Who was it that taught you
To be ashamed of your anger,
Hold back indignation,
Bite in frustration?

Where did you learn that an outburst
Was anything more than itself?

How will you learn
That your anger,
Even more than joy or sadness
Is the line that twangs
From the depths of your
Stillness?

“Change occurs when a person becomes what he is, not what he is trying to be.”
So said Fritz Perls, one of the founders of Gestalt Therapy. Gestalt Therapy tries to integrate conflicting polarities within personality by using playful techniques in a therapy setting – allowing the full expression of gestures, movements, feelings that have become ‘stuck’ through years of habit. This expression, and the resulting shift in awareness, is what Perls believed would allow a person to recover his lost potential – by ‘waking up from the nightmare of his existence’.