🎙️ Understanding Gestalt – Episode 8: Diagnosis in Gestalt
We are happy to bring you the latest episode of the “Understanding Gestalt” podcast, in which we KamiL Torczewski – a psychotherapist, Gestalt Practitioner in Organization (GPO) and professional teacher at the Lodz School of Gestalt Psychotherapy – invites you to talk about one of the most intriguing aspects of therapeutic work: diagnosis in the Gestalt approach.
In this episode, KamiL talks with Andrew Vronsky – a psychotherapist, supervisor and long-time teacher of the profession – to look together at what diagnosis really is in the Gestalt sense.
🧩 What is diagnosis in Gestalt?
Unlike classical therapeutic models, diagnosis in Gestalt is not a one-time “label assignment.” It is not a closing drawer or a list of symptoms. It’s a process based on relationship, experience and shared understanding that changes from moment to moment.
The therapist does not ask: “What is wrong with the client?” but rather:
“What is going on between us and what does it tell us about the field we are working in?”
KamiL and Andrew discuss how, in Gestalt, diagnosis can be a guidepost rather than a constraint – and why it is most important that diagnosis remains alive.
🌱 Understanding Gestalt – episode 8:
– how process diagnosis differs from classical diagnosis,
– why in Gestalt we don’t diagnose a person “from the outside,”
– what a therapist really “sees” when he or she meets a client,
– how to understand diagnosis as a collaborative discovery of meaning,
– what is the therapist’s responsibility to what he or she names, notices or interprets,
– how diagnosis can support rather than limit – and what to do to prevent it from becoming a label.
💬 Why it’s important
Diagnosis in the Gestalt approach is one of those topics that show how it differs from many other psychotherapeutic methods. It’s not a “case” analysis, but an attentive, present being in touch.
Understanding diagnosis as a process allows the therapist to see not only the client’s story, but also the here-and-now of the relationship, which reveals what cannot be read from any form.
In the words of Andrew Vronsky:
“Diagnosis happens between us. What I understand about the client is born in contact, not in theory.”
🎧 Listen to the conversation here:
👉 Understanding Gestalt – Episode 8: Diagnosis in Gestalt
This is an episode for those who want to see how deeply and subtly the therapeutic process can be understood – and why in Gestalt the diagnosis is not the end, but the beginning of the meeting.
If you want to experience working with KamiL live, there will soon be a unique opportunity to do so. The Lodz School of Gestalt Psychotherapy will host the second edition of the workshop “A Man’s Journey. Consciousness – identity – relationships “, which KamiL Torczewski will lead together with Marten Bos.
This is a space dedicated to men who want to take a deeper look at their relationships, ways of reacting, inner conflicts and how to build a life more consciously and in touch with themselves.