When The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy was first published in 1995, the preeminent Gestalt therapy teachers and theoreticians of the time, Erving and Miriam Polster wrote in their foreword:
Every theory needs to be vitalized by its new generations; Rich Hycner and Lynne Jacobs's book represents an important contribution to the continuing renewal of Gestalt therapy.
Their words were prophetic, for the “relational” aspect of the therapeutic encounter is now considered integral to Gestalt therapy theory. Gary Yontef, another noted Gestalt therapy theoretician wrote: “A relational perspective is so central to the theory of Gestalt therapy that without it there is no coherent core of Gestalt therapy theory or practice.”
In the almost two decades since its initial publication, The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy has become the primary basis for the ongoing exploration of the relationship between Buber's philosophy of dialogue and the psychology of therapeutic dialogue.