Publishing Guidelines

NGV is a platform to support mostly, but not exclusively, those who have not published before to share their writings in relation to gestalt therapy and wider applications of gestalt practice. The International Journal is published twice yearly e-journal in PDF format. We also enable sharing of other forms of creativity via this dedicated web-space, including images and audiovisual material. We are open to publishing one-off manuscripts, booklets and extended texts.

We published the very first issue of the NGV International journal in July 2017, and we’re currently working on the sixth edition due out in July 2020. We welcome contributions in any language, and will endeavour to facilitate translation into English where we can.

If you’re wondering whether you could write for New Gestalt Voices, or contribute in another way, the answer is highly likely to be yes! We’ve found that many people who would like to write report going through a process of self-doubting, and often don’t know where or how to start. Well, one of the main reasons we’re here is to provide lots of support to new writers, so if you have any interest in sharing your creative energy please do get in touch.

Our aspirations for NGV Publishing are conveyed by the reasons we set it up. The current written field of gestalt is dominated by a small number of voices relative to the size of the profession. Although barriers to new writers may be as much perceptual as actual, and indeed there is much that the current gestalt publications are doing to support new writers, the narrowness of the field fosters a sense that gestalt writing is mostly for the already established.

This has a number of consequences. One is a lack of opportunity for new writers to practise and hone their style. Another is that we are limiting opportunities for the development of new ground within the profession by not doing more to enable people who are new to the profession to write. A third is an absence of open dialogue between new entrants and our more experienced compatriots, with attendant fixed gestalts left unchallenged around hierarchy and status. For example, there is a belief, common amongst new gestaltists, that one has to serve one’s time, jump through the required hoops of the training institutions, before one can have anything of worth to say. We hope to change that.

In response to these dynamics, we conceive NGV Publishing as an experiment in breaking down barriers, both perceived and real. Conversations had through the process of supporting writers have suggested the following as emphases that potential new (as well as existing) writers find supportive: