THE NORTHEN IRELAND COUNSELLING FORUM
PRESENT
Gestalt Therapy today
- Would you like to experience Gestalt as an approach, without having to occupy the ‘hot seat’ or speak to an empty chair?
- Would you like to consider how patterns – or ‘Gestalten’ – emerge in our lives to support our engagement with others?
- Would you like to know what is entailed in becoming a Gestalt Practitioner?
The long-established Gestalt approach is whole-istic, and is based on embodied dialogue, making it one of the somatic approaches to psychotherapy,and fits well with the latest findings of neuroscience: “Gestalt therapy […] is a unique expression of psychodynamic therapy that is particularly relevant to the notion of neural integration.“ (Louis Cozolino, The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Building and Rebuilding the Human Brain).
Somatic approaches are an increasingly important stream of psychotherapy (Sally Brown, ‘Bodies of knowledge’, in Therapy Today, June 2019 Volume 30 Issue 5. Gestalt therapy has been, for over half a century, a significant part of that stream.
Gestalt therapists meet clients together with their life conditions. Gestalt therapy was born in a century of social activism, and “continues to provide valuable tools and interventions for dealing with both psychological and social healing.” (Jack Aylward, ‘The Anarchy of Gestalt Therapy’). We believe we cannot be separated from our context, be it the people in our lives, our families and colleagues, our communities, our society and beyond.
Bríd Keenan and Joëlle Gartner (Co-Directors of the Gestalt Centre Belfast)
Bríd Keenan MBACP(accred) EAGT SEP and NARM practitioner (Masterclass). She is a Gestalt psychotherapist since 1993, a supervisor and a trainer. She is an accredited Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (2005). She studied developmental trauma (The Neuro Affective Relational Model 2015). Her particular interests are trans-generational trauma and working with trauma memory in the Peace Process. She has published papers, contributed to trainings and conferences internationally. She is a co-founder of the two training organisations, the Gestalt Centre Belfast, and Ireland SE. She also a founder member of Tairseach, the association for Somatic Experiencing in Ireland
Joëlle Gartner MBACP(Accr) SEP has worked as a Gestalt therapist in private practice since 1998, offering training since 2002 and clinical supervision since 2004. She has written and contributed to international conferences on the subject of groups, therapy in a second language, and working in a society emerging from conflict. She worked as a teacher most of her life, and loves attending to the experience of collective learning. A Somatic Experiencing Practitioner since 2015, she integrates her knowledge of the nervous system in her therapeutic work with individuals and couples. She is a co-founder of the Gestalt Centre Belfast and sits on the management of Tairseach, the Association of Somatic Experiencing Practitioners in Ireland.
Date: Saturday 4th April 2020
Venue: Friends’ Meeting House
Frederick Street
Belfast BT1
Parking available
Library, bring a book – exchange a book
Tea/coffee e available from 9.30am – workshop 10am – 1230pm approx.
Contact 07775947991 for further details;
Cost: Members £5 Non-Members £10
CPD Certificate supplied