Key details
The 6 workshops in this series are designed around the relational gestalt foundations that underpin everything we do at the Gestalt Therapy Australia: awareness | presence | receptive | choiceful | situated | engaged.
Dates
- Awareness | Thursday 20 February 2025
- Presence | Thursday 20 March 2025
- Receptive | Thursday 10 April 2025
- Choiceful | Thursday 29 May 2025
- Situated | Thursday 26 June 2025
- Engaged | Thursday 24 July 2025
Duration | 6.30pm–9.00pm. Light refreshments and finger food will be provided
Location | Elie, Gestalt Centre Training Campus, 27 Royal Parade Parkville, VIC 3052
Fees | $65 per workshop (includes GST). You can purchase tickets for individual workshops or multiple workshops in one transaction
Facilitated by | Tony Jackson (Gestalt therapist, GTA Faculty & MD Gestalt Centre)
About this series
You can choose to attend these workshops individually, or as a series. A certificate of completion is available upon request. We recommend that you attend all of the 6 workshops to build a holistic picture of gestalt thinking.
Testimonials
"I love the training you offer, it’s given me incredible growth opportunities and has supported me at work and in life in so many ways. Thank you!" Anna
What do the foundations mean in gestalt therapy, and why are they important?
Awareness is the goal of relational gestalt therapy. Unlike many therapies that focus extensively on the past or future, gestalt therapy concentrates on the client's immediate, present-moment experience. The therapist and client work together to explore and understand what's important in the here and now. We are encouraged to become more attuned to our sensory experience, bodily sensations, environmental influences, and the ways they make meaning.
In this workshop, you will be introduced to the four zones of awareness: outer, inner, middle, and relational. Together, we will explore how enhancing capacity in each of these zones fosters a deeper sense of here-and-now presence, greater flexibility, and expanded choice. In gestalt therapy, this process is what we define as health.
Presence is a personal ability and is at the heart of a gestalt approach to health and healing. Presence grows out of the practice of being in the here and now, and it allows us to respond to the fullness of the moment and to meet others (and the challenge of the moment) in deeply compassionate ways. From presence, we are aware of the ways our history and other contextual conditions might organise our current experience. From presence, we are more able to confirm the humanity of others.
In this workshop, we will dive into the experience of presence through practices designed to support the transformation from ‘being present’ to embodying presence. Additionally, we will explore the diverse energetic expressions of presence, uncovering how active and ethical presence can enrich each moment of contact.
Receptive: In gestalt therapy, being receptive means being more curious of our, and other peoples’, needs, fears and hopes and being better able to have meaningful relationships. It helps us tune into what is happening now, between us, and in this way fostering better senseof self in relationships. In gestalt we are inspired by the idea of 'dialogue' and the practices of presence, confirmation, inclusion and committent to dialogue.
In this workshop, we will explore the key tenets of dialogue, examining how curiosity can foster deeper modes of relating and the transformative power of differentiation in cultivating truly intimate relationships.
Choiceful means making better and more flexible decisions rather than reacting automatically from old patterns. Breaking relational habits leads us to be more creative in meeting the challenges of life. In gestalt we think about change in two ways, we will explore these in as an interplay. The first is through deepening awareness and experimentation. The second centres around the 'paradoxical theory of change', the idea we only change to become who we are, or by acceptance of life as it is.
In this workshop, we will explore the experience of change and our relationship with it. We will reflect on directed, goal-oriented change while also delving into the ‘wisdom’ of resistance. Additionally, we will examine how to engage with the impasse or ‘stuckness’ that resistance can bring.
Situated attends to the contextual nature of our experience. In gestalt therapy we must always pay attention to the multiple and interrelated spheres of influence on our experience, and the ways these factors support and limit us. Being situated supports us to be more curious about our lives and the lives of the people around us (and miles away).
In this workshop, we will explore the interconnectedness of our experiences with the world(s) we inhabit. Together, we will examine how adopting a contextual lens on human experience fosters humility and compassion. This shift in perspective moves our inquiry from “What’s wrong with me?” to “How does this make sense?”
Engaged: the idea behind engaged is a call to action. Therapy should equip us to relate better in every aspect of our lives, improving the quality of connection and deepening understanding and compassion for self and others. It might also call us to action and the become a part of local and global change. There is something radical in this approach to therapy, and it moves us from a model of individual health to one of supporting and enlivening engaged living with others.
In this workshop, we will explore personal development not only as an end in itself but as a way to build capacity for more meaningful relationships, healthier families, thriving workplaces, and stronger communities. This is a call to action—a reminder that care is a mutual interplay beautifully captured in this Buddhist idea: “Everything we do for ourselves, we do for others, and everything we do for others, we do for ourselves.”
Join us on this journey into greater presence, relational depth, and personal growth. Through 6 workshops, participants will explore the interconnectedness of experience, the wisdom of resistance, and the transformative power of curiosity and differentiation in relationships. Personal development is reimagined as a call to action—for building better relationships, families, communities, and workplaces—guided by the mutual interplay of care and compassion.
What can you expect from these workshops?
These experiential workshops will introduce some of the building blocks of relational gestalt and their role in personal development and therapy.
Each workshop is interactive. You will practise and apply the key concepts through pairs and small group activities. We will also introduce you to our inquiry-based teaching methodology.
Along the way, we will also explore some of the philosophical roots of gestalt theory and how they interplay to inform a holistic and compassionate approach to good living and health.
By the end of each workshop, you will know more about gestalt, how it informs therapy, how to apply presence and awareness in personal and professional contexts, the role of a gestalt therapist, and pathways to further learning.
Is this for me?
These evening workshops are designed for anyone interested in learning more about gestalt, whether it is to apply gestalt principles to your current work, personal life, or explore becoming a gestalt therapist.
Past workshop participants come from diverse professional backgrounds, including psychology, social work, youth work, counselling, occupational therapy, nursing, pastoral care, people management (HR), coaching, engineering, and consulting.
About your facilitator
Tony Jackson, Managing Director, Gestalt Centre
B.Theol, BA.Psych, GradDip.Counselling, AdvDip.Gestalt Therapy, GradDip.Supervision, M.GANZ
Tony is a psychotherapist, facilitator and coach with over 20 years of experience. Tony works with people to support resilience and wellbeing and helps them develop a sense of vitality and choice in their lives. He provides supervision for psychotherapists which assists them to deepen their own personal and professional capacities. Tony also provides training for individuals and groups that focuses on building responsiveness to individual and group needs in emergent situations.
About the Gestalt Centre
The Gestalt Centre is the heart of Melbourne’s Gestalt community. We offer a four-year psychotherapy training program through Gestalt Therapy Australia, staying true to the experiential roots of Gestalt while embracing cutting-edge developments in contemporary Gestalt thinking and practice worldwide.
We also operate ConnectGround, a community-based counselling and psychotherapy clinic. ConnectGround serves as both a training facility for psychotherapists and a provider of low-cost individual and group therapy for clients. The clinic emphasises the therapeutic relationship between client and therapist as a key support for building awareness and adaptability. Psychotherapy interns and volunteers gain valuable hands-on experience, enhancing their skills and professionalism through client work.
