“Being a student at GTA felt very much like being embedded in a community where personal growth and relational courage were valued and supported. Didactic teaching was kept to a minimum in favour of experiential learning, group process and practice dyads. The intensive weekends were experientially rich and personally demanding."
Student and alumni testimonials
“My experience in the training program was transformative. it continues to support me in personal and professional relationships and it has provided a richer way of interacting with people. In my personal life, the training program changed the way I am in the world, making me more reflective and conscious of why I choose things and why I am interested in pursuing certain things.
The group process work during the first two years was particularly important and supported me going into the practice work in the third and fourth years. My current level of solidity and confidence in my work comes from the graded learning process which enabled me to sit and practice in front of my peers in a grounded way, integrating feedback and reflecting on the work. Without the gestalt training I would not have been prepared for private practice.”
My experience of studying at GTA has been life-changing. I have made life-long friends and feel I have been enriched beyond learning facts or techniques.
The group process and experiential learning were the real standout. It increased my self-awareness and awareness of others in so many enriching ways.
The internship allowed the experiential process to go to another level. The supervision experience was excellent. The support that was provided while I had my training wheels on was excellent and the collegial experience with peers was very valuable."
“What stood out to me are the ways in which I learned about gestalt therapy. My entry point into studying psychology and psychotherapy had been mainly reading and writing, but this way of learning, though an important part of it, was not a major focus of the course.
As a Gestalt student, I saw that I needed to explore, understand and inhabit my experience more fully – particularly in relation to other people and the world around me – in order to grasp what gestalt therapy is about. This is how the course is set up.
Though the student group process was not group therapy, we were encouraged to engage with one another (and the faculty) deeply, and this kind of learning was invaluable, even though it was confusing and challenging at times. We were also required to undergo individual therapy (with a gestalt therapist) – which I feel is essential in learning to become a therapist – and this helped me both personally and academically throughout the training.“
