Trauma, therefore, is not a process of contact. It is an overwhelming experience in which contact does not occur and a “disruption of the figure/ground process” occurs (2020).

The progression of experience in traumatic situations is no longer depicted by a curve, but by broken lines (Figure 2).

Let’s see what changes in the contact cycle, compared to the four phases (pre-contact, contact, full contact and post-contact).

Pre-contact is the phase in which boundaries are prepared and influenced in anticipation of an upcoming situation, such as a night out at the club. It includes getting ready, the journey, entering the club, meeting a man, and getting to know each other. It can be a period of time, varying in length, during which the person has no opportunity to prepare for the next event, as it will unfold completely unpredictably.

The climax arrives suddenly, interrupting the process, as if the nightclub owner were to attack me, pull out a gun, and start shooting in the club. There would be a sudden increase in intensity, connected to an invasive and overwhelming experience.

In trauma, we are faced with a novelty that, on the one hand, is unassimilable and, on the other, impossible to reject. “Unassimilable” means that the background provides no support for the development of the figure. The experience is that we find no resources within ourselves or in the environment to move forward, and the tragic thing is that we cannot even escape the harmful situation. There is no way out. It is a state of absolute helplessness.

While in a contact experience we adjust and transform the boundary until we reach full contact in which the boundaries dissolve, in a traumatic experience at the moment of maximum intensity we experience an act of invasion.

In full contact, we no longer need boundaries and can abandon ourselves to fullness. In trauma, however, boundaries are absent because they have been violated, wounded, destroyed.

Rather than a curve, a sharply ascending straight line can graphically represent the flow of our energy. In the first case, after full contact, individuals gradually re-emerge within their confines and the assimilation process begins, leading them to a state of rest. In trauma, there is no descending curve, but rather a return to a state of calm with abrupt variations (see Table 2). The person may be in a state of shock that lasts throughout the evening, or for days; there may be amnesia, where the intensity of the experience diminishes, until a seemingly calm state returns. In reality, an underlying sense of danger persists, which some people carry with them for years or forever.

For this reason, the experience curve may never reach the horizontal axis representing rest and a small stimulus (trigger) is enough to make the sense of danger resurface, even if the event has actually ended.

While in a contact experience we define the peak as the moment of “full contact,” in trauma, since there is no contact at all, we will call the peak the “moment of maximum intensity.” Let’s see what happens in the body.

Perls already described the functioning of the body in traumatic situations in the 1950s and 1960s, well before the development of the most recent studies in psychotraumatology and psychosomatic medicine.

As mammals, Perls writes, we are not genetically programmed to tolerate prolonged helplessness in highly dangerous situations. Therefore, the body automatically activates emergency mechanisms that allow us not to succumb to a life-threatening situation. Since the ego function is blocked, the functioning of the id takes over, and we find ourselves in situations where a motorcycle accident victim helps rescuers find his amputated leg, or rape and assault victims are thinking of other things, etc.

Emergency bodily functioning responds in two ways: subnormal and supernormal (Phg, 1951). In the first case, the body anesthetizes the receptors and protects the boundary by desensitizing it or paralyzing it in a motor sense, waiting for the emergency to pass (e.g., fainting, collapse, shock, anesthesia). Supernormal (or superactive) responses, on the other hand, act on the proprioceptors, agitating the boundary to release tension: hallucinations, dreams, obsessive thinking, vivid imagination, motor agitation.

Thanks to these responses, the mind exhausts energies that cannot be used to attack and transform the situation. The involuntary nature of these responses is particularly interesting because it has to do with visceral movements and the autonomic nervous system, studied by psychosomatic medicine and branches such as psychoneuroimmunology (Bottaccioli, 2015), as well as by psychotraumatology, of which Stephen Porges is one of the most renowned exponents (2012).

We cite the polygamous theory as an example of scientific research that aims to illustrate the bidirectional relationships between the psyche and the biological systems that regulate the life of the human organism. Specifically, Porges describes the autonomic nervous system as the part of the mind that activates in emergencies, particularly through the vagus nerve, a channel comprising many nerve fibers originating in the brainstem and traveling through the visceral organs. It is divided into two opposing systems: sympathetic and parasympathetic. Depending on which systems are activated, we have very different survival strategies, which can be grouped into three types of response: seeking environmental support, fight or flight, and shutdown (dissociation, fainting, etc.).

These survival strategies are effectively “creative adaptations” that rely solely on the id function. This is why we argue that traumatic situations share some characteristics with psychotic situations, since the ego fragments. The fragmented ego acts by constructing fragmented figures.

Polyvagal Theory refers to the “window of tolerance” (Siegel, 1999) and the responses of the autonomic nervous system when a person becomes “dysregulated.” Perls, as early as 1951 (50 years earlier), had discussed the body’s functioning in emergency situations. Within the window of tolerance, the mind is clear and calm, we have access to pain, and responses to stimuli are characterized by emotional balance. We know how to name emotions and act by finding support in the environment; that is, the id, ego, and personality functions are on the borderline. Conversely, when there is a danger that the ego is unable to face, the mind becomes dysregulated and the window of tolerance narrows; arousal is hyper- or hypo-normal. Perls spoke of sub-normal or super-normal emergency bodily functioning.

