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Gestalt Institute
of Ann Arbor
Fritz Perls is credited with much of the development of "awareness theory". His work emphasized a phenomenological and subjective approach to therapy, based on the notion that many of us split off our experience (thoughts, sensations, emotions) that are uncomfortable. A primary goal of his therapeutic style was to move people into owning their experience, which would aid the mending of their fragmented view into a healthy gestalt (or whole). Perls' book, Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, is an interesting description of this approach drawn from transcripts of his work.
