The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy

When The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy was first published in 1995, the preeminent Gestalt therapy teachers and theoreticians of the time, Erving and Miriam Polster wrote in their foreword:



Every theory needs to be vitalized by its new generations;

Rich Hycner and Lynne Jacobs's book represents an important

contribution to the continuing renewal of Gestalt therapy.



Their words were prophetic, for the “relational” aspect of the therapeutic encounter is now considered integral to Gestalt therapy theory. Gary Yontef, another noted Gestalt therapy theoretician wrote: “A relational perspective is so central to the theory of Gestalt therapy that without it there is no coherent core of Gestalt therapy theory or practice.”



In the almost two decades since its initial publication, The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy has become the primary basis for the ongoing exploration of the relationship between Buber's philosophy of dialogue and the psychology of therapeutic dialogue.



Lynne Jacobs, Ph.D., has long been interested in the relational dimension of psychotherapy, and in integrating humanistic theories with contemporary psychoanalytic theories. Both a Gestalt therapist and a psychoanalyst, she is a cofounder of the Pacific Gestalt Institute. She is also a training and supervising analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP) in Los Angeles. She teaches at ICP, and teaches gestalt therapists locally, nationally, and internationally. Her recent articles include "Shame in the Therapeutic Dialogue,” "Optimal Responsiveness and Intersubjectivity Theory,” and "Pathways to a Relational Worldview.” She has a private practice in West Los Angeles.



Richard Hycner is the author of "Between Person and Person: Toward a Dialogical Psychotherapy" (1993, Gestalt Journal Press). Rich has been a psychotherapist for thirty-five years and is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in California. He and Lynne are described by Erving and Miriam Polster as belonging to the third generation of Gestalt therapists — bringing richness, clarification and thoughtful perspective to the continuing renewal of Gestalt therapy.