Presentation Title and Presenter(s)

Room

Description

Presenter Bio(s)

Managing Conflict- Introducing the Concept of Contempt

by

Joseph Melnick

Windermere

The Gestalt approach has much to contribute to our understanding of conflict, its creation, its ongoing nature, and resolution. We will first explore the theme of conflict which, when engaged in poorly, rather than leading to growth and learning, results in ongoing discord. After first briefly describing conflict from a Gestalt perspective, the concept of contempt will be looked at both theoretically and experientially. It is hypothesized that contempt plays a major role in our inability to bridge differences.

Joseph Melnick, Ph.D., has been interested in how we effectively manage differences throughout his career. He edits Gestalt Review which recently presented a number of articles that dealt with conflict. He also teaches modules on managing and bridging differences, and is currently co-editing a book on social change which focuses on this topic.

The Myth of Difference: How Group Identity Limits our Humanity

by

Patricia Tucker

Buttermere

The Myth of Difference: How the Fixed Gestalts of Group Identity Separate Us from Ourselves and Others- When we view our connection to any particular group as representing fundamental differences between us, we dull our contacting and limit our potential for growth. Through large group experiment and intimate demonstration, we will explore how we creatively adjust through group identity and how these adjustments become fixed Gestalts that dull contacting and maintain a denial of our shared humanity. Our goal will be to appreciate our uniqueness as a member of a group, while not losing touch with our common humanness.

Patricia Tucker, LCSW, has been exploring the concepts of "sameness and difference" for many years. Utilizing large group experiments and individual demonstration, she has been working with the staff of a center for homeless teens, and a class at the NYU School of Social Work, to experientially explore how group affiliation becomes fixed Gestalt and serves to both enhance and limit contacting.

Couples Therapy After an Affair: Contact, Embodiment, Healing by

Stella Resnick

Derwent

When one partner in a presumed sexually exclusive relationship is discovered in an affair the other typically feels betrayed and devastated. If they seek therapy, the range of emotions, trigger for attachment issues, and depth of feeling can be challenging for both therapist and clients. This presentation explores key stages in the process of repairing a wounded relationship and suggests effective methods for working through current injuries and pre-affair risk factors. It offers an embodied Gestalt model for treating couples in crisis that integrates present awareness with a focus on genuine contact, re-building trust, and emotional and sexual healing.

Stella Resnick, Ph.D. is an Embodied Gestalt therapist in Los Angeles who specializes in relationship and sexual enhancement. She’s the author of The Pleasure Zone: Why We Resist Good Feelings, a past-president of the Western Region of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, and on the faculty in the Somatic Psychology program at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute.

Perls Before America by

Jack Neggerman

Mercer

Since AAGT is having its first conference in Europe it is fitting to review Fritz’s life in Europe and South Africa before he came to America. We will review his earlier life experiences that have bearing on who he became and the therapy he developed. If anything Perls was a synthesizer. We will review theories, philosophies and other influences that he blended into a vital new psychotherapy. We will look at his attempts to differentiate and build bridges with members of his profession.

Jack Neggerman, MSSW, is a Psychotherapist in private practice in Cincinnati, Ohio. He initially trained at the Gestalt Institute of Denver. John Stevens was an early mentor to him. Jack was active in the founding and early development of AAGT from 1989-1993. He has taken a renewed interest in Fritz Perls’ earlier life in Europe.

Gestalt Therapeutic Process: An Experiential Exploration of Presence, Process and Dialogue

by

Ansel Woldt

Busby

This group experience is intended for newcomers to our field, although not limited to novices. Participants will be invited to engage in experiential activities that demonstrate the value of six basic therapeutic processes of Gestalt therapy. Interpersonal and group facilitation will focus on the ‘Here and Now,’ the ‘What and How,’ and the ‘I Thou’ of therapeutic engagement. Principles of existentialism, phenomenology, field theory and dialogue undergirding these processes will be discussed in the safe emergence of this presenter’s 40+ years experience with Gestalt pedagogy and psychotherapy.

Ansel L. Woldt is Emeritus Professor, Kent State University and in private practice as a psychologist in Kent, Ohio. He is co-creator/editor of Gestalt’s contemporary textbook: Gestalt Therapy: History, Theory and Practice (2005); Archivist of Gestalt therapy materials; Associate Editor Gestalt Review; Founding secretary and incorporating officer of AAGT, continuous education officer; creator of the Gestalt Therapy Archives in Kent State University Libraries; 1970-73 post-doctoral training Gestalt Institute of Cleveland.

An Experiment with Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis

by

Janice Scott

Law

In this workshop participants will have the opportunity to learn about and experiment with the research method Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). A description of the IPA process and the opportunity to use IPA will make up the body of the workshop, followed by a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of using such a methodology as an appropriate research instrument in the field of Gestalt. A growing body of research, examining aspects of Gestalt practice forms a significant bridge between the field of Gestalt, other schools and the public sector.

Janice Scott, MSc in Health Psychology, is a gestalt therapist who has specialised in the field of trauma. She manages her private practice and works as the Trauma Support Manager (trains) for London Underground Counselling and Trauma Services. Using Interpetative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) in her studies allows her to integrate her experience as a Gestalt psychotherapist in her work as a researcher.

Voyage into Uncertainty: Prejudice and Not Knowing

by

Ronnie Lac and Jacqui Lichtenstern

Charlton

Prejudice is inevitable – it is our meaning-making process.It is vital to acknowledge our limitations to meeting difference, and recognise prejudice as merely a ‘point of departure’ from which to begin to understand the other. We invite you to join us on a voyage of uncertainty, to embody ‘the knowing that one does not know’ as support in the challenge of building bridges to meet across different worlds, using the lens of race, ethnicity and culture. You will have an opportunity to encounter difference and the potential to integrate it with your own uniqueness, through experiential work and group process.

Jacqui Lichtenstern, BA Hons Third World Studies, completes her Gestalt training at Metanoia Institute in 2008. She embodies difference and the meeting of difference through her ethnic heritage; European/Jewish and Punjabi/Indian. She is second generation refugee/immigrant to Britain, and English is her mother tongue. Involvement with an integrated youth movement (able-bodied through to severely disabled), offered experience of meeting the unique individual beyond initial prejudice.

Ronnie Lac Msc in Training & Performance Management; MA Gestalt Psychotherapy (pending award), is a final year Gestalt trainee at the Sherwood Institute, working within private practice and the NHS Primary Care setting, and has been researching the cross cultural therapy experience. She brings herself to this conference with excitement at the opportunity to share her experience of cultural difference as a Chinese Gestalt practitioner in the UK.

