Training Programs:
Our particular approach to gestalt therapy continues to evolve, with more and more gestalt therapists from around the world contributing their own insights. Our training focuses on contemporary relational perspectives in gestalt therapy. We emphasize training in working with the nuances of emotional process, therapist-patient interaction, enduring relational themes, and the developmental process of psychotherapy. Relational gestalt therapy theory is taught systematically and is interwoven into the experiential part of the program.
Our objective is to support trainees to develop skills and competency in gestalt therapy theory and practice. We strive to integrate relational gestalt therapy principles with the unique personal style of each participant and facilitate the building of a supportive learning community. Trainees are placed in groups of 7 to 10 members who are encouraged to use the support and commitment of cohorts to identify potential areas of growth and create opportunities to experiment both in the training and in practice settings. We are not interested in imparting a particular style of therapy or a restrictive method for practice. Our focus is in helping each trainee understand and develop gestalt therapy theory to be used as a support for his/her specific talents, style, and areas of interest and responsibility.
Regardless of label, the principles of existential dialogue, the use of direct phenomenological experience for both patient and therapist, the trust of organismic self-regulation, the emphasis on experimentation and awareness, the paradoxical theory of change and close attention to the contact between the therapist and the patient all form a model of good psychotherapy that will continue to be used by gestalt therapists and others.