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Recent world events have created an urgent need to respond to those who have experienced and survived traumatic events. The group crisis response protocol created by NOVA contains many comparison points to Gestalt concepts. This article compares the three question sets of the NOVA protocol with the Gestalt contact cycle and use of dialogue to facilitate the creation of narrative. Surviving traumatic events leads to figural changes and new gestalts. The intent of this article is to form a theoretical connection between two fields, crisis response and Gestalt therapy, in order to support the healing work being done in the aftermath of recent world tragedies. A n emerging form of mental health care has become figural in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The media call providers of such services grief counselors, and the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) labels them crisis responders; the Red Cross categorizes these service workers as being within the mental health component of disaster relief, while police and firefighters use a critical incident debriefing model. As Mitchell (1991) stated: