The beginnings

In 1969 Dr. Walter Kempler visited New Zealand and presented the first taste of Gestalt Therapy to New Zealanders. This was followed some years later (1975) by Don Kapreick who, in Dunedin along with Peter McGeorge and Lewis Lowry, set up the Gestalt Associates, and the first training began in New Zealand. Don was responsible for bringing trainers from overseas; as a result, Dr.Jim Simkin, Savine Wisemann, Les Wyman and Dr. Fred Grosse presented Gestalt seminars and workshops here.

Dr Fred Grosse started in 1982 and has continued to return regularly to present Gestalt workshops throughout New Zealand. In 1990, with Anne Maclean, a Christchurch psychotherapist, the idea of a national training was floated and Dr Gill Caradoc-Davies, who had been a part of the Gestalt Associates for a period of time in the '80's, was invited to consider co-founding the Gestalt Institute of New Zealand with Fred and Anne. The support for such an institute was unequivocable. Thus, in 1991 the Gestalt Institute of New Zealand began its first full year with 38 trainees.

Today

The Institute continues to have 60-70 trainees New Zealand-wide in any one year.

The training has been accredited by the N.Z. Qualifications Authority and the Diploma is equivalent to undergraduate level. The Institute is based in Christchurch with teaching centres in Dunedin, Palmerston North, and Hamilton. The course is part- time and runs from 2 - 7 years, 5 on the average. Recognition is made of prior learning and promotion is based on competency. There are three 4-5 day workshops per year for all trainees and also local training groups fortnightly. Attention to personal development is emphasised throughout the training, and individual psychotherapy is a requirement.

Year one is devoted to personal work in a group setting with an introduction to Gestalt theory offered. Assignments deal with personal development. This year also enables trainees to be assessed for readiness to enter the training proper. Some people choose this year for personal work only with no intention to train.

Stage II - in three levels

Here training begins in earnest. Pre-requisites are at least a basic counselling training and study in human development. Co-requisite are bi-cultural awareness and evidence of attendance at Bi-cultural Development Workshops which honour the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Modules offered in Stage II are:

• Gestalt Psychotherapy Theory and practice
• Personal growth and development
• Professional practice and tradecraft
• Introduction to Psychodynamic psychotherapy
• Interface between Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (abnormal psychology)

Those wishing to graduate with a Diploma of Gestalt Psychotherapy are required to complete all five modules.

Faculty: Dr. Gill Caradoc-Davies, Dr Fred Grosse, Stephen Parkinson, Brenda Levien, Phillip McConkey, Jan Illingsworth, Margaret Bannister and Judith Challies

At the same time the Gestalt Institute of New Zealnad was set up, the Integrative Gestalt Centre also began a training programme in Christchurch. Gestalt therapists Rudolf Jarosewitsch and Sue Murray, and family therapist Herbert Wolpert, were the trainers. Around 40 people took part in the training and 6 completed the 4 year programme and graduated with a Diploma in Gestalt Therapy.

All graduates work successfully as Gestalt therapists in private practice or within organisations. Many of those who did not complete the training have incorporated Gestalt Therapy principles and practice into their lives and work.

At the end of 1995, after 5 years operation, the Integrative Gestalt Centre stopped offering the formal training programme. Sue Murray had left for London, to teach at the London Gestalt Centre, and Herbert Wolpert to Germany, to get involved in an Institute to train managers. Since 1994, Rudolf Jarosewitsch has been editing and publishing the Gestalt Dialogue, biannual newsletter for the wider Gestalt community. He is offering informal training through workshops throughout New Zealand. The students of both Institutes connected through the Gestalt Club.

This club was offered to anybody in the region interested in using the concepts of Gestalt therapy - in counselling, therapy, business, at home or at work. Anne Maclean and George Sweet started the club in 1994, seeing the group as a means of networking, exchanging ideas, meeting new people and continually presenting different aspects of Gestalt and other active process therapies.

