A Gestalt Perspective of Crisis Debriefing: Working in the Here and Now When the Here and Now is Unbearable

Abstract

Abstract Recent world events have created an urgent need to respond to those who have experienced and survived traumatic events. The group crisis response protocol created by NOVA contains many comparison points to Gestalt concepts. This article compares the three question sets of the NOVA protocol with the Gestalt contact cycle and use of dialogue to facilitate the creation of narrative. Surviving traumatic events leads to figural changes and new gestalts. The intent of this article is to form a theoretical connection between two fields, crisis response and Gestalt therapy, in order to support the healing work being done in the aftermath of recent world tragedies.