Tentative Workshops, Marathons, and Presenters
(dependent upon sufficient pre-registration)

We are offering ten pre-conference workshops and six pre-conference marathon groups. Pre-conference workshops provide an opportunity to become more involved with a subject or with a presenter's body of work. The marathon groups are growth-oriented opportunities for personal fulfillment and to bond with a number of other attendees prior to the conference proper. Each workshop or marathon will have a maximum registration possible, and once that number has been reached, the workshop will be closed. If minimum enrollments are not met by a date close to the conference, workshop leaders will have to decide whether or not to continue with their workshops. Registration for pre-conference workshops can be accomplished through the AAGT's official website (www.aagt.org).

(Details on workshops and presenters can be found by clicking on the appropriate links)

WORKSHOPS

• Julianne Appel-Opper, "Body to Body Communication: A Relational Gestalt Approach" (Germany)
• Charlie Bowman, M.S. "Does History Matter? Integrating There and Then into Here and Now" (USA)
• Lynne Jacobs, Ph.D. "The Challenge of the paradoxical theory of change in a complex world" (USA) SOLD OUT
• Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, "Creative Adjustment in Madness: Gestalt Therapy with Seriously Disturbed Clients" (Italy) SOLD OUT
• Ruella Frank, Ph.D. "Infant Development and Adult Treatment: Embodied Process Within the Clinical Moment" (USA) SOLD OUT
• Philip Brownell, M.Div., Psy.D. “The Role of Faith in the Life and Work of a Gestalt Therapist” (Bermuda)
• Christine Stevens, Ph.D. "Making and Breaking: Experimenting with Creative Methods in Gestalt Therapy" (UK)
• C. Ann Bowman, Gail Feinstein, and Judy Graham "Women's Work: Authenticity and Empowerment" (USA)

MARATHONS

• Israel Bar Kohav-berkovski "The Blue Horses" (Borders and brigdes in Gestalt practice and creativity) (Israel)
• Tine van Wijk "Creative Marathon" (Netherlands)
• Ansel Woldt, Ed.D., and Sylvia Fleming Crocker, Ph.D.. "Gestalt Marathon Group" (USA) SOLD OUT
• Jack Aylward, EdD. and Bud Feder, PhD., "A Gestalt Group Therapy Personal Growth Experience" (USA)
• Galiya Rabinovitch "Here and Now-There and Then; Longing in Gestalt Therapy" (Israel)

Pre-Conference Schedule

"Making and Breaking: Experimenting with Creative Methods in Gestalt Therapy"
Workshop Leader: Christine Stevens, Ph.D.
(Maximum Participants=24; Optimum=18) Full day workshop.

Christine is a Gestalt therapist and supervisor, working in primary care (NHS) and in private practice in Nottingham, England. She is Editor of The British Gestalt Journal and is an international trainer and workshop presenter. She currently has a special interest in integrating theory and practice in creative methodologies in Gestalt psychotherapy.

The workshop is designed as a “warming-up” to the conference itself through the embodiment of and engagement with the conference themes at personal and inter-personal levels. In creatively exploring the continual patterns of making and breaking of contact and connections within the group, we will also reflect on how these processes shape our experiences in the social and political communities, eco-structures and complex networks of our world. To facilitate this, a series of guided exercises will be offered starting with the individual and moving to experiences within small and larger group configurations. A variety of expressive media will be introduced – sand trays, clay, and paint, materials for sculpture, sound-making, drama and story-telling. The workshop will provide possibilities for personal growth and discovery, and at the same time offer guidance and possibilities for ways in which participants can incorporate creative methodologies in their own professional work.

"Women's Work: Authenticity and Empowerment"
Workshop Leaders: C. Ann Bowman, Gail Feinstein, and Judy Graham.
(max=30; opt=15-20). Full day workshop

C Ann Bowman MSN, APRN, BC, LMHC is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in private practice. She has extensive training in Gestalt therapy, group therapy and Integrative psychotherapy. She is interested in Relational Gestalt Therapy methods as well as Gestalt and Buddhist philosophy. She has published research on the effects of alcoholism on family dynamics. She has presented Gestalt therapy workshops locally, nationally and internationally.

Gail Feinstein, LCSW, LMT is a somatically-based Gestalt therapist, supervisor and trainer, integrating ritual and spirituality into her practice in New York City and her international work. She is co-director of the Transfromational Training Institute. She has been doing Women's Work for 30 years and is committed to the process of setting women free and connecting to the wisdom of our hearts. She believes that all life will benefit when women come to love their bodies and live from their truth.

