Sometimes in psychological circles you can hear “…the field responds” or “…the field lets us know” — that is, there are clear attempts to turn the field into a thing, and even to bring it to life.

Perhaps this happens because whatever is hard to see and to explain invites mystification.

In reality it is not as magical as it seems at first glance)

The term “field”, borrowed from physics, came to be used in psychology in order to describe how a person functions within an environment.

Can a magnetic field be seen?
No. Not until we take an interest in the phenomenon and run an experiment.

Scattered particles of metal filings help us establish the existence of a magnetic field.

If you sprinkle these filings onto a sheet of paper and shake it, the particles will arrange themselves not chaotically but evenly, under the influence of the forces of the magnetic field.

Incidentally, the field in the Gestalt sense can also become perceptible under certain conditions.
It can be picked up through the experience that arises in us in contact with another.

And what at first glance seems simple (the magnetic field leads to a particular arrangement of the particles) shows, on closer examination, that the particles do not merely arrange themselves in the field.

They make just as much of a contribution as the magnet does: they become magnetised themselves, they themselves become part of the magnet and interact with one another, and not only with the original field.
That is, it is not only the magnetic field that changes the particles — they change it too.

The field appears and forms us, it gives shape to our experience.

It is a space that appears before awareness; it is sensory.
In one field we feel one set of experiences, and in another — entirely different ones.

This shifts the focus of therapy from working exclusively with the client to the phenomena that arise here and now, between two people.

The therapist is no longer regarded as someone who somehow changes the client. Rather, the therapist aims to change the field (and with it the client’s experience) that is created together with the client, by means of their own presence.

In this way, through our sensitivity, we scatter iron filings into the space, which makes it possible to see the figure gradually taking shape out of the chaos.

And then everything that arises in our shared field acquires meaning through each other’s experience and history.