October 1-4, 1998
Santa Flavia (Palermo, Italy)

The meeting of the European Gestalt Community is an opportunity for a hermeneutic exchange between the intuitions and the clinical practice of the Founders, and the current proposals for a redefinition of the human condition which are emerging as the end of the millennium approaches (and however unreal a 'deadline' the year 2000 may be, it nevertheless carries a certain evocative significance).

There have been changes in the paradigms of thought, disturbances and readjustements in society, and these, together with the as yet not fully explored theoretical and clinical resources of Gestalt Therapy, demand that the 6th European Conference lay stress on the clinical work performed at international level in the various fields of application, and that it look closely into the "political" recognition of our approach in the various countries of Europe. This will aid colleagues to exchange their views and will help us to form an ever-clearer picture of the professional identity of Gestalt therapists in the world of psychotherapy.

The setting for the Conference is to be in the heart of the "Mare Nostrum", the Mediterranean: we shall be meeting in Palermo, by a fabulous sea, on fertile soil, rich in vegetation, where the different cultures - Greek and Arab, Norman and Sicilian, Roman and Phoenician - come together in a symphony of contrasts and harmonies, of strong colours and strong emotions. The hotel and Congress Centre where we will be accomodated is on the coast, 15 minutes drive from Palermo.

SOME BACKGROUND:

The Australian and New Zealand Gestalt therapy community has been growing steadily since the early 1980's, so that now there are over a dozen training institutes and hundreds of trained practitioners and trainees. This has happened in largely isolated pockets. In an initial endeavour to promote more dialogue and connectedness between us, a special conference of representatives of all training institutes was arranged in November 1996 in Sydney, followed by another conference in Melbourne in June 1997. A number of important decisions came out of these meetings. One was to look at the possibility of forming a national association for Gestalt therapy and practice and setting minimum standards of training. There has been a great deal of interest nationally in this idea, so that it has been decided to go ahead with this proposal,with a committee currently formulating a provisional constitution. Another decision was to hold annual conference for all interested parties. The West Australian delegates were asked to organize the first such conference in September 1998, with Zish Ziembinski as the convenor. It is planned that future conferences will be offered on a rotating basis, with New Zealand being the venue for the 1999 conference. As a result of this decision, a conference management committee has been formed in West Australia to start planning and organizing the 1998 conference.

So far the organizing committee has completed two tasks. Firstly, it has looked at all possible venues in Perth for aconference and then booked a venue. Secondly, it has prepared a questionaire re the possible content and specific details of the proposed conference. This questionaire has being distributed nationally. The outcome is that there is a greatl deal of interest in the proposed conference, and the prospective attendees want a mixture of formal papers and mini-wokshops with specific themes.

We expect between 100 and 200 participants at the Perth conference. As well as offering a very high standard of presentations, we want the conference to be an occasion for all of us to thoroughly enjoy ourselves and establish strong personal ties between each other.

CONFERENCE DETAILS:

Place: The Esplanade Hotel, Fremantle, West Australia

When: Registration: 7.00pm to 9.00pm on Thursday, 10 September1998
Conference Proper (three days):From Friday, 11 September to Sunday, 13 September

Setting: The chosen venue is a four star colonial stylehotel/convention centre, centrally located in the port of Fremantle and overlooking the "Fisherman's Harbour". Fremantle is a beautiful and charming port/city, with a distinctly "Victorian Era" feel about it. It has numerous cafes, restaraunts, craft houses and museums, within easy walking distance to the Esplanade Hotel. The port is 25 minutes from the city of Perth, and is also close to beaches and the Swan River. It is considered one of Perth's premier attractions.

Registration Fee: Yet to be determined.

Format: At this stage the organizing committee is thinking along the lines of:

Accommodation: Participants can stay at the Esplanade Hotel at a special negotiated rate of $135 per twin room. Fremantle also has a number of character guest houses that offer first class accommodation at affordable rates, within walking distance to the conference venue. Water front three bedroom luxury appartments are also available for about $180 per night, right in the "Fisherman's Harbour". As well, some people attending may prefer to be billetted. Full details of accommodation will be made available at a later stage.

CALL FOR PAPERS AND WORKSHOP PRESENTATIONS:

If you are interested in either presenting a formal paper or a workshop (over one, two, or three days) with a specific theme, please contact the conference convenor (see below) as soon as possible for further details. You will need to submit a detailed summary of your paper/workshop for peer review and selection by 15 December 1997 at the latest.

PARTICIPATION IN THIS CONFERENCE

Anyone with a professional interest in the practice and theory of Gestalt Therapy is welcome to attend this conference. If you would like to receive a brochure with full details about the conference, please contact the conference convenor to register.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Zish Ziembinski, Conference Convenor, Suite Four, 131 Rokeby Road, Subiaco, 6008
Telephone & Fax: (08) 93888890. E-Mail:zishziem@cygnus.uwa.edu.au

Continue the elaboration and development of the theory and practice of Gestalt therpay. Explore the approaches of New York and Italy through demonstrations, experiments, process groups, and discussions of theory.

