Gestalt Newsletter

What has been happening at GTB

Greer turned 70!

We celebrated the 70th birthday of GTB Director, Dr Greer White. We had the pleasure of sharing a celebratory lunch with Greer and some of her closest friends. Greer still operates in a directors role at GTB and as a year coordinator. All while seeing private clients, practicing Pilates, exploring the movements of Tai Chi and working on her Art. Greer will be off to Greece in August and we can’t wait to hear all about her adventures. What an inspiration! 

Student Clinic

Over the last two weekends in June we held a Student clinic for our year 3 & 4 students. Thank you to everyone involved. We hosted 20 guest clients and four guest couples who volunteered their time to have sessions with our student therapists. Interested in being part of our Student Clinic? See more…

News from GTB Director, Paddy O’Regan

Dear GTB friends,

I am writing to let you know that I am resigning from the directorship of GTB at the end of November this year. I will also be resigning from my role as an educator at the end of the year. I would like to thank Greer for offering me the opportunity to lead GTB with her over the last five years. It has been the most amazing, rewarding, satisfying, and challenging chapter of my professional life. I would also like to thank Greer, Sharon and Tine who contributed so much, and supported me in the director position over that time. I also appreciate the academic and administrative staff who work incredibly hard at GTB and have shown me extraordinary generosity over the last eleven years.

I plan to develop my career in other ways over the next few years, but I am a Gestalt practitioner at heart, and I want to be involved with GTB’s excellent workshops in the years to come.

I know Greer, Tine and I are working towards a good leadership transition for GTB and will communicate that with you in due course.

I look forward to seeing some of you over the course of the year.

Kind Regards,

Paddy O’Regan

New Chairperson for our Academic Governance Board

Please help us in welcoming Peter to an important role for GTB. Peter is a graduate of Gestalt Therapy Brisbane and has been in private practice for ten years. His goal as a therapist is to co-create safety, where clients can experience trust and acceptance. This provides the context for a journey of discovery and self-acceptance. Peter has been a social worker for 35 years, working in community development, child protection, disability services, housing, and as a generalist counsellor. For the last 8 years Peter has worked as a lecturer in social work at Griffith University. 

How about a book club?

We are starting a GT book club. Where we will ponder together over Gestalt text (at a steady pace). We all know we should be reading more Gestalt text, and this is the starting point to try make it happen and work for us all with our busy lives. We are taking expressions of interest from people interested in joining. Please send us a quick email to let us know if you are interested. 

Workshops

We have an exciting few months with some amazing workshops coming up. Don’t forget these are endorsed PD events for ACA, AASW & PACFA members. See more…

Groups

The Practice Collective group ran by Sharon Gray has been very successful and the group have decided to continue to meet up for another four sessions. The new sessions will be open to new and existing group members. Details will be published soon.

Room Hire

We are now offering our large education rooms in West End for hire during the week (Mon-Thur). The spaces are perfectly set up for group work with chairs, beanbags, cushions and a large screen. Have we got what you need? See more…

Community Connection

GIG Sydney 

Ruth Berendt shares about the Sydney-based Gestalt Interest Group (known as GIG) which began in 2017 after it emerged that there was an interest in more regular opportunities for Gestalt-community gatherings in Sydney at a local level. The self-organised GIG has continued to meet quarterly, welcoming Gestalt therapists, students and those interested in, or affiliated with, the Gestalt community. A variety of venues across Sydney and inspiring themes have been offered by enthusiastic and generous volunteer hosts from the group. This has resulted in relaxed gatherings that provide opportunity for connection, conversation, peer support, inspirational sharing of Gestalt therapy ideas, with creativity, food and plenty of fun. Most recently, the group gathered in a dance space to explore Gestalt concepts through movement-based enquiry. In this way, the figure became the non-verbal communication and embodied expression that is often the ground to our relational experience.

The Sydney Gestalt Interest Group welcomes anyone interested in Gestalt. The next gathering will be held in September, with an art making process planned.

A call for Volunteers

More Volunteers are needed for post-doctoral International Research Study of the effectiveness of Gestalt Therapy with Anxiety and Depression. See more…

​Publications

Online support/peer group

New Gestalt Voices Journal Calling for participants to join in the formation of this group. Join fellow Gestaltists in an online support group running monthly/or every three weeks for 1.5 hours. Meeting time is at 4pm AEST on a Thursday. They are looking for 1-2 more participants to join contact John Gillespie:  John@newgestaltvoices.org 

Gestalt Adventure

SYSTEMATIC CURIOSITY The Path Unfolds as I Fly… This time my flight path was to the Fourth International conference on Psychotherapy Research in Chile Santiago 29 May – 1 June 2019 by Annie. See more… 

International Gestalt Events 

HABITAT 1ST VIRTUAL CONGRESS OF THE AMPG. An international online conference being held Feb 19-23, 2020. See more…