The Training is a three-year program structured around a combination of evening sessions and daylong and weekend workshops starting in the fall and ending in late spring. Three weekend workshops are required per year and additional, optional workshops are offered.
Faculty closely monitors and guides the group and its members through their training experience. Part of this process involves formal evaluation and feedback of supervised on-going therapeutic work. This process ensures attainment of the program’s goals by each trainee before advancement to a higher level of training.
First Year
The first year of study is an introduction to the theory and application of Gestalt process. Students learn the value of contact, the Cycle of Organismic Self-Regulation and the six basic resistances to contact. Role-play is utilized as students assume the role of client in one-on-one Gestalt work with the staff serving as clinician. Students receive feedback and discussion of their work based on observation. Staff functions as facilitators and supervisors in teaching the language of responsibility, the use of dialogue, the concept of unfinished business and the fundamentals of creating exact moments of healing. Films and special lectures supplement the regular class work.
Second Year
During the second year, students expand their academic understanding of Gestalt principals through more challenging readings, lectures and written assignments, with special emphasis placed on the body and group process skills. Students learn the value of Gestalt technique by working as facilitator in one-on-one and group settings, with fellow students acting as clients. Close clinical supervision by the staff is provided. Students expand their knowledge of group process by designing and facilitating a weekend workshop for the first year students under staff guidance.
The Pennsylvania Gestalt Center is distinguished by its uniquely creative and supportive approach to psychotherapy, its therapeutic use of music and an emphasis on the inclusion of the power of love and faith and their concomitant effects on healing. A major focus is placed on the appreciation and enhancement of each individual person-client or trainee.
Third Year
Students will learn more advanced intervention and clinical skills, reach deeper levels of understanding of human process and problem solving, and expand their capacity to sustain ongoing personal and therapeutic relationships. Students are encouraged to develop and refine their own use of Gestalt principals that enhance daily living and are expected to apply them to their own profession and life.
Fee
Each year of training is $2,650. Weekend workshops as part of the program are offered to our students at our cost. Currently the student rate is $300 per weekend.
Application
Please submit a written statement of your interest in Gestalt therapy and your reasons for wanting to join the Training Program, along with a resume. An $85 application fee covers the cost of processing the application and a personal interview with one of our staff.
Mail the registration form and written statement to:
The Pennsylvania Gestalt Center
1434 Tree Line Drive
Malvern, PA 19355
Or call 610-251-0945 for further information on this special program.
Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) are available. Please call the office at 610-251-0945 for details.