Judy Graham, MSc, LCSW based in London, she divides her time between private practice as a Gestalt psychotherapist and supervisor and providing short term counselling and promoting group work in primary care/national health service. She contributed a chapter on Gestalt for Humanistic Psychotherapy by Eric Whitton and is writing about her group work in primary care. She is a member of EAGT, on the committee of the British Gestalt Society (formerly GAUK), and UK rep for AAGT.

This workshop is a continuation of presentations that were offered at the last two AAGT conferences. Women from many cultures came together interested and curious about the differences, the common ground and the mutual themes that emerged from the gathering. There was also, interest, need and excitement expressed in expanding the workshop from two hours to a day long to give space and time to deepen this exploration and create more of an opportunity to support the women to be more fully present with each other as they teach and learn from one another. Our interest continues to focus on how womanhood is relevant in our work as Gestalt therapists, what women have to offer the wider Gestalt community and the impact of the feminine on the field.

"Body to Body Communication: A Relational Gestalt Approach" (How our senses are our bridges to the other; how as living bodies we communicate with each other without words)"
Julianne Appel-Opper
Maximum-12; optimum=10 Half day workshop

Diplom-Psychologist, Clin. Psychologist (German Psychol. Society) Psychological Psychotherapist(German Health System), UKCP registered Integrative and Gestalt Psychotherapist, Supervisor (Univ.of Birmingham), Trainer

"I want to focus on:
- the moment-by-moment co-created field in which two living bodies communicate with each other. What is communicated without words? What does some-body tell us without words? What do we, as a living body, answer without speaking?
- how to embody and how to attune to another living body, how to open ourselves for the stories the other living body wants to share...."

"This will be an experiential workshop. An experiential workshop means loads of exercises in pairs and in the group. I will also offer some fish bowl demonstrations and live supervision."

"Does History Matter? Integrating There and Then into Here and Now"
Charlie Bowman, M.S.
Maximum=20; optimum=12; Half-Day workshop

Charlie Bowman is interested in gestalt community formation, the ever-growing history of gestalt therapy, and what is and what is not gestalt therapy. He is Co-President of the Indianapolis Gestalt Institute, Core Faculty at the Gesalt Training Institute of Bermuda, a full member of NYIGT, and visiting faculty for several training institutes. He is a Past President of the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy. He has published articles exploring various aspects of gestalt therapy, has authored a text book chapter on the history of gestalt therapy, and he is on several editorial boards for gestalt publications. He has presented workshops around the world on the history of gestalt therapy.

We will spend our day with the question “Does History Matter?” Through the energetic contact of dialog and unique experiments we will explore the roots of Gestalt therapy, our own roots as practitioners, and the impact of historical exploration as a method of healing in psychotherapy. The workshop will include a combination of group process (and an exploration of the history we co-create in the course of the day), an interactive presentation of the “Gestalt timeline” and a series of experiments that will allow us to know each other in different ways as a means of understanding the value of personal history, the history of schools of thought and of Gestalt therapy, and the context of our here and now experience. Objectives for this session include: 1) To introduce a Gestalt therapy approach to historical antecedents; 2) To identify the impact of therapist history on contact-based psychotherapy; 3) To identify and understand the developmental history of Gestalt therapy.

"The Challenge of the paradoxical theory of change in a complex world"
Lynne Jacobs, Ph.D.
Maximum=25; optimal=15; Half-Day workshop

Lynne Jacobs, Ph.D., is co-founder of the Pacific Gestalt Institute, and a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis. She is particularly interested in relational processes in therapy, has authored numerous articles, and co-authored (with Rich Hycner), The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy: A Dialogic, Self-Psychology Approach. She teaches and trains nationally and internationally.

It is much easier to speak of the paradoxical nature of change than it is to practice in accord with it. It gives rise to questions regarding the interplay of influence and autonomy, of therapeutic ambition, of the place of guided experiments, of the nature of our engagement, and of the conflicts between our desires for our patients and theirs for themselves. And in our increasingly complex and diverse world, patients challenge our own views of "the well lived life." The therapeutic process is governed by how we navigate these issues. We will discuss, explore, experiment, "work" with the challenges posed and dilemmas posed by the paradoxical theory of change.