The figure/ground process of emergency situations is characterized by the growth of a figure in which there is only id function and very little ego function, the background is empty and does not support, the figure exhausts itself and returns to the background without any control by the subject, who waits for the danger to end.

At this point, we emerge from the climax and enter the descending phase of the trauma sequence, the one in which arousal decreases, the post-contact phase. For Gestalt, in fact, the experience doesn’t end when we leave the situation, but involves a period of time during which the person withdraws and begins a process of assimilation. The experience of the trauma and, above all, the bodily memory that the person will carry with them depends not only on what they experienced “during” the event, but on how they assimilate it “afterward,” particularly in the hours, days, and weeks that follow.

In the case of trauma, there is no assimilation because there has been no contact and therefore there is nothing new to assimilate. The narrative experience will then create new contact processes where the trauma can be relived and transformed into an assimilable experience. There is no assimilation, but there is a “closure” of the experience, which the person needs to move forward.

When the victim finds immediate support—people who welcome them, embrace them, listen to them, make them feel safe, and care for them—then a new process of connection begins, which can heal the previous experience. The victim experiences seeking support, which heals the recent experience of helplessness and lack of support. In this way, the mind can begin a processing process through which the person acquires a narrative of the event, which empowers them and heals the fragmented experience experienced during the trauma. Simply put, finding support/help immediately after the trauma allows the victim to relive the traumatic experience, but in a new, supportive environment, and thus emerge strengthened and resilient.

If the person doesn’t find support in their environment, this Gestalt will close neurotically, thanks to the support of introjects that give the event a comprehensible form. The victim begins to explain the event with a belief about themselves or the world, which they learn from their surroundings. Introjects are someone else’s thoughts that the person makes their own and which become a foreign body. “It’s my fault, I’m no good, the world is dangerous, I always have to be on my guard, I’m unlovable, I have to do it alone, I’m alone, etc.” These are labels that enclose a memory that often sinks into the body and is repressed at the cognitive level. The introject remains, but the experience is lost. It is stored in the form of visual perceptions, details, a sound, a smell, emotions, and bodily sensations, and remains frozen in the mind, dissociated from connections with other previous and subsequent experiences.

In subsequent experiences, when the person enters a new contact process and feels the desire to let go and abandon boundaries, they become frightened because the experience of having their boundaries violated resurfaces. At that point, the introject, from which the person draws orientation, resurfaces. To avoid repeating the experience of helplessness, they control the situation through the introject.

The EMDR model also involves investigating the negative beliefs that a person constructs to give meaning and be able to narrate traumatic experiences.

The trauma victim lives in an attitude of constant prevention or attention, expecting to relive the danger, helplessness, and fragmentation of the ego at any moment, feeling that he has no control and therefore rigidifies his ego: this is experienced as the only way to be prepared and face life.

In Gestalt therapy, introjects serve to help us and prevent us from taking on the responsibility of experiencing new things, with the risks that every new experience entails. If I believe I’m inadequate, I behave as if any difficult situation is beyond my control, and so I don’t even make the effort to engage and see if I can find support somewhere.

Clinical work involves two processes. The first is to bring out introjects (which manifest as judgments, “musts,” generalizations, etc.) and sustain a process of reflection that can be very lengthy. The second is to help the person experience reparative experiences, initially in the setting, where they can experiment with the flexible functioning of their own boundaries and the co-creation of clear figures with the therapist. Gradually, this functioning will replace fragmentation, where the ego function cannot emerge and be exercised because the id function (sensations, emotions, which take the form of feelings of anxiety and anguish) is overwhelming and disorienting. Trauma survivors report years of feeling clouded, foggy, and confused, which, from this perspective, are forms of protection against the possibility of reliving painful experiences that the person feels unable to cope with.

For both patients who have repressed trauma and those who retain the memory of it, we work not on the past, but on the present. Since trauma is an unassimilated experience, it continually resurfaces in the present, so the memory doesn’t need to be evoked because it is imprinted in the body anyway. Gestalt therapists are trained to work in the here and now, in phenomenological observation of the body, and in listening to one’s own experiences (sympathetic relationship). Moving from content to process, Gestalt therapists work not on the “what,” but on the “how” the patient speaks, how they enter the room, their gestures, posture, tone of voice, breathing, etc. By reporting their observations to the patient, the experiences are explored and awareness broadens. Moving on the surface is an effective way to bring emotions to the surface and guide the patient to relive what remains unresolved from their past in the present.

For those who have a memory, however, we can begin by recounting the event, but only to activate the body. We then work with the emotions, sensations, and movements that emerge in the here and now to create a new experience. Gestalt training involves developing and training a phenomenological attitude, which involves starting from the phenomenon as it presents itself to our senses. No technique or protocol is required. Treatment and diagnosis will be based on aesthetics, that is, the knowledge provided by the “senses,” which will guide us in co-creating luminous and healing images with the patient.

If the past threatens to overwhelm the present, and the patient is overwhelmed by emotions, we offer them our support; we can touch them, ask them to open their eyes, and ground themselves. It is in the present that the patient can experience not only a supportive environment, but also their ability to find the resources to face life. As Gestalt therapists, we are trained to grasp the “next,” that is, the movement the patient needs, which they were unable to make in the past and thanks to which they can close their open Gestalts in the present.