a distinctive form of psychotherapy, developed by Lore and Fritz Perls, offers a nuanced approach to understanding and facilitating human growth and development. This method emerged...
This passage explores the intellectual milieu of Frankfurt in the 1920s, highlighting the cross-pollination of ideas that significantly influenced the development of Gestalt therapy by Fritz Perls....
I’m posting this marking the passing of Erving Polster at 102 last week. https://youtu.be/FscJjqEyMWM?si=Cuvouru5BRtCTeF1 According to the video, Erving Polster, then at 98-years of age, talks...
Fritz Perls' arrival in Frankfurt during 1926-1927 marked a pivotal point in his career. At Frankfurt University, a renowned center for social sciences in Germany, Gestalt psychology held significant...
Karen Horney (1885-1952) was a pioneering German-American psychoanalyst who challenged traditional Freudian views and made significant contributions to our understanding of personality, neurosis, and...
Notes from Gestalt Therapy's seminal book by Fritz Perls, Ralf Hefferline and Paul Goodman, Published in 1951 republished in 1994, entitled, "Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human...
Bocian's article, translated by F. Staemmler, "From free association to concentration: from alienation to Ferenczi's "forced fantasies" and "the third" in Gestalt Therapy", helps us to grasp the...
Comprehensive notes from Gestalt Therapy's seminal book by Fritz Perls, Ralph Hefferline and Paul Goodman — covering contact boundary, creative adjustment, ego functions, and the experiments in self-awareness.
Gestalt therapy is an engine of individual an social change. Francesetti lecture 2023 in Madrid exposes the current relevancy of gestalt therapy field theory in psychotherapy practice.
A *thousand plastic flowers * *Don’t make a desert bloom * *A thousand empty faces * *Don’t fill an empty room.* Fritz Perls I enjoy reading this book, written “ad verbatim”, as the title...
## Doctorate Dissertation 2023 ### Abstract Therapeutic Autoethnography is founded on Autoethnography, an emergent field in qualitative research. Therapeutic Autoethnography engages the...
## Understanding Salomo Friedlaender’s Creative Indifference: A Psychotherapy Case-Study. ### Abstract Salomo Friedlaender’s Creative Indifference, or Schöpferische Indifferenz, first published in...
The founder of Gestalt therapy, Fritz Perls tells us in his own voice in this gem of a video. What gestalt therapy is. Listen to this, and we can make up our minds as to how relevant this modality of...
## A psychotherapist’s lived experience in-session with an asylum seeker and translator: An autoethnographic case study ### Abstract Featured in this article is a psychotherapy case study recounted...
To illustrate how a therapist’s emotions towards client, though brought to awareness and allowed to be revealed, can also be mistaken for authentic reaction to the client’s process, a mentor of mine,...
The challenge with humanistic psychotherapy today is to realize the philosophical concepts and theory put into practice. How do we see an [I-thou moment...
## Writing evocative case studies: applying autoethnography as a research methodology for the psychotherapist. ### Abstract This is an introduction to the application of autoethnography, a...
**The [phenomenological attitude](https://nikhelbig.at/the-importance-of-therapists-self-awareness-phenomenological-attitude/) of **putting aside, or bracketing, theories and pre-conceived ideas in...
The late Claudio Naranjo demonstrates how the personalities of great classical composers shine through their music, using the enneagram as a lens.
A review of Fritz Perls' verbatim transcripts of therapy sessions and lectures — capturing his voice, techniques, and philosophy of Gestalt therapy.
In his book *Schöpferische Indifferenz*, philosopher Salomo Friedlaender* (1918/2013) *opens with [1] & [2]: > *Creative Indifference, individual: please don't immediately misunderstand that first...
## Dialogue analysis of a filmed Gestalt therapy session: an introduction to a method ### Abstract Psychotherapy process research takes us beyond answering the question, ‘does psychotherapy work?’...
Gestalt therapy is an effective and efficacious form of psychotherapy (Roubal, 2016). Gestalt psychotherapy is practised by certified psychotherapists trained and supervised in the modality. Anyone...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI9CLJlZCz8 ## Abstract How can we visualize the evolving psychotherapeutic alliance in dialogue? The psychotherapeutic dialogue is an important source of data for...
Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder explained and treated with Gestalt Therapy method.
The publication *[On...
If the process of psychoanalysis, as defined by Freud's Anna O., defined as a "talking cure" (Breuer & Freud, 1893/2009), what about Gestalt therapy? Gestalt therapy is a holistic approach to...
Kubik’s (2014) paper, *Culture Contact: cognitive and psychodynamic aspects *deals with interesting facets of the discourse of the concept of culture, that one would tend to overlook. It starts off...
"All disease comes from the heart" writes Freuhauf (2006). With this statement, he refers to a traditional Chinese concept of illness. ### The Five Element Theory of Chinese Medicine Chinese...
I am deriving the inspiration to write this article from Claudio Naranjo's *The Divine Child and the Hero: Inner Meaning in Children's Literature, *and a presentation I have to give to the class on...
A client who has just started therapy will experience different kind of session as a client who has been with the therapist for a longer period of time. Similarly, clients who experience psychosis...
This is a presentation I gave some years ago on the connection on antisocial violent behavior in some men, and how researchers (in this article I feature the work of J. Gilligan) have learnt how...
Polster and Polster (1973, p. 176) in their book *[Gestalt therapy...
Kernberg (2008) writes that for the treatment of any case in which antisocial features of the [personality disorder](https://nikhelbig.at/normal-personality-vs-personality-disorders/) (PD) are...
Bobby McFerrin is famous for his hit song, "Don't Worry Be Happy". In this video, he demonstrates how the crowd intuitively synchronizes to the pentatonic scale. Ferrin says, "What's interesting to...
Dreams. What are they? For those of us who know already, dreams are the windows to our unconscious. To fall asleep and dream is to let go of our outer world. In doing so, the life of our inner world...