Join us at Saturday night's dinner dance celebrating the 45th anniversary of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy and Richard Kitzler's 70th birthday.

Frederic Perls, Lore Perls, and Paul Goodman attracted a group of intellectuals, artists, and pioneering experimental therapists who together formed the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy in 1952. Richard Kitzler, one of the original students, has had a unique opportunity in helping to shape the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy. His contribution to the development of the Institute and teaching of Gestalt therapy is beyond measure. This conference is a tribute to his ongoing efforts and success in keeping Gestalt therapy a lively evolving and well-grounded force.

Conference Schedule: Friday Evening, 11/7/97 7:00 pm Registration 7:45 pm Welcome 8:00 pm Field: Carl Hodges 8:15 pm Contacting: Lee Zevy 8:30 pm Process Groups 9:30 pm Large Group 10:00 pm Cocktail Party (Cash Bar) Saturday, 11/8/97 8:00 am Registration 9:00 am Breakfast in Process Groups* 10:00 am Self, Structuring/Functioning: Dan Bloom 10:15 am Self and Egotism: Ken Meyer 10:30 am Process Groups* 11:30 am Diagnosis and Evaluation: Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, Giovanni Salonia 12:30 pm, Lunch (on your own) 2:00 pm Demonstration, Diagnosis and Evaluation: Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, Giovanni Salonia 2:30 pm New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy: Response 3:00 pm Process Groups* 4:00 - 5:00 pm Large Group 8:00 pm, Dinner Dance Celebration of Anniversay and Richard Kitzler's Birthday (separate registration required, black tie optional)

Registrattion Form: Please download, type or print, and then send in. Date: Name: Address: City: State: Zip: Voice number: ( include area code): Fax number: Email Address: Institute or School Affiliation: Conference Fees: Early Registration (by Oct. 10, 1997) $225/ person x _________ = $ ________ After Oct 10, 1997 $250/ person x _________ = $ ________ Dinner Dance $85/ person x _________ = $ ________ Scholarship Fund Contribution = $_________ Total Enclosed $___________ Make checks payable to The New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy. Send to: The New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy Box 238 Old Chelsea Station New York, NY 10011     *Our process groups are an evolving New York Institute model of Gestalt group theory and provide a unique conference experience. In contacting, destructuring, and grouping, each person enters a co-creative process. Each of us is changed by and changes the conference as a whole.

Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb and Giovanni Salonia, psychologists, are co-directors of the Instituto di Gestalt (H.H.C.), a large and influential training institute in Italy with approximately 500 students enrolled annually. They teach regularly in several Italian cities and in Germany. Dr. Lobb is president of the European Association for Gestalt Therapy. Over the years, in an effort to present an all-around view to their students, they have invited guest teachers from several institutes in the U.S., including the New York Institute.

Subthemes:

• Learning from our differences within the world of Gestalt
• The interface of different cultures & populations with Gestalt
• Applications of Gestalt in the world
• Gestalt in organizations: a worldwide perspective

Brief Description:

• 50 Presentations by Gestalt colleagues from around the world: panels, experiential workshops, theoretical and clinical presentations, video demonstrations, discussion groups. Prior to blind peer review selection, 78 proposals have been received from 12 different countries. The final selection and roster of presentations will be available in the next issue of Gestalt!
• Process Groups
• Special Events:
  • Community Luncheon
  • Interest Group Luncheon
  • Thursday night welcome reception
  • Saturday cocktail party at Gestalt Institute of Cleveland
  • Saturday dinner/dance at the Crawford Auto Museum (not included in the conference fee)
    

AAGT is very pleased to invite you to its 3rd Annual International Gestalt Therapy Conference at the Sheraton Cleveland City Centre Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio USA. Be sure to hold the dates of June 3-7 1997. On Wednesday & Thursday, June 3 & 4, AAGT will hold its annual community meeting-an expanded time to discuss issues within the Gestalt community and attend to AAGT business. All are welcome. On Thursday evening, the conference will begin with an exciting program being planned by the Program Committee. The peer review process has been re-designed to ease the submission process and insure the increased quality of the 50 offerings by presenters from around the world. Many of the elements that have made our first two conferences so successful will continue: Process Groups, luncheons, and special events. We look forward to receiving your proposals for presentations and hope that you will all join us for another warm and stimulating conference.

About Cleveland

On a 20 minute ride from the airport, the downtown skyline pops up on the horizon. It's not Paris; it's not London or San Francisco. It's Cleveland...a "lovely little city on the Lake" and the Sheraton City Centre Hotel, where the AAGT Conference will be held, is a modern hotel right in its center....

