Description
GTB Summer School
Let the deep roots hold you…
5-day immersive conference
In uncertain and troubling times, we find ourselves not only supporting others – but also navigating the same storms. As Gestalt therapists and practitioners, we are not separate from the collective field. We, too, are influenced by the turbulence of the world: climate crisis, systemic injustice, war, economic strain, disconnection, and the quiet griefs of everyday life.
How do we stay present and responsive when we are similarly impacted?
How do we remain rooted – ethically, relationally, somatically and sustainably – when the ground itself feels unstable?
This conference invites us to return to what holds us. To the deep roots of our practice, our community, our body, land, and lineage. Together, we will explore how to live and work more fully and creatively in complexity.
We will ask:
- What sustains us?
- What connects us?
- What practices restore our capacity for moments of clarity, compassion, courage and hope?
Let the deep roots hold you is both a call and a comfort – a reminder that in Gestalt therapy, we do not stand outside the field, but within it. Through dialogue, creative practice, embodied process, and collective inquiry, we gather to reconnect with what is life-giving and grounding, so we may continue to offer our presence in a world that deeply needs it.
What can you expect?
- Five nights living in community as part of the Gestalt Therapy Brisbane faculty and students and other conference participants.
- Teaching, masterclasses & experiential learning with international guests Peter Cole & Daisy Reese and other conference participants.
- Whole-community learning, shared rituals, and creative process.
- Space for play, creativity, rest, connection with each other and our more-than-human kin
- A gathering grounded in embodied, relational, and ethical Gestalt practice.
- Over 20 hours of PACFA Category A professional development
Who is this conference for?
- Gestalt therapists & students across Australia and beyond
- Psychotherapists, counsellors and group facilitators
- Allied Health professionals (social workers, psychologists etc.) interested in experiential, process-based learning
International Presenters
Daisy Reese & Dr Peter Cole
Peter Cole, LCSW, and Daisy Reese, LCSW are long-standing Gestalt therapy educators based in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA. As co-founders and co-directors of the Sierra Institute for Contemporary Gestalt Therapy (stablished in 1991), they train and consult with psychotherapists both regionally and internationally. Together, they have taught extensively across the US and abroad, contributing significantly to the contemporary development of Gestalt therapy.
Peter and Daisy are co-authors of New Directions in Gestalt Group Therapy and the edited volume Together in the Therapeutic Process: Exploring the Relational Field of Gestalt Therapy, which features contributions from many of Gestalt therapy’s leading relational theorists, including Lynne Jacobs, Gary Yontef, Dan Bloom, and Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb. They have also co-authored two books on the psychology of money, blending financial insight with therapeutic depth.
Peter Cole has practiced Gestalt therapy for over two decades with offices in Berkley and Sacramento, working with individuals, couples and groups. He brings extensive training in both Gestalt and psychodynamic modalities and is also the director of Insight Financial Group, a holistic financial planning firm. Peter served as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UC Davis School of Medicine for 30 years and has held leadership positions within the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy, including Co-Convener of the 2016 international conference.
Daisy Reese is a certified Group Psychotherapist with over 30 years of clinical experience. She holds degrees from Vanderbilt university and the University of Texas and maintains a psychotherapy practice in Berkley and Sacramento. Daisy is a past president of the Northern California Group Psychotherapy Society and has trained and mentored psychotherapist since 1992. She and Peter co-facilitated the Process/Learning Group for the Group Therapy Training Program at the Psychotherapy Institute in Berkley. A long-time student of Sufism, daisy brings a particular interest in the sacred dimension of therapeutic work.
Peter and Daisy are a married couple and proud parents of five adult children and grandparents to six. They are long term colleagues and friends of Gestalt Therapy Brisbane.
Click here to watch INTRO VIDEO with Peter & Daisy
