“Gestalt” translated from German means “structure”, “image”, “shape”, “figure”. Many have seen pictures where, depending on perception, the figure (gestalt) and the background seem to change places, the background becomes a figure, the figure becomes the background (Fig. 1), or the pattern of lines and spots develops into one figure, then into another (Fig. 2), or intermittent lines are perceived not as separate segments, but as integral figures, a circle and a rectangle (Fig. 3): Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 The patterns underlying this perception effect are studied by Gestalt psychology, which1 gave rise to the Gestalt approach as a method of psychotherapy and counseling. For Gestalt therapy, the following patterns of perception discovered by Gestalt psychologists turned out to be very important: 1) our consciousness always strives to perceive holistic , complete, meaningful images, forms, figures, structures (that is, gestalts); That’s why we see in the picture either only a girl or an old woman; now the profiles, now the vase - as if we are transferring the focus of vision from one figure to another; we cannot see all the elements of the picture at the same time without switching, without highlighting a specific figure; 2) however, it is the unfinished structures, interrupted actions, unfinished situations that are remembered best (the Zeigarnik effect). This is due to the fact that when an action begins, tension arises, which is not discharged if the action is not completed. That is, regarding an unfinished situation, our psyche and body retain residual tension. So, gestalt is a holistic, complete, meaningful figure, form, structure; in other words, something whole (when we are talking about an object) or complete (when we are talking about a process, an action). If we go back to the beginning, to the pictures about figure and ground, we can offer the following analogy. The client’s difficulty is as if his gaze is fixed on only one figure: I can only see a girl and I just don’t understand where the old woman is; I see the profiles and don’t understand what kind of vase you’re talking about; I can’t identify the figure in the broken lines. In the Gestalt approach, the client and therapist look at the picture together, looking for missing details and different angles of view. Then the client has freedom of perception, and then the opportunity to choose and the power to make it are born. _______1 In addition to it, there is also psychoanalysis, phenomenology, existentialism, Kurt Lewin’s field theory, Arnold Beisser’s theory of paradoxical changes, but their connection with Gestalt therapy needs to be discussed separately.