• ...near the Arcade (an 1890 historic architectural wonder with speciality shops & restaurants)
• ...Tower City Center blending shopping, fine and casual fining, entertainment surrounding a completely modernized commuter rail station-you can catch the train from the airport for under $2.00
• ...half a block from the Galleria (a two-storied glass-canopied shopping area with specialty stores and restaurants)
• ...3 blocks from the waterfront where you can re-experience the musical era of the 60's and 70's at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Great Lakes Science Center with its Omnimax theatre and the Steamship William G Mather Museum (an old 650 foot Lake Erie Freighter docked at the pier).
• ...about 8 blocks to Jacobs Field (home of the Indians Baseball Team)
• ...9 blocks from "The Flats" an area along the Cuyahoga River that reminds me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans-lots of good food and wonderful music.

Cleveland is filled with sculptures. Wander through the small parks and see a statue of Jesse Owens (the Olympic medalist), visit the monument to peace and see the marvelous mixture of architecture, old and new. At University Circle on the east side of Cleveland you can visit Severance Hall, home of the world-famous Cleveland Orchestra, the Botanical Gardens, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, a world famous collection representing all cultures and periods including works by Rubins, Monet and Picasso.

The weather in same June is fabulous. Sunny, a perfect temperature, a breeze off Lake Erie and a few white clouds to let you know how blue the sky can be.

With its big lobby with lots of places to sit and chat and Starbucks coffee, the Sheraton will be a wonderful hotel for our conference. The conference will be held on the 6th & 7th floors is fully equipped conference center. The built in registration area provides plenty of space for all the pre-function activities and is adjacent to the Grand Ballroom where we will hold our plenary sessions. There are additional breakouts on the 7th floor and 10 more breakouts for process groups (20 in all) in the Junior Suites on floors above. There is an exercise room and pleasant running along the waterfront. In addition, we have reserved a room on the lobby level for any activities such as yoga, stretching, tai chi, etc.

We are planning a fun and exciting Saturday night event in the Case Western Reserve area of Cleveland. The Gestalt Institute of Cleveland has graciously offered to welcome AAGT and conference participants by sponsoring an informal cocktail party at their Institute. After the party, just a short walk down a tree lined street and across from the botanical gardens, we will dine and dance among 200 rare vehicles...old automobiles and airplanes. Veronica reported that GIC will sponsor the cocktail party, payment for the museum, and transportation for participants to and from the Sheraton. The dinner/dance will be optional and we encourage everyone can attend.

Cleveland - the Mistake on the Lake! Cleveland - the city whose river burned and whose mayor set his hair on fire! These were the reactions I heard when people in California, where I had just moved, found out that I was from Cleveland. Nothing that I said seemed to alter their attitude that Cleveland was a joke; not when I spoke about the world-class symphony orchestra, the fine museums and innovative theater, the wonderful series of expansive public parks that ringed the city called "the emerald necklace," the ease of getting around as well as the fascinating old ethnic neighborhoods where sounds of Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Bohemian, Spanish, Yiddish, and many other languages could still be heard and the aromas from wonderful ethnic restaurants could be snifted.

This was sixteen years ago and Cleveland is no longer a joke! Energetic mayors have encouraged new developments in the downtown area, a miraculous rebirth of the old neighborhood called "the flats" that borders the now revived river, the state-of-the-art baseball and basketball stadiums, Jacobs Field and Fund Arena and the fascinating famous Rock and Roll Museum. All that and much more! Cleveland has even become a gourmet's paradise, according to a recent article in HEMISPHERE, the United Airlines magazine. It is a lovely, very green city: old sycamore and elm trees line its streets and lush lawns are everywhere, rhodedendrons and lilacs abound in the spring and dahlias and chrysanthemums in the fall. I will always love Cleveland, wherever else I live, and I am overjoyed to welcome AAGT with open arms to my hometown.

Isabel Fredericson
Co-chair, Program Committee
AAGT's 3rd International Gestalt Therapy Conference

In March of 1998 Carol Swanson and Maya Brand will take a small group of people to Provence in the South of France. This area is filled with the fragrance of Rosemary and Lavender, full of ancient history, wonderful street markets and the heart of the art of Monet, Van Gogh, and Cezanne, to name but a few.

Here, on an estate that will house only 16 of us, we will do a 2 week training program. We intend this training to nurture the mind and the spirit. We have incorporated time for reflection and assimilation, exploration and creation - all in the context of discovering the richness of Gestalt Therapy theory. All training will be conducted in English.

PGTTI will provide accommodation, food (limited to breakfast on non-training days) and training. Participants will share the food preparation and "clean up". (We are negotiating the possibility of a Chef to prepare dinners for the group) There are no private accommodations, rooms will be shared with at least one other participant. Couples will be given their own rooms.

To reserve your place, contact Portland Gestalt Therapy Training Institute. A non-refundable deposit of $100 is required to reserve your place in this special workshop. Group size is limited to twelve participants as we must reserve the locale well in advance.