A Juggling Act: The Tensions of being a Therapist, Trainer and Manager

by

Lynda Osborne

Portland

The workshop, which is based on her recent doctoral research, explores the challenges and tensions of holding a management role within a psychotherapy context.  Lynda will share her research findings which are based on both her own experience as Head of Department at Metanoia Institute, London and other Heads of Department internationally.  The workshop will include didactic input, an experiential element, group discussion and an opportunity for participants to relate the findings to their own practice.  Some of the key tensions/issues involved in the role will be outlined and those qualities and attributes which may support a manager to manage these tensions and fulfil the role identified.

Lynda Osborne is Head of the Gestalt Department at Metanoia Institute, London.  With a background in teaching and university lecturing she has been involved in counselling/psychotherapy training for twenty years.  Lynda travels internationally training therapists, attending and presenting at conferences and enjoying new countries - in no particular order.

Presentation Title and Presenter(s)

Room

Description

Presenter Bio(s)

The Emergent Self

by

Peter Philippson

Windermere

The insight of the founders of Gestalt Therapy was that self emerges from contact, and it is always a self-other configuration that we are exploring. We now have much more information from chaos and complexity theories about how such emergence happens in situations involving feedback. I am incorporating these ideas into my understanding of Gestalt Therapy, and will, in this workshop, present the implications for both theory and practice. I will present the theory and demonstrate it with experiential work with a small group, and there will be time for discussion and questions.

Peter Philippson is a Gestalt Psychotherapist, trainer and writer. He is a Founder Member of Manchester Gestalt Centre, Full Member of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy, and on the Editorial Board of the British Gestalt Journal and Studies in Gestalt Therapy. He is author of Self in Relation, co-author of Contact and Relationship in a Field Perspective; co-author of Gestalt: Working with Groups, and many articles in Gestalt Journals. He is currently President of the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy.

Gestalt Group Therapy: An Interactive Approach

by

Bud Feder

Buttermere

This presentation will begin with a brief overview of the history of gestalt group therapy and the emergence of the interactive approach in which participants agree to devote all of their attention and expressions to events taking place within the group. Following a brief Q & A segment with discussion, there will be a one-hour demo with eight volunteers from the audience. After that the remaining time will be devoted to discussion of the demo experience and any related interests.

Bud Feder, Ph.D., is a psychologist in private pracrtice with a subspecialty in group therapy. He has also publsihed extensively on the subject. He has found the skills involved in this modality translate well to social issues and in bridging the gap in conflictual groups.

Embodied Intentionality – The Breath of Contacting

by

Dan Bloom

Derwent

Contact is the unique lynchpin of gestalt therapy. But we have kept this concept to ourselves. In this workshop, I will cross the border separating gestalt therapy from other contemporary understandings of experience. I will broaden our perspective on contacting by finding intentionality within it. As breath marks the rhythm of experience, intentionality, the aboutness of experience, marks its trajectory. Embodied intentionality is a perspective on contacting which bridges the concerns of gestalt therapy with those of phenomenology and the philosophy of mind. I will draw on the experience of those present in to develop and clarify our concepts. Clinical examples will be discussed.

Dan Bloom, J. D., L.C.S.W., is a psychotherapist in New York City. He studied with Laura Perls, Isadore From, Richard Kitzler, and Patrick Kelley. He is a full member of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy and its ex-president, and is also a full member of the EAGT. He is president-elect of the AAGT. He teaches and lectures internationally. His writings have been widely published, and he is Editor in chief of Studies in Gestalt Therapy: Dialogical Bridges (www.studies-in-gestalt.org).

LGBT People: Claiming Visible Selfhood and Belonging; Seeking Full Citizenship Within our Borders

by

Allan Singer

Mercer

This experiential workshop offers participants, irrespective of their sexual orientation and/or gender identification, an opportunity to consider which factors in their individual and cultural experiences have supported or inhibited awareness of boundaried, differentiated Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual and/or Transgender (LGBT) identity. Through full group and small group exercises, we will dialogue and learn how visible LGBT inclusion and full citizenship differs for us depending on our country-of-belonging. Hopefully, as a result, we shall increase our compassionate and supportive awareness within ourselves and between each other in our AAGT conference community, potentially mobilizing our energetic resources to continue creating bridges of possibility across all borders for the visible inclusion and full citizenship of LGBT people everywhere.

Allan Singer, LICSW, BCD, has been a psychotherapist in private practice in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, for 25 years. He has served as co-chair of the LGBT Issues Committee for the National Assn. of Social Workers, MA chapter for the past 10 years and has spoken at many area universities, hospitals, and mental health clinics. Allan has also facilitated workshops at Esalen Institute and at previous AAGT conferences in Cleveland, San Francisco, and Vancouver. He has authored chapters on LGBT Issues in On Intimate Ground; The Voice of Shame; and Adolescence: The Heart of Development, Volume II.

Living Life in Balance: Mission Impossible?

by

Sue Congram and Talia Levine Bar-Yoseph

Busby

Finding a healthy balance between life outside the organization and life inside the organization may seem doomed. Organizational issues such as time management, constant pressure, relentless behaviours to 'get itright', pressure to 'be successful', and working in blame cultures, all contribute to the impossibility of this mission. This polarization creates a complicated set of dynamics at personal, social and organizational levels.The dilemma is echoed in any working person's life. In this workshop, the constant strain to be in more thanone place and satisfy contradicting needs will be explored and experimented with through creative activities.

Sue Congram C.Psychol, has been teaching Gestalt in Organisations for many years in the UK, Greece, and Scandinavia, and is on core faculty of the Gestalt Training Institute Bermuda. An independent business psychologist, coach and suprvisor, she is doing PhD research on ‘leadership of the field’. Sue is the author of three organisational books, and a co-editor of Education and Imagination (2008).

Talia Levine Bar-Yoseph, MA (hons), is co-founder of the Jerusalem Gestalt Institute. A past head of the MSc in Gestalt psychotherapy at Metanoia, London. She is a registered clinical psychologist since 1981 with special interest in PTSD, cross cultural work, and group work; and a business consultant in Israel, Europe, and the USA. Tali is the editor of The Bridge - Dialogues Across Cultures, and she is on core faculty at the Gestalt Training Institute of Bermuda.

Dialogue Goes to Work: Relational Organisational Gestalt by

Sally Denham-Vaughan and Marie Anne Chidiac

Law

Although a relational approach has been at the heart of Gestalt psychotherapeutic work, it still, for many, feels at odds with the world of organisations. In this presentation, we argue that the business world is now ready for a differentiated type of contact; one which we would argue can be based on a radically Relational Organisational Gestalt (ROG) approach and which would enhance an organisation’s effectiveness. So far the challenge of moving relationally orientated Gestalt practice into organisations has not been widely written about. We want to address this by articulating our developing model of Relational Organisational Gestalt (ROG) as applied, in this first instance, to a coaching context. We will show how such a relational approach emphasises core conditions of dialogue, the power of developmental issues, and attends to developing supportive field conditions.

