Decolonisation: a challenge in Gestalt psychotherapy within the Nepalese context

Nepal has a long history of independence and sovereignty. It has never been colonised by any country and at the same time it may have been colonised by the International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) and through the bilateral relationships with different countries. Training programmes and other forms of education provided by all the foreign INGOs have impacted the psycho-social, economical, and cultural values and norms of the Nepalese practitioners and their way of working with clients. This also remains true for all the different psychotherapeutic approaches being taught and practised, including Gestalt psychotherapy training programmes. Awareness of these forms of colonisation may help Nepalese practitioners to stay more in touch with their own values and roots, and those of their clients, and it may also help international trainers, supervisors and psychotherapists to be more aware of their possible colonising thinking and behaviour. Of course, this risk of colonisation is not only present in Nepal, but actually everywhere, where Western trainers conduct themselves as superior or when their theories are brought or perceived as being superior. The risk is also present when trainers fail to stimulate and support students in contextualising Gestalt therapy theory. Keywords decolonisation, Gestalt psychotherapy, Nepalese context, Awareness