Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy is a method of psychotherapy based strictly on Gestalt psychology. It was developed by the German Gestalt psychologist and psychotherapist Hans-Juergen P. Walter and his colleagues in Germany and Austria. Psychotherapy is a set of techniques intended to improve or cure mental health, emotional or behavoural issues in individuals, who are often called the client. ... Gestalt psychology (also: Gestalt theory of the Berlin School) is a psychological theory which provides a framework for a wide variety of psychological phenomena, processes, and applications. ... A psychologist is a social scientist who studies psychology, the study of the human mind, thought and human behaviour. ... Hans-Jürgen P. Walter (* March 25, 1944 in Weidenhausen, Germany) is a German psychologist and psychotherapist - he is the founder of Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy. ...

One of the most striking characteristics of Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy is the key role of the epistemological grounding position of Gestalt theory (critical realism) and its applicability to the fundamental, theoretical and practical problems in psychotherapy. In Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy this is closely bound up with the basic methodological approach (holistic, phenomenological, experimental) of Gestalt theory, its system theoretical approach, and its specific psychophysical and psychological approach. Epistemology, from the Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (word/speech) is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin and scope of knowledge. ... In the philosophy of perception, Critical realism is the theory that some of our sense-data (for example, those of primary qualities) can and do accurately represent external objects, properties, and events, while other of our sense-data (for example, those of secondary qualities and perceptual illusions) do not accurately... Holism (from holon, a Greek word meaning entity) is the idea that the properties of a system cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its components alone. ... Phenomenology is a current in philosophy that takes intuitive experience of phenomena (what presents itself to us in conscious experience) as its starting point and tries to extract the essential features of experiences and the essence of what we experience. ... From Latin ex- + -periri (akin to periculum attempt). ...

Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy is related to but different from Fritz Perls' Gestalt therapy in its theoretical foundation. Frederick S. (Fritz) Perls (1893 - 1970) was a noted German-born psychologist and psychotherapist. ... Gestalt Therapy is a psychotherapy, based on the experiential ideal of here and now, and relationships with others and the world, and was co-founded by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s-1950s. ...

External links

• Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy
• Hans-Juergen Walter - Founder of Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy
• What do Gestalt therapy and Gestalt theory have to do with each other?
• 14th international Gestalt theory conference February 2005, Graz (Austria)