Sally Denham-Vaughan, MSc, initially observed the emerging discipline of “Gestalt in Organisations” looking very similar to the historic individually orientated gestalt clinical paradigm, with a focus on promoting a neo-Darwinian approach to competitors. I personally find attempts to work either clinically or organisationally in this way immensely stressful and am searching for alternatives; solutions that do not create more casualties than survivors, and that optimise health, growth and creativity. I am developing ROG with this aspiration.

Marie-Anne Chidiac, MSc, has worked as a coach and Organisation Development consultant for many years. In this time I have seen the power of a dialogic relational approach in businesses and it’s impact on the organisation’s effectiveness. I believe relational Gestalt can offer an approach to business change that recognises the very real need to support employee’s affective experience of being at work. I am developing ROG with this aspiration.

Intercultural Communication: The Borders and Bridges in Our Every-Day Lives by

Julianne Appel-Opper

Charlton

We all take our culture with us. It is like a world inside us with all the experiences, sensations, interactions, contacts we have made so far. All in all we carry knowledge of how to be in our world, our reality. What happens when two realities meet ? What are the borders we cannot cross ? Where are the bridges? How can we attune to the other without loosing our own cultural identity? In this workshop we will focus on inter-cultural communication and how we as living bodies are impacted by this.

Julianne Appel-Opper, Diplom-Psychologist, is a Psychological Psychotherapist, Clinical Psychologist (German Psychological Society), UKCP registered Integrative and Gestalt Psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer. She is an examiner and visiting tutor at the Metanoia Institute, London. She and her family lived in various countries. From 1998 to 2006 she lived and worked in Great Britain. Julianne now lives in Germany and works in Germany and Britain.

Adolescence, Absence and the Abyss

by

Jon Blend

Portland

Adolescence is a staging post en route to adulthood; successful differentiation requires appropriate, attuned parental support and challenge. For some teenagers however, the wider family field includes parental absence, alcoholism, mental illness, and loss, even violence. Faced with such overwhelming constraints many teenagers respond by adopting deeply withdrawn, anti- social or hazardous contact styles. Using experiential exercises, didactic input and several case vignettes we will explore adolescent developmental issues, concluding with a discussion about fathering and stepfamilies. This presentation shows how Gestalt Therapy helps troubled teenagers, bridging the generational divide to acknowledge their uniqueness, as emergent young adults.

Blend MA is a psychotherapist who has been working with children, adolescents and families since 1995, in private practice (West London) and within an NHS Family Consultation Centre. His background is in social work. Jon also trained at the Violet Oaklander Institute, USA. He uses a Gestalt approach that engages young persons using the creative – arts, and has a teenage step-daughter

Presentation Title and Presenter(s)

Room

Description

Presenter Bio(s)

AAGT and EAGT: How Can We Support Each Other?

by

Ken Evans, Daan Van Baalen, Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, Peter Philippson, Dan Bloom, Brian O’Neil, & Sarah Fallon (as moderator)

Windermere

This is a free flowing panel discussion among six members of the global gestalt therapy community. They will discuss the relative distinctives of two international associations of gestalt therapists and explore with one another ways in which these organizations might compliment and support one another, even while maintaining their differences. The two organizations in view are the European Association for Gestalt Therapy (EAGT) and the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy (AAGT). Questions will be taken from the floor by a moderator and posed to the panel as deemed necessary or appropriate.

Ken Evans is Director of Training at the Scarborough Psychotherapy Training Institute. He has written several articles and books and is co-editor of the European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy, visiting trainer at several European training centres, and currently President of the European Association for Gestalt Therapy (EAGT). He is interested in spirituality, therapeutic engagement, human rights, and social responsibility.

Daan van Baalen is co-founder of the Norwegian Gestalt Institute, and has developed training programmes in gestalt psychotherapy, coaching and organizational development in Norway, Netherlands and Belgium. He is External Relations Officer for the EAGT and Chair of the Norwegian Association for Psychotherapy. He is a member of the board and a recognized expert for the European Association for Psychotherapy.

Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb is a psychologist, psychotherapist, and gestalt therapy trainer. She is a past president of the EAGT, founder, and co-director of the Istituto di Gestalt in Italy, a training institute in Venice, Rome, Palermo, Ragusa, and Siracusa - all recognized by the Italian Minister for Universities and Research as a Post-Degree School of Psychotherapy for psychologists and medical doctors.

Peter Philippson is a gestalt therapist and trainer, a teaching and supervising member of the Gestalt Psychotherapy & Training Institute, a founder/member of Manchester Gestalt Centre and a guest trainer internationally. He has published articles on gestalt therapy in British, American, Australian, French, Canadian and Spanish gestalt journals, authored the book Self in Relation, and is current President of the AAGT.

Dan Bloom is a psychotherapist practicing in New York. He studied with Laura Perls, Isadore From, Richard Kitzler, and Patrick Kelley. He’s a member and former two-term president of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy, president-elect of the AAGT, principal editor of the journal Studies-in-Gestalt Therapy Dialogical Bridges, and member of the editorial board for Gestalt Review.

Brian O’Neill is a psychologist, co-director of the Illawarra Gestalt Centre, faculty member of gestalt programs in Australia and the USA, a former president of the AAGT, Founding Editor of the Gestalt Therapy Forum, on the editorial board for Gestalt Review, a Senior Fellow in Mental Health (University of Wollongong), and a member of the College of Counselling Psychologists.

Sarah Fallon is a Gestalt Psychotherapist working in the Psychological Healthcare Department of Barnsley PCT. She also has a private practice. Sarah has a background in teaching and in theatre (acting and directing) and, before her Gestalt training, she had trained and worked as a Dramatherapist. For the last ten years she has been an actor with Playback Theatre York - an ensemble, improvisational theatre company. 

The Embodied Field: Differences and Similarities in Culture and Form

by

Michael Craig Clemmens

Buttermere

Much has been written about culture and diversity from the perspectives of language, values and identity. But a large part of culture are the movements, gestures, speech and experience of space that feel like” home”. As therapists and consultants we need to understand and appraise the ways in which culture finds its expressions and life through our bodies. We also need to understand the different themes and modes of the embodied existence of our clients. In this workshop we will use experiential exercises, group discussion and lecture to develop our sense of culture as embodiment. We will emphasize connections to multiple cultures based in both our ethnicity and social structures. We will focus on implications for counseling practice and relevant skills for cultural attunement.

Michael Craig Clemmens, PhD, is a psychologist and trainer who lives and practices in Pittsburgh, Pa. He is a faculty member of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and teaches both in the U.S. and abroad. He co-authored the article and “Culture and Body”. Michael is interested in the relationship between physical process and relational field processes.

