Chasing Rainbows : in Search of Wonder in Gestalt Therapy

In a world marked by acceleration and dispersion, the aesthetic experience of wonder risks being lost. This article explores how gestalt therapy particularly as developed within the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy (NYIGT) offers a clinical and philosophical response to this fragmentation. Drawing on field theory, the temporal sequence of contacting, and the aesthetic of perception, I propose that wonder arises when we linger with experience, allowing novelty to emerge from the ordinary. Through metaphor, clinical reflection, and phenomenological inquiry, I argue that contacting is not merely a therapeutic technique but a rhythmic, aesthetic process that reenchants our engagement with the world. Wonder, like a rainbow, beckons us forward not as a goal to be grasped, but as a promise sensed in the momenta of contacting. [Publisher's text]