73

Starting from the double observation of the lack of visibility of Gestalt therapy in the institutional field of mental health in France and its incompatibility with the medical paradigm which currently dominates this field, the author recommends that the Gestalt community adopt a solid critique of the medical model in order to enter into dialogue with professionals working in the field of psychotherapy. To do this, he develops Wampold’s contextual approach according to which every therapy is unique while therapeutic techniques are not effective as such, but because of their coherence with the context and the meaning given to them by the patient. Much more than the method, it is the therapist’s alignment with the patient that is the critical factor. Wampold’s approach thus appears consistent with the anthropology of Gestalt Therapy. But its adoption as an alternative to the medical model would entail a series of consequences for the gestalt community which it must measure, challenges that will need to be taken on: the blurring of borders between modalities and the need for important collective work on the individual effectiveness of therapists.