Connecting Within and Without: Futility, Hope & Healing the Planet

by

Bruce Aaron and Marilyn Miles

Derwent

We are regularly bombarded with news of political, economic, and environmental threats. The creative adjustments to such overwhelming stimuli often take the form of numbing, dulling, or otherwise distancing ourselves from sensation and emotional responses. The purpose of this workshop is to discover alternatives to these futile reactions by reconnecting to our previously blocked sensations and feelings. We intend to accomplish this by establishing support by bridging the perceived distance & isolation these issues often conjure. Inviting participants to differentiate their unique needs and desires which emerge through this work and to envision potentially satisfying actions.

Bruce Aaron, LCSW, is a gestalt therapist who as has been in private practice from 1987 – present. He works with individuals and couples and runs two on-going therapy groups, one in existence for 14 years, in the Chicago, IL, USA area. Bruce has long dreamt of applying his therapeutic skill to the despair elicited by the perilous conditions of our planet. During a process group led in Amsterdam he noticed the group exhibiting frustration and futility in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. This convinced him to retroflect no longer and to begin to realize his dream–starting in Manchester.

Marilyn Myles, LCSW, is a psychotherapist in private practice in the Chicago area. She studied at the Gestalt Institute of Toronto and with teachers trained in Cleveland. She specializes in somatic approaches to trauma treatment, and teaches classes on compassion fatigue to health care professionals. She has studied shamanic traditions over the last ten years and utilizes rituals of healing with both individuals and groups.

Sexual Orientation, Selfing and the Changing Field

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Lin Harrison, Di Hodgson and Jules Howdin

Mercer

The aim of the workshop is to explore the ever present impact of heterosexism and internalised / externalised homophobia on our presence as therapists, supervisors and trainers. The focus will be on how we self in relation to our sexual orientation in different contexts and what field conditions influence this process. The workshop will include a short theory section but will be largely experiential, creating a holding space to explore how we self in relation around this issue.

Lin Harrison: As a lesbian gestaltist I have been interested in how I self around both of these aspects of my identity for some years now. I am particularly interested in the issue on heterosexism and invisibility and how these dynamics affect aspects of our personal and professional selves in relation.

Di Hodgson: Throughout much of my career I have been interested in aspects of equality and diversity. As a Gestalt therapist I am particularly interested in issues of visibility and authenticity in the therapeutic relationship, as well as the impact of orientation, culture and gender organisationally and individually.

Jules Howdin: Throughout my training and professional development as a gestaltist issues of sexual orientation have rarely been explored. Whilst serving on the Executive committee of GPTI I was an active participant in the launch of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Section to facilitate the organisational considerations on these issues within our community.

Gestalt Therapy and Buddhism: Sources of Inspiration and Common Ground

by

Gunaketu Kjønstad and Helge Halvorsen

Busby

One of the root inspirations for gestalt therapy is Buddhism, and gestalt therapists can make much more out of this connection. In this workshop I will present a Buddhist perspective on awareness, search for meaning and phenomenology, in relation to gestalt therapy. We will then dialogue about how we can use this in our gestalt practice. I encourage the participants of this workshop to come to the meditation I will lead one of the mornings at 8am. This will provide us with additional shared experience to reflect upon.

Gunaketu Kjønstad was born in Norway. In 1993 he graduated with an MSc in Management Sciences. He started meditating in 1989, was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order in 1996 and has been teaching since. He graduated as a gestalt therapist in 2008, runs a private practice, works occasionally in a mental hospital, and train voluntary leaders in Red Cross.

Helge Halvorsen, Counsellor in Gambling, Alchohol and Drug addiction. Gestalt therapist. Helge Halvorsen was born in Arendal, Norway, and has a BSc in Social Work from UAC ­ Agder University College. He also has a BSc in Marketing from BI Oslo ­ Norwegian School of Management. He currently works for the Blue Cross in Oslo Norway, as a counsellor to people with addictions to gambling and/or alcohol and drugs. He also works part time as a counsellor within a Foster Care Program.

A Field of Self: Bridging Diverse Meanings

by

Lee Zevy

Law

The meaning of self has evolved continuously since it first appeared in written word around the 11th century. Every major area of thought: Linguistics, Religion, Social Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Medicine, Poetry, Science and all of their sub systems grappled with finding a contextual definition for this elusive concept and felt sense. In Gestalt therapy theory, self as the organizer of contact, is a key concept that arises out of this wealth of historical meaning and co exists today with other theories and beliefs within a matrix of experiential and cultural meanings . This workshop will begin with an overview of the historical definitions of self with a view toward locating the ground for Gestalt Therapy's unique perspective. We will then discuss the ways in which the multiple meanings of self exist currently and examine these within the experiential field of workshop participants.

For almost thirty years, Lee Zevy has been a full member, faculty, supervisor and presenter for the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy. She is a former President of the Institute in addition to holding various other offices. In addition to maintaining a private practice in Gestalt Therapy, she has written and published extensively on aspects of Gestalt therapy and other therapeutic topics.

Connecting Generations – Gestalt Work with Children and Adolescents

by

Francis Taylor

Charlton

The practice of gestalt based therapeutic work with children and young people is noted for its use of creative techniques, playfulness and flexibility with regard to interventions in the young person’s ‘lifespace’. This discussion between practitioners who work in a variety of institutional and individual contexts should give us a better understanding of how we use field theory, phenomenology and dialogue to guide our decisions on who we work with and what we do with them, and how these decisions differ from or are similar to what happens in work with adults. The precise foci of the session will be decided by the interests of those attending

Francis Taylor, B.Ed (HONS), has been working with children and young people since 1974 and most of that work has been with those experiencing relational, emotional and behavioural difficulties in schools. Since 1998 he has been working therapeutically either 1-1 or in small groups with children and young people aged 5 to 18 years, as well as supporting, advising and training other professionals in the field. 

Sometimes a Bridge Too Far

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Laurence Hegen

Portland

I propose a presentation on my thinking that as gestalt therapists we can sometimes attempt to integrate concepts from other theories without first putting their theoretical explanations under scrutiny from our own perspective. One such example is Projective Identification, which is referred to in much of our literature, in ways that suggest we accept this theoretical construct as an adequate explanation of a phenomenon that we indeed recognise in clinical practice. I plan to examine this theory in more detail, criticising the Kleinian theory from a contemporary, relational gestalt perspective, suggesting an alternative view and facilitating a discussion/debate on the issues raised.

Laurence Hegen, a A qualified, UKCP registered professional Psychotherapist with experience of working in a number of specialist fields, individually and in groups, including mental health, substance misuse and abuse issues including those with complex presentations such as dual diagnosis. Experienced in education, health and social services as well as the voluntary sector.