"Creative Adjustment in Madness: Gestalt Therapy with Seriously Disturbed Clients"
Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb
Maximum=25; optimum=15; Half day workshop

PastPresident: EAGT (1996-2002), Italian Federation of Psychotherapy Associations (FIAP). International trainer. Director: Istituto di Gestalt, HCC, Italy since 1979. She organized the 6th EAGT Conference (Palermo 1998), 8th International GT Conference (Naples, 2002), and the 2nd Italian Psychotherapy Conference (Siracuse, 2005). She is Editor of the Italian journal Quaderni di Gestalt, since 1985, and co-editor of Studies in Gestalt Therapy. Dialogical Bridges. She wrote extensively about Gestalt Therapy and has co-edited the book Creative License. The Art of Gestalt Therapy.

The lamented increase in serious disturbances in our society constitutes a challenge for all psychotherapies. The Leader presents her model of working with psychotic or borderline experiences in clients, which has been published in the book Creative License. The Art of Gestalt Therapy (Springer, New York, Vienna, 2003). Crucial questions for Gestalt therapists are: is psychotics’ behavior to be considered creative? Is the use of diagnostic categories consistent with gestalt therapy? What kind of skills do we have to develop in order to be able to be psychotherapists with seriously disturbed clients? Through consideration of the different needs of neurotic and psychotic clients, the workshop reveals a Gestalt approach to treatment which honours both field theory and the unique figure-ground balance of an individual suffering a psychotic reaction. A phenomenological perspective on psychotic experience and a unique treatment model are presented in theory and practise.

"Infant Development and Adult Treatment: Embodied process within the clinical moment"
Ruella Frank, Ph.D.
Maximum=25; optimum=15; Half-day workshop

Ruella Frank, Ph.D., has been exploring early infant movements and their relationship to the adult since the mid-1970’s. She brings many years of experience to her work as a Gestalt psychotherapist -- as a professional dancer, yoga practitioner/teacher, student of the concepts of Body/Mind Centering, and student of Laura Perls. Ruella is director of the Center for Somatic Studies, faculty at Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy and the New York Institute for Gestalt therapy, and also teaches throughout the United States and the world. She is author of articles and chapters in various publications, as well as the book Body of Awareness: A Somatic and Developmental Approach to Psychotherapy, available in four languages.

Ongoing non-verbal interactions with our primary caregivers during the first year of life set a relational foundation that is apparent both in everyday life and in psychotherapy. These are our styles of being and behaving and are experienced and expressed through movement pattern. Even though our adult postural attitudes, gestures, gait and breathing patterns have changed over time, the foundations established in our first year remain readily observable. Attending to these patterns within psychotherapy is especially powerful.

Participants learn how their relational styles originated through affective/movement patterns within the infant and caregiver dyad. Through movement, we explore these intrinsic, yet unaware primary patterns which are part of present experience and influence our daily life. We then apply our understanding to the here-and-now of the client and therapist dyad. A comprehensive system of phenomenological analysis grounded in contemporary developmental theory is introduced, allowing practitioners to diagnose and treat their clients through movement experiments.

“The Role of Faith in the Life and Work of a Gestalt Therapist”
Philip Brownell, M.Div., Psy.D.
Maximum=25; optimum=15; Half-day workshop

Philip Brownell, M.Div., Psy.D. is a registered clinical psychologist, organizational consultant and coach, living and practicing in Bermuda. He is also a licensed clinical psychologist in Oregon and North Carolina, USA. He has over thirty years of experience working with people in various capacities, such as line staff in residential settings, clergy in full time Christian ministry, psychotherapist and psychologist in outpatient community mental health, Senior Psychologist for an adolescent sex offender treatment program, and organizational consultant to international law firms and corporations. He is on the Core Faculty at the Gestalt Training Institute of Bermuda. He conducted an abbreviated version of this workshop at the X Congreso in Cordoba, Argentina, and he is chapter author for "Faith: An Existential, Phenomenological, and Biblical Integration" in Miracles: God, Psychology, and Science in the Paranormal, J. Harold Ellens (ed), Praeger Publications (in press).

