I am fond of saying to my students, ”look at the person the way you look at a sunset or at a mountain. Take in what you see with pleasure. Take in the person for his own sake. After all, you would do that with the sunset also. Chances are you wouldn’t say, ’This sunset should be more purple’ or ’These mountains should be taller in the center.’ You would simply gaze with wonder. So it is with another person. I look without saying, ’His skin should be more pink’ or ’His hair should be cut shorter.’ The person is.
The creative process begins with one’s appreciation of what is there – the essence, the clarity, and the impact of what is around us. I would like to approach people the way Henry David Thoreau saw and understood nature: ”The brilliant autumnal colors are red and yellow and the various tints, hues and shades of these. Blue is reserved to be the color of the sky, but yellow and red are the colors of the earth-flower. Every fruit, on ripening, and just before it fall, acquires a bright tint. So do the leaves; so do the sky before the end of the dag…”
The therapist, just like the poet, is able to appreciate the full scope of life around him, including the landscape of his patient’s existance, his physical being, his grimaces, gait and walk. In order to help someone, you must love him on a basic, simple way. You must love the person who is before you and not a goal you set for him. You cannot love future images of the other without absenting yourself from the person sitting in front of you.

Joseph Zinker ur boken Creative Process in Gestalt Therapy

Jag önskar det kunde vara så lätt. Ibland är det så lätt. Och att se sig själv så också med de ögonen. Som jag ser naturen, himlen, hackspetten, som nyss satt på fönsterbrädan. Det som bara är.
Att se hinder eller möjligheter, det gör en stor skillnad.