Presentation Title and Presenter(s)

Room

Description

Presenter Bio(s)

Voice Use in Social Process

by

Susan Gregory

Windermere

Voice Use In Social Process is a didactic and experiential workshop. We will explore ways in which groups form and are maintained by spoken and sung voicing activities. We will look at voicing in infant/carer dyads, groups in youth, families, ethnic groups, affinity groups and nations. We will focus on how contact is achieved or interrupted by styles of voicing; and we will explore the application of these ideas and experiences to our work with therapy clients and therapy groups. Everyone is welcome to attend this workshop, either as participants or observers. We are all part of the field.

Susan Gregory has been a Gestalt therapist in private practice for 17 years. She has published several articles on the workshop’s topic and has taught classes on this topic in England, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. She is currently president of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy. In addition, Susan has concertized world-wide and was a former principal artist with the New York City Opera.

Using Video Microanalysis with Baby and Parent Psychotherapy

by

Ruella Frank

Buttermere

In the first year of life, babies and their parents co-create a basic movement vocabulary that underlies their developing styles of contacting. Such subtle yet powerful movements define the boundaries between one and another and communicate what each partner wants and needs. When gestures within the relational field are poorly formed or misunderstood routinely, interruptions in contacting occur. In this workshop, we demonstrate how video microanalysis as a tool in baby/parent psychotherapy teaches parents to become more aware of the obvious, but often unnoticed world of nonverbal behaviors. Using video, we also show that working with movement pattern can shift the relational dilemma that brought the family to therapy. It will be evident how video microanalysis brings about rapid changes in the emerging relationship.

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, yogapractitioner/teacher, student of the concepts of Body/Mind Centering, and student of Laura Perls, co-founder of Gestalt therapy. 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.

Researching the Theory and Practice of Gestalt Therapy

by

Philip Brownell

Derwent

Gestalt therapy is in the early stages of producing its own body of research. That comes at a timely moment, since public policy in North America and Europe increasingly demands that therapists utilize approaches that work. We will discuss the philosophy of science and various research strategies related to debates over evidence-based practice vs. common factors in outcomes research, relate these issues to gestalt therapists, and base the discussion to a large extent on the writing in the various chapters of the Handbook for Theory, Research, and Practice in Gestalt Therapy (a new book published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing).

Philip Brownell, M.Div., Psy.D. is the Director of the Gestalt Training Institute of Bermuda, Consulting Editor at the European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy, and Editor of the Handbook for Theory, Research, and Pracitce in Gestalt Therapy. He maintains a private practice of therapy, assessment, organizational development and coaching in Bermuda. He has over 30 years experience working with people in various capacities, e.g., ordained clergy, college instructor, line staff for residential treatment, clinical psychologist.

A Fresh Look at Phenomenology in Husserl and in Gestalt by

Sylvia Fleming Crocker

Mercer

This presentation will present Husserl’s mature understanding of his phenomenological method. His concepts of intentionality, bracketing, and the reductions will be re-examined. Some common misunderstandings of the role of the inquirer’s knowledge and experience will be discussed. How Gestalt therapy’s use of Husserl’s method enables the therapist to make contact with the client’s living in ways that open up the possibility for change. The presenter will make a case that Gestalt therapy’s been seen as a pure form of “existential phenomenology.”

Sylvia Fleming Crocker has extensive training in both philosophy and Gestalt therapy. She has written numerous articles on Gestalt therapy’s theory and practice. She is also a trainer of therapists and counselors

Digital Story Telling: Using Visual Narratives to Give Voice to Cultural Experience

by

Iris Fodor

Busby

Drawing on my experience in working on digital story telling projects with Bridges to Understanding with Tibetan refugee children in Dharamsala, India, Andean children in Peru, and township adolescents in South Africa, I will demonstrate the power of constructing visual narratives for working with children and communities dealing with crisis and trauma to foster resiliency and intercultural communication. The photographic work in a digital story workshop is a collaborative, group communication process, which begins with brainstorming a story, and ends with making a short digital movie. Moving beyond individual therapy, digital story telling fosters resiliency in marginalized and groups in crisis by helping individuals creating narrative art projects within the context of social and community support. We will also discuss relevant digital story telling projects for workshop participants.

Iris Fodor, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University, a psychotherapist in New York City and a Gestalt trainer. She is an Associate Editor of Gestalt Review. She has conducted workshops and written about the integration of Gestalt and Cognitive Therapy, anxiety disorders, women’s body image and mindfulness and Gestalt Therapy. Iris Fodor is also a photographer whose work has focused on digital story telling and narrative process in working with indigenous and immigrant children and adolescents from diverse cultures.

Toward a Global Community of Shared Exploration and Intention

by

Gail Feinstein

Law

Our times are calling us, more than ever, to the task of developing a new mode of perceiving our place in the world; one which stresses the interrelatedness of all beings, and an expanded awareness of our common humanity. This is imperative to the healing of the sense of separateness that contributes to global turmoil. Committing to this task necessitates adopting a stance which invites:
*detaching from identification with woundedness and narcissism,
* recognizing that bringing attention to, and integrating the shadow aspect of the self
is an integral aspect of our work,
* creating a vision centering around the awakening of a sense of social responsibility and the interdependence with all of life. This conceptual and experiential presentation is an invitation to an exploration of this vision

Gail Feinstein, LCSW, LMT is a Gestalt therapist and sacred activist in private practice in New York City, working with individuals, couples and groups. She has taught and trained in Europe, Canada, Mexico and Australia. She is co-director of the Transformational Training Institute, past president and currently, on the faculty of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy as well as other training centers. She has been doing ‘Women’s Work’ for 25 years and believes that all life benefits when women come to love their bodies and live from their truth. Her practice includes supervision, training, workshops and retreats.

Awareness in the Classroom: On Being “In Contact” as an Educator

by

Mary Grace Neville

Charlton

Classroom education historically occurs in what Paulo Friere calls a “banker’s model” of education: the instructor deposits knowledge to the student who, on demand of withdrawal, recites back the previously deposited information. Increasingly though, experiential education, service learning, inter cultural experiences, and pedagogical innovation have expanded how a teacher seeks change in students. This paper applies Gestalt concepts of awareness to a teacher’s presence in undergraduate business classrooms. Two researchers conducted a year-long awareness experiment, drawing insights and principles for practice from their data. Gestalt literature on awareness, being, and contact frame a context from which the insights can be transferred.

Dr. Mary Grace Neville trained at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and currently teaches undergraduate business students. She holds a PhD in organizational behavior from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA in strategic management from the Wharton School of Business. This research project attempts to ground in Gestalt theory her constellation of contact experiences (as student-enquirer, teacher-scholar, and corporate strategist) in training contexts.

