Gestalt Therapy and Argentine Tango: An Embodied Framework for Relational Awareness and Socio-Emotional Development

Embodied and relational approaches to socio-emotional development increasingly emphasize lived experience, interaction, and situated awareness, yet few frameworks systematically integrate movement-based practices with established psychotherapeutic theory. This theoretical review examines the convergence between Argentine Tango (tango) and Gestalt Therapy (GT), proposing an embodied, relational framework for socio-emotional development and relational awareness. Tango is conceptualized as an improvisational, dyadic practice that operationalizes core GT principles, including contact, field regulation, phenomenological awareness, experiential cycling, and creative adjustment. Drawing on empirical findings from psychology, neuroscience, and movement science, the review synthesizes evidence indicating that tango participation supports emotional regulation, empathy, social bonding, embodied awareness, and motor-cognitive integration. Through this synthesis, tango is positioned as a structured somatic laboratory for experiential GT processes and relational learning, offering a concrete context in which therapeutic mechanisms unfold in vivo. Despite promising outcomes, existing research remains predominantly outcome-focused, and systematic, process-oriented investigation of tango’s specific mechanisms of change is limited. This framework establishes a foundation for future interdisciplinary research and applied exploration of tango-informed GT practice across therapeutic, educational, and movement-based contexts.