Gestalt Therapy Examples: What This Actually Looks Like in Practice
Four illustrative Gestalt therapy examples — anxiety, an old argument, self-criticism, and disconnection — showing what a session actually looks like.
Before the examples: what these are and aren't
The four examples below are illustrative composites — built to show a plausible pattern, not real client stories. Alex never shares identifying details of actual clients; that's a basic confidentiality standard, not just a legal one. If a situation here sounds familiar, that's because these patterns are common, not because it's about anyone specific.
These examples also aren't scripts. Gestalt therapy is built around following what's actually happening for the person in the room, not running a fixed sequence — so a real session would branch differently depending on what showed up. For the general technique explanations behind what you'll read here, see Gestalt therapy techniques. For how a session is generally paced and structured, see what happens in a Gestalt therapy session.
Example 1: Anxiety before a big meeting
The situation. Someone comes in visibly wound up about a presentation happening later that day. They're talking fast, describing everything that could go wrong.
What might happen. Rather than analysing the content of the worry, the therapist might ask: "What are you noticing right now, in your body, as you talk about this?" The person might realise their jaw is clenched, their breathing is shallow and high in the chest. The therapist stays with that — not to make the anxiety go away, but to help the person notice it's happening in the present, in the room, rather than only in an imagined future.
What this illustrates. Present-moment awareness — one of the core Gestalt techniques — applied to anxiety. The aim isn't to reason the fear away; it's to interrupt the loop of imagining the future by anchoring attention in what's actually here right now.
Example 2: An old argument that won't let go
The situation. Someone keeps circling back, months later, to a falling-out with a family member that never got resolved — the other person moved away, or contact stopped, before anything was said or settled. The broader idea is explained in unfinished business in Gestalt therapy.
What might happen. The therapist might set up an empty chair and invite the person to say, out loud, what they never got to say — not as a rehearsal for a real conversation, but to let the unexpressed feeling finally have a voice and a direction, rather than circling silently in their head.
What this illustrates. This is the empty-chair technique applied to what Gestalt calls "unfinished business" — a situation where the emotional loop stays open because something important was never said or felt through. This is also one of the more directly researched Gestalt techniques: a controlled study found that clients who did structured empty-chair work with unresolved feelings about a significant other showed significantly greater improvement than those in an educational group about the same topic (Paivio & Greenberg, 1995). A broader, more recent systematic review of chair-based methods across 22 randomised trials found similar support across several conditions, including unfinished business specifically (Ottingerová, Halamová, & Szitás, 2026).
Example 3: The inner critic after a mistake
The situation. Someone made an error at work — nothing catastrophic, but they can't stop replaying it, and a harsh internal voice keeps telling them they're incompetent and should have known better.
What might happen. The therapist might invite the person to voice that critical part directly — sit in one chair and speak as the critic, then move to a second chair and respond as the part of them that feels attacked or ashamed. Hearing the critic's exact words out loud, rather than just feeling their effect, often changes how sharp they feel.
What this illustrates. Two-chair work, used here for what Gestalt calls the "top dog" (the demanding, critical voice) and the "underdog" (the resistant or defeated voice) — explained in more depth on top dog and underdog in Gestalt therapy. Structured chairwork like this has research support specifically for self-critical patterns: a meta-analysis found that adding chairwork to treatment produced a meaningful additional benefit compared with treatment that didn't include it (Pascual-Leone et al., 2023).
Example 4: Feeling disconnected in a relationship
The situation. Someone describes a relationship where things are "fine" on the surface, but they feel distant from their partner and can't quite say why.
What might happen. Instead of discussing the relationship as a topic, the therapist might notice how the person talks about their partner rather than to them, even in the room, and gently point that out — inviting the person to try speaking more directly, in the present tense, about what they actually feel.
What this illustrates. A language and contact experiment — noticing the difference between "talking about" and "speaking directly," which Gestalt treats as a meaningful signal of where connection has quietly broken down. This kind of noticing is central to what the site's Gestalt therapy techniques page calls "speaking directly instead of speaking about."
What these examples have in common
In each case, the therapist isn't interpreting the person's history or offering advice. The consistent move is: notice what's happening right now, and work with that directly — a feeling in the body, an unfinished conversation, a critical inner voice, a habit of talking around rather than to someone. That's the paradoxical theory of change at the heart of Gestalt work, explained more fully on what is Gestalt therapy: change tends to happen through fuller awareness of what already is, not through effort to become something else.
What these examples are not
They're not proof that a particular technique will produce a particular outcome for you — therapy isn't that predictable, and no single technique works the same way for everyone. They're not a substitute for an actual assessment of your situation. And none of them describe how Gestalt would handle a mental health crisis, active trauma symptoms, or a diagnosed clinical condition — those situations usually call for a different, more specialised first step.
When examples like these might not apply to you
If what you're dealing with is closer to a clinical anxiety disorder, PTSD, or a depressive episode with more serious symptoms, the honest, evidence-based picture is different from what's shown here — see Gestalt therapy for anxiety, Gestalt therapy for trauma, and Gestalt therapy for depression for what the evidence says in each case, and when a different approach should come first. If you are in a mental health crisis, or thinking about harming yourself, please contact your local emergency services or a crisis line in your country right now.
Frequently asked questions
Are these real client examples?
No. They're illustrative composites built to show common, plausible patterns — not accounts of real people. Client confidentiality means real sessions are never described publicly.
What is the empty chair technique, in plain terms?
Speaking out loud to an empty chair as if a specific person (or a part of yourself) were sitting in it — a way to voice something unresolved instead of letting it circle silently in your head. It's one of the more specifically researched Gestalt techniques.
Does the empty chair or two-chair technique actually work?
There's real controlled research behind it. A classic study found empty-chair work significantly outperformed an educational-only comparison group for resolving unresolved feelings about someone (Paivio & Greenberg, 1995), and more recent reviews of chairwork across many trials found consistent, meaningful added benefit (Pascual-Leone et al., 2023).
Is Gestalt therapy just about "talking to an empty chair"?
No — that's one specific technique among several, and not every session uses it. Most Gestalt work is closer to slower, present-moment conversation; see Gestalt therapy techniques for the fuller list.
What if my situation doesn't look like any of these examples?
That's expected — these are four illustrations, not an exhaustive list. If your situation involves anxiety, trauma, or depression specifically, see the dedicated pages linked above for what the evidence says about fit.
How do I know if this approach would work for me?
The clearest way is a conversation, not a website. See what happens in a Gestalt therapy session for what a real first session involves, or use the private check-in tool to think it through first.
For the full picture, start with the Gestalt therapy guide. For the practical way I sequence this work, read my integrative approach.
Professional note: This article is educational. It does not prescribe, and it is not a substitute for medical or psychiatric care. If you are in immediate danger or crisis in Spain, call 112.