Gestalt and Morita Therapies: Common Ground and Essential Differences

by

Jon Frew and Peg Le Vine

Portland

 Morita therapy was developed by Shoma Morita (1874-1938), a Japanese psychiatrist and contemporary of Freud. Initially this Zen-based therapy was designed to treat anxiety-based disorders; it is sequenced in 4-stages that make use of the ecological environment as one field for treatment. More recently, the approach has been modified for outpatient settings. The paths of Gestalt therapy and Morita therapy intersected in 1962 when Fritz Perls spent time at a hospital in Kyoto where Morita therapy was practiced. Gestalt therapy and Morita therapy have much in common, yet diverge in interpretations about ‘the field’. The presenters will highlight these bridges and borders by staging a lively dialogue between each other and the workshop participants (fishbowl style); a detailed case study will illustrate use of both treatments for trauma and culture challenges.

 Jon Frew received his primary training as a Gestalt therapist at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland (1975-1981). He has led Gestalt therapy training groups since 1983, most recently as one of the directors of Gestalt Therapy Training Center Northwest. He is on the editorial board of the Gestalt Review, and has published extensively in the Gestalt literature.

Peg LeVine, EdD, PhD is an international scholar and practitioner of Morita Therapy. She received her training-supervision across a 15-year period in Tokyo, Japan by the late Akihisa Kondo, MD. A psychologist and anthropologist, she is Professor of Asian Studies at Monash University, and Director of Rural Mental Health, Tasmania. Peg works in trauma-health development in Southeast Asia.

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AAGT: Constructing an International Bridge

by

Charles Bowman, Dan Bloom, Peter Philippson, Brian O’Neil, Bud Feder

Windermere

AAGT – An International Community began as an off-shoot of the Gestalt Journal's conferences and evolved as an organization based upon contact, inclusion and organic development. “Associating” and “Advancing” have been prevalent themes in our history. Striking an inclusive, professional balance in accordance with our shared needs, interests and concerns has led to more than a few revisions of the bylaws governing the organization, including the remarkable “Covenant of Community” as a means of embracing difference. In this workshop, some of AAGT's leaders will share their experiences of the growth of “AAGT – An International Community” as we cross the bridge to Europe from the North American continent.

Charlie Bowman is a senior faculty member at the Indianapolis Gestalt Institute, Core faculty member at the Gestalt Training Institute of Bermuda, and he was the third president of AAGT. He has served as Treasurer, Board Member, and a Conference Coordinator. Charlie has remained active in AAGT since its inception and is fiercely dedicated to its development in accordance with the Constitution and By-Laws.

Dan Bloom is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He studied with Laura Perls, Isadore From, and Richard Kitzler. He is a full member of the New York Institute forGestalt Therapy and European Association for Gestalt Therapy. He is a former two- term president of the NYIGT and president-elect of the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy, an international community. He teaches internationally and is widely published. Dan is Editor in chief of the international journal Studies in Gestalt Therapy: Dialogical Bridges.

Peter Philippson is a Gestalt Psychotherapist, trainer and writer. He is a Founder Member of Manchester Gestalt Centre, Full Member of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy, and on the Editorial Board of the British Gestalt Journal and Studies in Gestalt Therapy. He is author of Self in Relation, co-author of Contact and Relationship in a Field Perspective; co-author of Gestalt: Working with Groups, and many articles in Gestalt Journals. He is currently President of the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy.

Brian O’Neill BA(Hons), MAPS is co-director of the Illawarra Gestalt Centre, visiting faculty member of Gestalt Training programs in Australia, the USA and Europe, and is past President of the Association for Advancement of Gestalt Therapy (AAGT), founding editor of the Gestalt Therapy Forum (New York), a board member of Gestalt Global, and on the editorial board of the Gestalt Review and Studies in Gestalt. He was awarded the Governor General’s Mental Health Gold Medal for achievement in research, education and practice in 1996. He is currently the regional manager for Relationships Australia in the Illawarra.

Bud Feder is a psychologist in private practice in the USA and has been active in AAGT for many years, on committees -often as chair - as treasurer and as president. He is currently co-chair of the Scholarship Fund Committee, a branch of the organization which strives to bring to conferences persons from many lands, particularly those not easily represented due to financial challenges.

How to Make High Impact Interventions that “Stick”

by

Joe Melnick

Buttermere

For us to connect means that we have to impact each other.  But how do we impact another?  As change agents one of our primary tasks is to intervene, but how do we make our interventions make a difference?  Focusing on two person systems we will explore how to create trust, give balanced interventions, use phenomenological data, manage "resistances," in short, how to make our interventions "stick.”   This workshop will be a combination of didactic and experiential exercises.

Joseph Melnick, Ph.D., has been fascinated by the concept of "stickiness" for many years. To build bridges we have to reach, to touch, to impact the other. In my work as a journal editor (Gestalt Review) I strive to present articles that both differentiate and connect. In my work on social change I realize that good theory is not enough.  It has to have impact

Working Creatively with Story by Christine Stevens

Derwent

This is a practical workshop focussing on methodological innovation. We will be experimenting with different approaches to working with story in the service of awareness and contact. As human beings, we continually make meaning of our lives through narrative and metaphor and our deepest longings and most profound moments are expressed in this way. Throughout our lives, we find ways to retell our confusing, painful and traumatic experiences, although often not explicitly and not necessarily achieving resolution. Working therapeutically and creatively with story can powerfully sharpen awareness and bring out new possibilities for the client's way of being in the world.

Christine Stevens, Ph.D., is the Editor for the British Gestalt Journal and a member of the adjunct faculty for the Gestalt Training institute of Bermuda. Early in her life she experienced a split between academic achievement, which was highly valued by others, and creative activity, which was not. Her work as a Gestalt therapist, supervisor and trainer is characterised by her journey towards integration as she brings together Gestalt theory with creative methodologies. She feels energised by finding creative syntheses between theory and practice.

The Wall in Our Minds by

Hugh Pidgeon

Mercer

The ‘wall in our minds’ celebrates the work of Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said in bringing together a group of courageous and talented young musicians from both sides of the Israeli/Arab divide in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Barenboim was greatly influenced by Martin Buber, and we will be reminding ourselves in this workshop that Gestalt Therapy’s foundation in Buber’s teaching has much to offer as a source of inspiration in wider political and social contexts. We will be bringing the Gestalt tradition of dialogue into correspondence with the work of David Bohm, and considering the potential of GT to contribute directly to some of the most intractable and complex dilemmas of our time.

Hugh is a director of his own dialogue consultancy practice, Collective Intelligence, a senior associate at Ashridge Business School  and has been a practising Gestalt therapist for the last 18 years.  He is on the faculty of  Ashridge’s Masters in Organisational Consulting, now in its 11th year. His work as a consultant addresses the conflicts of interest that arise from the corporate agenda on social and environmental responsibility. 