We live in a world where certainty is a myth and one must make friends with the ambiguities of uncertainty. In such a world, faith is indispensable. Kierkegaard claimed that to take a leap of faith was to risk losing one’s footing, but to not take it was to risk losing one’s self. (Gaffney, 2006) Paul Goodman, in PHG (1951/1994) said, “…faith is knowing, beyond awareness, that if one takes a step there will be ground underfoot; one gives oneself unhesitatingly to the act, one has faith that the background will produce the means”. Thus, faith becomes the instrument of knowing and an essential principle of contact. Such faith is one of the means by which the student learns and comes to trust the process of working as therapist, of taking risk and of experimenting. Without such faith, one would not likely take that step and find ground underneath. Just so in the spiritual realm. One steps out believing God for something, and then there is the experience. Kierkegaard’s “leap of faith,” Goodman’s ground of faith, and Buber’s encounter with divinity are all at the heart of both existentialism and gestalt therapy. Indeed, gestalt therapy is an existential-phenomenological system. Several questions result: (1) What is the nature of faith? (2) Upon what does a person base his or her faith? (3) What does one believe? (4) What purpose does faith serve? This workshop will explore the nature and role of faith in the life and work of gestalt therapists. Since the life – the person - of the therapist cannot be separated from his or her work, what gestalt therapists believe about the world in which they live, including religious and spiritual belief, becomes intrinsic to their work. We will use didactic, experiential exercise, and discussion to explore together these concepts and to increase awareness of their significance to the lives and work of gestalt therapists.

"Here and Now-There and Then; Longing in Gestalt Therapy" Galiya Rabinovitch. Specialist in child psychology and gestalt therapy, head of gestalt program at Tel-Aviv University, head of Normal Child Development Program at TAU School of Medicine.
Maximum=25; optimum=15; Full-day marathon

Longing is a neglected subject in psychological research and practice, while being an important component of our everyday life. Unexplored longings can sometime be the reason people look for psychological counceling and therapy. Culture, also, diffrentiates between forbidden and ligitimate longings, and families pass - from generation to generation - those memories that should not become attractive, thus rasie longing. The Gestalt approach to longing helps us to manage our longings in laternative ways. The suggested workshop is experiential, exploring longing and their concrete expressions.

This workshop proposes ways to strengthen the bridge between past, present and future. The workshop will be experiential and phenomenological, i.e. all the issues detailed below will be referred to as they arise in the group. The issues will be: (i) Exploration of longing as an attitude: Thoughts, feelings and actions connected with longing; (ii) Legitimate and forbidden longings: Recognizing them and learning about their sources; (iii) Exploration of intergenerational inheritance of longings and attitudes towards them; (iv) Explorations of ways of avoiding longing: Overattachment, or inability to separate, as prevention of longing; developing "superficial" contacts; and concertrationg on "I-it" vs. "I-thou" contacts; (vi) Exploring self images: "Here and now" images vs. historical ones; (vii) Developing ways to manage longing within a Gestalt framework: Enactment in the group of longed-for scenes; enactment in the group of the disasters connected with forbidden longings; and the use of dreams as guidance to identify neglected longings and their management.

"The Blue Horses" (Borders and brigdes in Gestalt practice and creativity)
Israel Bar Kohav-berkovski (m.a magna cum laude in psychology)-Gestalt psychologist, is (1) Senior Teacher at Hakibbutzim College of Education-Tel Aviv, (2) Lecturer at The Jerusalem University, and (3) Visiting Prof. at The Ben Gurion University in the Negev.
Maximum=25; optimum=20; One-day marathon

Mr. Bar Kohav is also a Visiting Prof. at the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at Ben Gurion university in the Negev, where he teaches a unique seminar called: "Between Poetry and Psychology (Gestalt)" and leads creative writing workshops. As part of his academic activities, Mr. Bar-Kohav is engaged in the development of a unique method, combining Gestalt psychology, creativity Zen, and Jungian approaches, aimed at exploring and enhancing human potential. For the past 25 years, Mr. Bar - Kohav has led various interdisciplinary and experiential group workshops, both in Israel, at Universities and at Hakkibutzim College of Education, and in Europe (London, Oxford, Glasgow and Stockholm).

This unique marathon designed to meet the needs of the professional in the world of rapid changes. it incorporates two fields: Gestalt Psychology and the world of Poetry: The work with Gestalt, Creative Imagination, Archetypes, Guided Dreaming, Renga poetry and music will enable us to explore creative processes, nourishing the professional. The experiential group work in order to deal with estrangement, professional burnout and blocks of creativity and enriching intra psychic and interpersonal dialogues. The process will enhance your ability to see to observe , to create to meet the inner slumbering muses and as Borjes said: ”to turn pain into something else”. Or to turn personal "stories" blocks into new fountains of passion.

