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Gestalt therapy belongs to the mainstream of humanistic and existential therapies. Its creator is Fritz Perls, who together with his wife Laura in the 1940s created a new direction in psychotherapy. The word Gestalt was taken from German and means shape, form, figure. The main tenet of Gestalt therapy is that people organize their experiences as a whole, that is, figures. A person's mental life consists of many such interrelated figures, interacting with each other. The figure is the most important thing that emerges from the background. Until the figure is closed, it will be revealed from time to time in various situations and disturb the perception of reality or the overall functioning of the individual. In order for the figure to go to the background, the need behind it must be satisfied, which is tantamount to saturating a given situation, releasing the emotions it arises and assimilating conclusions from the events that have occurred. Thanks to this, a single cycle of experiencing a given person is closed, and he becomes ready to enter a new experience. The easiest way to explain it is by the example of a person who has not eaten for many days. The figure that will emerge from the background in her case will be hunger. If she fails to satisfy it, the figure of hunger will obscure all other events taking place at that time, but less important from the point of view of her needs. If she does not draw conclusions from this situation, why she was hungry and how to deal with this hunger, then this situation will repeat itself over and over again. Hunger can vary in size; physical caused by a lack of food, emotional, related to an unmet need for love, acceptance, attention or respect for boundaries, spiritual, caused by a spiritual emptiness or social, related to the lack of relationships with other people.

The figures that appear in our lives, i.e. gestalts, may concern all spheres of human life and existence.

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Gestalt therapy is based on several important assumptions.

First of all, it looks at a person holistically, that is, taking into account his thoughts, feelings, body, spiritual needs, and the environment in which he functions. All these spheres are interconnected and interpenetrate each other.

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Secondly, it assumes that man is a free being, equipped with all the necessary resources to lead a satisfying life, and that his body has the ability to self-regulate.

Man is a rational being, capable of making decisions and making the best choices for himself.

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