Creating Borders and Bridges in Japan: A Culture of Confluence by

Noriyoshi Okada

Busby

When I first participated in a gestalt workshop in USA in 1986, I was amazed by the exclamation uttered by a woman, ‘Is it OK being the same as the other people?! Oh, what a relief!’ as the result of her work. For I was used to quite the contrary remark, ‘Is it really OK to be different from everyone else?! Oh, what a relief!’ which is often heard in workshops in Japan, where being different is the ‘shame.’Though Gestalt Therapy is not yet popular in Japan, I believe the Gestalt approach of recognizing contact as the “appreciation of difference” will prove very useful in this culture of uniformity and confluence.

Nori Okada is the founder and the Chief Facilitator of Gestalt Associates Japan. He is a Senior Industrial Counselor, certified by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The book he wrote is the first one written in Japanese on gestalt therapy. He learned gestalt therapy from the late Dr. Paula Bottome, the former Chair Person of the San Francisco Gestalt Institute, and he traslated her books in Japanese.

The Paradox and Complexity of Organisational Comformity

by

Trevor Bently

Law

My presentation/experiential event at the conference will invite participants to engage with each other so as to emphasis their difference and to discover to what extent they differentiate and/or conform in order to make meaningful contact, i.e. to explore the paradox of conformity and its attendant complexity. My event at the conference will be an experiment in exploring the paradox of conformity. The experiment will invite participants to engage in the contact/conflict zone on a one to one basis, within groups and between groups. There will be an initial introduction to the experiment and a final summation of outcomes and learning.

Trevor Bently, Ph.D., works with business leaders and executive teams. He uses a Gestalt approach to improve relationships, increase awareness and to experiment with being different. He is also a college member of GANZ and co-founder of the centre4gio (Gestalt in Organisations) UK. He has a PhD in organisation development, and he has been published in the Gestalt Review, the Gestalt Journal GANZ and the British Gestalt Journal.

The Star Trek Model of Couple Counseling

by

Anne Teachworth

Charlton

For too long, couple counseling has been based on the belief that the couple interaction is introjected from each partner's relationship with one or both of their parents in childhood. Anne Teachworth has developed a transgenerational approach to couple counseling that clearly locates the Inner Couple Imprint that was introjected in each partner's childhood. Using a 10 question Selection Test, each participant will be able to identify their own introjected pattern and learn an easy, effective way to work with clients who want to know how to fix their relationship once and for all.

Anne Teachworth is the founder and the Director of the Gestalt Institute of New Orleans/New York, specializing in couple and parenting counseling. She is the author of a book Why We Pick the Mates We Do, and several articles and chapters on her own Psychogenetic System of counseling. She has presented this model at conferences and workshops all over the world for the past fifteen years.

Philosophical Counseling and Gestalt Therapy: Initiating Contact

by

Eric Hoffman

Portland

Groups of philosophers in various countries have begun to develop the practice of "philosophical counseling," defined roughly as counseling clients from a grounding in philosophy. Some philosophical counselors have been critical of "therapy" and view philosophical counseling as more grounded in theory and more respectful of clients than "therapy." Yet, Gestalt therapy has made similar criticisms of some modes of "therapy" and has occasionally aspired to be less a therapeutic modality than a practical philosophy. This presentation will explore the border of Gestalt therapy and philosophical counseling, seeking ways to sustain productive contact by finding real similarities and honoring real differences.

Eric Hoffman is a philosopher teaching at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and maintaining a private therapy practice grounded in Gestalt Therapy and philosophical counseling. As Conductor of The Essential Experience Workshop, he works with groups and individuals in supporting personal growth and transformation. He is an Associate of the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Philadelphia, a member of the American Association of Philosophical Practitioners and a Board Member of the American Society for Philosophy, Counseling and Psychotherapy.

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Enduring Relational Themes: Thinking Outside the Transferential ‘Box’

by

Lynne Jacobs

Windermere

Gestalt therapy has some powerful concepts by which to make sense of patterns of contacting that are resistant to change. And therapeutic dialogic is a powerful approach to engaging these patterns. I wish to show how we can use insights from psychoanalysis without succumbing to the deadening idea that the past determines the future. In this didactic and experiential workshop, I offer a way to think about patterns of contact in a therapeutically meaningful way, and then we will engage in either some experiments or some demonstration work.

Lynne Jacobs is co-founder of the Pacific Gestalt Institute. Lynne has long been interested in the relational dimension of psychotherapy, and in integrating humanistic with contemporary psychoanalytic theories. Both a gestalt therapist and a psychoanalyst, she is a co-founder of the Pacific Gestalt Institute. She is also a training and supervising analyst of the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP) in Los Angeles. She teaches at ICP, and teaches gestalt therapists locally, nationally, and internationally. Lynne co-authored, with Richard Hycner, The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy: A Dialogic, Self-Psychological Approach. Recent articles include “Shame in the Therapeutic Dialogue”, “Optimal Responsiveness and Intersubjectivity Theory”, and “Pathways to a Relational Worldview.” She has a private practice in West Los Angeles.

The Revolutionary Consequences of the “Law of Prägnanz”

by

Daan Van Baalen

Buttermere

In the country in which I work, gestalt therapy gets more and more credibility. With this recognition, I see at the same time a loss of the revolutionary, exciting concepts of Gestalt therapy. One of those concepts is “the law of Prägnanz” formulated by Max Wertheim and Wolfgang Köhler. It says that every gestalt becomes as “good” as possible - or takes the best possible shape. This law, however, is incompatible with major streams in health care dominated by medical science. I want in this workshop to explore what is meant by the law of Prägnanz and to see what future consequences this can imply for gestalt therapy practice.

Daan Van Baalen is co-founder of the Norwwegian Gestalt Institute (NGI) and Rector of NGI college. He has developed training programmes in gestalt psychotherapy, coaching and organisational development in Norway, Netherlands and Belgium and is a Visiting Trainer in several European countries. While being a university lecturer at the Erasmus University, Netherlands he was enagaged in research with chronic diseases and psychotherapy. He has written articles in sevarl languages and is co-editor of the European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy . Daan is External Relations Officer for the European Association for Gestalt Therapy (EAGT) and Chair of the Norwegian Association for Psychotherapy (NFP). He is a member of the board and recognised expert for the European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP), a member of the International Federation of Gestalt Training Organisations (FORGE), and serves on the Editorial Board of Gestalt Review.

Borders, Bridges and the Co-creation of the Contact Boundary: The Emergence of the Situational Field

by

Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb.