The meetings are held for an hour and a half on the first Friday of each month at 5.30 p.m. and start with a cup of tea or coffee before an hour's presentation. There have been panel discussions, practitioners have present aspects of Gestalt, sociodrama, transpersonal dimensions of psychotherapy, children's therapy, adolescent issues, working with couples, and each end-of-year presentations from graduating students telling of their Gestalt journies. Attendance varies from a dozen or so to over thirty. There is also a place for people to put out information and material about their work for others to take away.

In 1994 Brigette Puls and Bernd Strueder, both of whom trained in Integrative Therapy / Gestalt Therapy at the Fritz Perls Institut in Germany, established The New Zealand Academy for Integrative Therapy/Gestalt Therapy (NAZAIT). The Academy offered training workshops with trainers from and in co-operation with the European Academy for Psychosocial Health (EAG) which evolved from the Fritz-Perls-Institut, Duesseldorf, Germany.

Workshops were offered 1994 and 1995 in Auckland.The founder of the Fritz Perls Institut, who also conceptualised his own approach "Integative Therapy", Professor Dr. Hilarion Petzold, visited New Zealand 1995, and he presented workshops and talks in Auckland and Christchurch.

Brigitte teaches at the AIT (Auckland Institute of Technology) in the Psychotherapy and Applied Psychology department which offers a module on Gestalt Therapy (2 years part time). She holds monthly NZAIT Forum meeting in Birkenhead, Auckland.

Anne Maclean
Brenda Levien
Rudolf Jarosewitsch

(Consult also Training, Gestalt Institutes)

Gestalt Therapy arrived in Australia around 1971. The University of New England at Armidale sponsored overseas leaders to come and introduce to their student body and the public at large the innovations in psychotherapy that were sweeping North America. Dr William Schutz introduced the "Esalen Spirit" to Armidale. Although he never acknowledged himself as a Gestalt therapist, Dr Schutz did demonstrate Gestalt Awareness techniques and methods in his encounter workshops at Armidale.

Patti Oliver-Nolan and Dick Armstrong, both clinical psychologists were the first Gestalt Therapists that established on-going training - Patti worked in Brisbane and Dick in Sydney and Melbourne. However, neither Patti nor Dick had any integrative training in Gestalt Therapy. The official beginning in training in Gestalt Therapy started in 1974 when Dr. James Oldham arrived from Toronto, Canada, having completed his 3 year training at the Gestalt Institute of Toronto. James, an Australian born psychiatrist, established a training institute in Melbourne and Perth.

In Brisbane, Patti Oliver-Nolan and a psychiatrist, Dr. Peter Mullholland, were conducting Gestalt groups based on their excitement and hungry reading of Perls' and Polsters' books. Finally, in 1976, both Peter and Patti went to the USA and participated in gestalt training courses offered by Drs. Miriam and Erving Polster in San Diego. For two years this Gestalt training group did not have a centre or a home base until Dr. Barry Blicharski, a psychiatrist who also had been involved in various gestalt workshops, established the Boundary Road Centre. The Centre was the hub of experiential psychotherapies for many years until Dr. Blicharski moved to Sydney, where he continued to promote Gestalt therapy and experiential therapy.

Before Barry left for Sydney, Yaro Starak arrived on the scene in 1978, Yaro was trained at the Gestalt Institute of Toronto and was a faculty member there for four years. He was in the same group as Dr. James Oldham. Yaro Starak, a lecturer in Social Work at the University of Queensland, established a formal three year training programme in Brisbane. The programme has successfully graduated Gestalt therapist for over 17 years.

In Sydney, Gestalt Therapy did not enjoy a good name due to a shortage of leaders that had the training, professional qualifications and the dedication to the art of Gestalt therapy. At Dr Blicharski's centre Gestalt Therapy took an important centre of the stage and a gestalt training programme developed which had a good reputation amongst the public. Today the Sydney Centre under Director Anna Bernet, a graduate from the Brisbane Gestalt Centre is expanding and promoting the training programmes at a rapid pace.

With Gestalt Training in Perth celebrating 15 years of activities, Melbourne 17 years, Queensland 17 years and Sydney 14 years Gestalt Therapy has clearly taken deep roots in the fertile soil of Australia.