"Creative Marathon"
Tine van Wijk – Gestalt therapist/trainer/writer.
Maximum=10; optimum=8; One-day marathon

Tine van Wijk started her career as an editor for women’s, family and children’s magazines. She studied with the School for Gestalt & Psychosynthesis and started in 1988 her own Gestalt practice in Amsterdam. She is fascinated by group dynamics and developed a training program that transformed itself into Gestalt Art Workshops. She teaches Gestalt in Russia and Ukraine, wrote a book in Dutch titled Attention-What is it about? Creativity in my life is expressed by my writing, my singing, drawing and dancing. Creativity in my work is expressed by the way I give therapy and by giving special workshops where we work with arts as writing, drawing, painting, singing, play acting, dancing

My purpose is to explore together my idea of Creativity and create whatever wants to be created:

• Creativity is to step out of control and out of the well known into an adventure
• Creativity is doing instead of thinking about doing
• Creativity is believing in talent beside knowledge
• Creativity is having the courage to make a fool of yourself
• Creativity is not being bothered by right or wrong
• Creativity is believing in your hand that is writing or drawing, your voice that is singing, your feet who are dancing or walking. By letting it happen without correcting, a work of art will emerge

"Gestalt Marathon Group"
Ansel Woldt, Ed.D., and Sylvia Fleming Crocker, Ph.D.
Maximum=12; optimum=10; One day marathon

Ansel Woldt is emeritus professor at Kent State University where he originated the Fritz & Laura Perls’ Special Collections and a Gestalt Research Collection in the University Archives. A 1973 graduate of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland 3-yr. post-doctoral program, Ansel has been vitally involved in Gestalt conferences and organizations since the 1970s – having written the Articles of Incorporation and the Constitution and By-Laws for the AAGT and serving as an officer since its inception. Having training and group experiences with Carl Rogers, Irv Yalom, Jacob & Zerka Moreno, Will Schutz, Virginia Satir, Jack Gibb, Elaine Kepner, Laura Perls, Isadore From, Erv & Mim Polster, Joseph Zinker and Bud Feder, Ansel has taught graduate courses in group dynamics and small group applications and conducted marathon groups, encounter groups, T-groups, interpersonal laboratory experiences for over 40 years. Ansel has conducted marathon groups at the past two AAGT conferences.

Sylvia Fleming Crocker is a gestalt therapist in private practice in Wyoming, USA. She is the author of A Well-Lived Life, Essays in Gesalt Therapy, and numerous articles in journals. She is long-standing member of the AAGT and has presented on various topics. Sylvia and Ansel have worked together frequently through extended workshops and training groups in the Ohio area.

The primary goal of this intensive group experience is to assist healthy/normal adults to gain closer contact with themselves and others through interpersonal encounter. Specific objectives of this Gestalt group experience include:

• Gaining greater awareness and understanding of one's own self-behaviors, plans, hopes and dreams.
  
• Experiencing other human beings through interactions that emerge primarily in the here and now.
  
• Gaining appreciation of your influence on others and the effects of others on yourself.
  
• Facilitating opportunities to work on unfinished business and obtain closure of unfinished gestalts.
  
• Learning more about interpersonal spontaneity, openness, trust, giving and receiving feedback, engaging in risk-taking behavior, and living in the present.

"A gestalt group therapy personal growth experience"
Jack Aylward, EdD. and Bud Feder, PhD.,
Maximum=14; optimum = 12; One day marathon

Jack Aylward, Ed. D is a licensed psychologist and has been in private practive in Central, NJ, USA for 35 years. He is the author of a chapter on marathon groups in the forthcoming revision of Beyond the Hot Seat, and has written many other articles, on Paul Goodman, developmental issues in gestalt therapy, etc. He has led trainings in gestalt therapy for many years, often with Bud Feder. The two have co-led many marathons with their clients and have an enviable rapport and synergy, based on a long friendship, mutual respect and love.

Bud Feder, Ph D is a licensed psychologist and has been in private practice in Northern NJ, USA for 45 years. He is the co-editor of the original Beyond the Hot Seat, published in 1980 and of the revised edition which will be launched at the Manchester'08 Conference. He has led trainings in many countries on three continents and specializes in group therapy....his recent Gestalt Group Therapy : A Practical Guide has been very favorably reviewed. As stated above he has worked extensively with Jack Aylward.

• provide participants with a meaningful personal growth experience
• provide therapists in the marathon with an opportunity to observe two master gestalt therapists, both individually and synergistically
• provide therapists in the group with the opportunity to learn something about co-leading
• NOTE: Although this is not designed as a training, the leaders wil be glad to create an hour or two during the conference to discuss the work if this is desired by some or all of the participants.

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