Peter Linden

I am Peter, a gestalt psychotherapist who seeks to co-create a safe space for folks with autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, and other unique ways of being in the world. My interest in people who fall outside onerous societal, familial, cultural, and systemic constructs comes from lived experience as a learning disabled man. I understand the shame of never being "good enough" or "perfect" for not being able to meet the demands of an inflexible neurotypical world. So, I decided to serve vulnerable people by attending a Master of Social Work program at New York University, with the hope that I would be healed. While serving others was meaningful, I felt empty, lonely, sad, overwhelmed, frightened, and uncertain about who I was. Did I make my life meaningful through my actions? With that question in mind, I started receiving holistic psychotherapy and working at various non-profit agencies where I co-created healing relationships with intellectually disabled, autistic, and other unique people. Eventually, such experiences culminated in me attending the Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy, a postgraduate training program for aspiring gestalt psychotherapists. Gestalt psychotherapy, a psychotherapeutic form of healing based in the here and now, allowed me to address emergent feelings, sensations, and needs. Whomever I believed myself to be was gradually challenged and replaced by my new "self". This transformation repeatedly occurred by being embodied, authentic, intentional, and grounded in awareness. For me, ongoing transformation, healing, and authentic relating to co-create the scaffolding to experience love, kindness, support, and nurturing relationships remain central to my work as a psychotherapist. Ideally, my healing work will leave a lasting imprint on the world and universe, moving human beings from separateness to oneness. I welcome clients to join me in this journey of experiential growth, excitement, wonder, and reparenting. I send love and compassion to you all. Go in peace.

I offer individual, couples, and group Gestalt psychotherapy to adults ages 25 and older, including autistic adults, individuals with ADHD, learning disabilities, and other neurodivergent ways of being in the world. Many of the people I work with are struggling with anxiety, sadness, loneliness, shame, burnout, overwhelm, relational difficulties, uncertainty, or a persistent sense that they do not quite belong. Gestalt psychotherapy is a present-centered, experiential form of therapy that helps people deepen awareness of their thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, needs, and ways of relating to themselves, others, and the world around them. Rather than focusing exclusively on insight or problem-solving, we become curious about what is happening right now and what emerges between us in the therapeutic relationship. During sessions, I may invite you to participate in experiential exercises, known as experiments. Experiments are never imposed; they are collaboratively created and designed to help you explore, express, and deepen awareness of whatever you are experiencing in the moment. This may involve slowing down, attending to bodily sensations, noticing shifts in energy, exploring emotions, examining relational patterns, or giving voice to aspects of yourself that have been pushed aside. Over time, many people develop greater self-support, emotional awareness, authenticity, and trust in themselves. The goal is not to become someone different, but rather to reclaim and integrate parts of yourself that may have been hidden, rejected, or forgotten, allowing you to live with greater freedom, connection, and wholeness.