Theory and practice of gestalt therapy: receptive and choiceful

Date: Saturday 20 July 2024

Duration: 10.00 am–4.00 pm

Location: Elie, Gestalt Centre Training Campus, 27 Royal Parade Parkville, VIC 3052

Fees: $220 including GST

Facilitated by: Tony Jackson (Managing Director) and Gina Denholm (Faculty Member)

What do receptive and choiceful mean in gestalt therapy, and why are they important?

In gestalt therapy, being receptive means being more curious of our, and other peoples’, needs, fears and hopes. It helps us tune into what is happening now, and in this way fostering better relationships. Choiceful means making better and more flexible decisions rather than reacting automatically from old patterns. Breaking relational habits leads us to be more creative in meeting the challenges of life.

Our workshop will focus on deepening here-and-now awareness in relating to others and the world around us. By becoming more receptive and choiceful, we can better understand our habitual ways of relating and grow. Therapy becomes a new support for understanding these patterns, and as awareness grows, we begin to create change, heal, and are transformed. In this process we become more compassionate, curious, and be more creative in the moment-to-moment of our lives.

Join us to explore these concepts and build more satisfying interpersonal relationships.

What can I expect from this workshop?

These experiential workshops will introduce some of the building blocks of relational gestalt, including presence and awareness, and their role in personal development and therapy.

The workshop is highly interactive. You will practise and apply the key concepts through pairs and small group activities. We will also introduce you to our inquiry-based teaching methodology.

Along the way, we will also explore some of the philosophical roots of gestalt theory and how they interplay to inform a holistic and compassionate approach to living and health.

By the end of this workshop, you will know more about gestalt, how it informs therapy, how to apply presence and awareness in personal and professional contexts, the role of a gestalt therapist, and pathways to further learning.

If you are interested in becoming a gestalt therapist, you can stay on for optional Q&A session.

Is this for me?

This one-day introductory workshop is designed for anyone interested in learning more about gestalt, whether it is to apply gestalt principles to your current work, personal life, or explore becoming a gestalt therapist.

Past workshop participants come from diverse professional backgrounds, including psychology, social work, youth work, counselling, occupational therapy, nursing, pastoral care, people management (HR), coaching, engineering, and consulting.

What are the other workshops in this series?

There are three workshops in the “Introduction to gestalt therapy” series designed around the foundations of gestalt: present & aware; receptive & choiceful; situated & engaged. The dates of the future workshops will be announced soon.

You don’t have to attend the workshops in a certain order, and you can choose to attend one or more. A certificate of completion is available upon request if you have attended all three workshops.

About your facilitators

Tony Jackson, Managing Director, Gestalt Centre

B.Theol, BA.Psych, GradDip.Counselling, AdvDip.Gestalt Therapy, GradDip.Supervision, M.GANZ

Tony is a psychotherapist, facilitator and coach with over 20 years of experience. Tony works with people to support resilience and wellbeing and helps them develop a sense of vitality and choice in their lives. He provides supervision for psychotherapists which assists them to deepen their own personal and professional capacities. Tony also provides training for individuals and groups that focuses on building responsiveness to individual and group needs in emergent situations.

Gina Denholm, Member of Faculty, Gestalt Centre

Gestalt psychotherpist

Gina is a psychotherapist in private practice in Brunswick West, VIC. She has a special interest in exploring chronic pain and illness through a gestalt lens. In her practice, she draws on body process and parts work to help people befriend, make meaning of and often recover from physical symptoms in the context of their broader life concerns.

Gina is a member of the teaching faculty at Gestalt Therapy Australia.

We look forward to seeing you at the workshop!