Derwent

For us, the perception (and hence also the emotion) of the patient or the therapist is a process which occurs not “inside” the individual, but as co-creation in the space “between” in which their experiences are realized. What happens at the contact boundary is a figure supported by the perceptive ground of the situational field. The child’s perception, for instance, is oriented towards the contact boundary between mother and father, as well as, respectively, towards the contact boundary between her/himself and the mother and between her/himself and the father. The child experiences a field, a situation, which includes both the ground and the figure. Carrying over this viewpoint to the therapeutic setting, the patient never sees us in isolation, but always as part of a relational field.

Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb is a licensed psychologist, psychotherapist and gestalt therapy trainer since 1979. She teaches in the five offices of her Italian Institute, and is an invited trainer and conference presenter internationally. She has served as president of the European Association for Gestalt Therapy (EAGT) for 6 years, of the Italian Umbrella Association for Psychotherapy (FIAP) for 2 years, and of the Italian Association for Gestalt therapy (SIPG) for 2 decades. She founded the European Conference of Gestalt Therapy writers, has served as editor of the Italian journal “Quaderni di Gestalt” since 1985, and she is co-editor of the new journal, Studies in Gestalt Therapy-Dialogical Bridges. Her writings, which cover both epistemological and practical issues, have been published and translated in many languages.

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A Dramatic Approach to Gestalt Dreamwork by

Sylvia Fleming Crocker

Windermere

This method of dreamwork employs a Gestalt version of psychodrama: through the use of role-reversal, the dreamer speaks all of the words instead of having other players attempt to improvise a role on the basis of the dreamer’s description. Thus all of the material comes from the dreamer. Most often the dreamer discovers an existential message through the dreamwork. Because many group members are actually involved in the work this method has many benefits to the ongoing life of a therapy group.

Sylvia Fleming Crocker has extensive training in both philosophy and Gestalt therapy. She has written numerous articles on Gestalt therapy’s theory and practice. She is also a trainer of therapists and counselors, and a member of the adjunct faculty at the Gestalt Training Institute of Bermuda.

Borders & Bridges: Power, Difference and Context: a Gestalt View by

Toni Gilligan and Carl Hodges

Buttermere

Bridges and Borders are both metaphor and actual places of meeting and passage, defining neighbours and identity, different and exotic, enemy and other, fought over in sometimes bloody conflicts repeated generation after generation. This experiential presentation is an exploration of the application of Gestalt Theory to the nature of bridges and borders and power. We will consider power as a field phenomenon, how we are part of the ground that maintains existing power relations, the role of metaphor and context, and shall experiment with how we can use what we learn.

Toni Gilligan, M.Phil (in Clinical Psychology), is a Director and Faculty member of the Gestalt Centre, London. She has worked as a clinical psychologist in mental health in the National Health Service, and in the field of Alcohol and Drug dependence. She believes we have yet to really apply our theory to what it means to be an active citizen.

Carl Hodges, MSW, LCSW, was the second President of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy, and the third President of AAGT. He is in private practice in NY, does supervision, and teaches at Fordham University. He has had a long interest in Gestalt field theory and it's application to large groups, organizations, polity and metaphor.

Normalization of Disappointment: Neurobiological Underpinnings

by

Bob Lee

Derwent

Recent neurobiological research findings parallel, support, and inform Gestalt field theory’s notions of childhood development. In this workshop, using didactic presentation, experiential exercises, and disscussion, we will examine the role and importance of relationship in structuring neural circuits in the first and second year of life, as well as what this information means from a Gestalt constructionist, intersubjective perspective. Areas to be covered include the caregiver-infant interconnection that enables brain circuitry development supporting elation/arousal, the role of minor forms of shame and repair that leads to the normalization of disappointment as a tool in belonging, the neurological underpinnings of the development of ground shame, and the implications for the need to diagnose from a field perspective rather than an individual perspective.

Robert G. Lee, Ph.D. a psychologist in private practice in Cambridge, MA, USA, has written extensively and presented nationally and internationally on shame and belonging as regulator processes of the relational field. He is editor, or co-editor, of a nuber of books including Evolution of Gestalt II: Relational Child, Relational Brain (in press). Robert is a faculty member of the relationally based Child & Adolescent Training Program at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland.

The Edge of the Chair: Experiment and Psychotherapy Integration

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Scott Kellogg and Philip Brownell

Mercer

This presentation uses the procedure of chairwork as utilized in gestalt, schema, and various integrative therapies as a means to discuss more fully the nature and role of experiment. Through finding what is similar and what differs among these various approaches, we also hope to define more clearly the borders and bridges that exist in the integration of these clinical perspectives. We will provide a brief history of chairwork, compare and contrast schema therapy and gestalt therapy with respect to their means and agents of change, and explore the nature of experiment. We will use didactic, experiential exercise, and discussion.

Scott Kellogg, PhD, is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at New York University. A Gestalt-trained schema therapist, he currently has a private practice and serves as a supervisor for the Schema Therapy Institute. Dr. Kellogg is also a former President of the Division on Addictions of the New York State Psychological Association.

Philip Brownell, M.Div., Psy.D., is on the Core Faculty as Director of the Gestalt Training Institute of Bermuda, Sr. Editor of the on-line journal, Gestalt!, Editor of the Handbook for Theory, Research, and Practice in Gestalt Therapy, and author of Gestalt Therapy: A Guidebook for Mental Health Professionals (Springer Publishing, in press).

Void, Phoniness and the Lingual Radix

by

Seishi Harada

Busby

This workshop undertakes to provide a verifiable physical reality for introjection and to examine its function and connection with void, phoniness, boredom, and depression. When you introject, you stiffen the lingual radix.The lingual radix is the border between the outside world and your inner world, where contact (encountering and meeting) occurs. The exercise of loosening the lingual radix makes it clear how you introject others’ ideas and give yourself to those ideas. Clarifying the structure of this introjection enables you to decide your way of life based on your own senses and emotions.

Seishi Harada is a gestalt therapist in private practice in Tokyo. He studied under Rose Najia (Ricky Linvingston), and completed his training through the Tokyo Gestalt Institute in 1991.

An Inquiry into Group and Stepfamily Dynamics

by

Claire Bartram

Law

Small group processes are in some ways similar to those in stepfamilies. This workshop will be an exploration in the form of an open process group where participants inquire about how this statement is or isn't born out and what we can learn about both groups and stepfamilies through this consideration. The workshop will be held in the spirit of a cooperative inquiry. There will be no other agenda - the group will form and the exploration will begin.

Claire Asherson Bartram, UKCP, is a Gestalt therapists, group leader and supervisor. She has a private practice in London. She has been involved with Gestalt since 1984. For the last five years she has been researching stepfamily dynamics, most recently through the experiences of mothers in stepfamilies. She is a Committee member of the British Gestalt Society.

ROOM LEFT FREE FOR EMERGENT NEEDS

Charlton

ROOM LEFT FREE FOR EMERGENT NEEDS

Portland