When, several months ago, I was asked to make a contribution to the electronic Gestalt journal, a whole flux of ideas describing my experience with the European Summer Residential Gestalt Therapy Training from various angles circulated my head, but I was not completely satisfied with any of them. Yet later on, one particular point of view was gradually emerging in the foreground so persistently that it became a quite clear figure – relating my personal experience with this training to the overall situation in my country, i. e. to the wider political and cultural context.
To start with I would like to present a brief excursion into the history of my relationship with the Gestalt therapy. Up to 1991 I had known very little about this therapeutic approach. My only sources were a few articles in the official textbooks which described the dramatic style of the Gestalt therapy of the 1960s and a workshop presented by a therapist who demonstrated Gestalt in the same dramatic and manipulative way he witnessed when visiting the USA in 1968.
In the spring of 1989, one of my friends, a Slovak psychotherapist, Tono Polák, was fed up with the communist system and left the country. While staying in the camp for emigrants in Austria, a U.K. gestalt therapist Richard Evans learned about him and generously offered to sponsor his participation at the European Summer Residential Gestalt Therapy Training organized that year (1990) in Italy. It was a historically first encounter of a Czechoslovak psychotherapist with the modern dialogical Gestalt therapy presented by the L. A. therapists (GTILA).
While in Italy, Tono invited Rita and Bob Resnick and Todd Burley to organize a workshop in the Czech and Slovak Republics. It took place in spring 1991 and we were all fascinated. Rita, Bob and Todd were also so generous as to offer some of us a participation in the Summer Residentials under conditions that were acceptable even for us coming from economically rather poor circumstances/background. Since then we have attended hundreds of hours of training in the course of Summer Residentials. I have not missed a single one, thus taking part in ten of them up to 2000.
The same year 1991 Tono Polák attended a Gestalt therapy workshop in the Metanoia Institute in London. There he met Tali Levine and out of this encounter and again owing to the generous support by Richard Evans a systematic training in GT lasting for over eight years has developed. Thanks to the devoted and amazing effort of Tali Levine from Israel, Jay Levin from South Africa, and Caro Kelly and Christine Sherman from the U.K. I am one of the 12 Czech and Slovak Gestalt therapists who obtained the U. K. GPTI diploma.
Both these trainings – GATLA and Metanoia – bore 2 new GT training institutes – both named "Dialogue" Institutes in the Czech and Slovak Republics. At present, in both of them there are two training courses in progress attended by approximately 50 participants, and new trainings will be launched soon.
These were just few facts illustrating how our training institutes started operating and how the GT began to spread in the Czech and Slovak Republics. It is evident that the Summer Residentials are one of the two sources from which the local Gestalt therapy has stemmed. These facts are far too brief and do not depict adequately the complicated field that the Gestalt therapy has entered in this country, which is exactly what I would like to deal with in the following part of my report. From the view point of my personal experience I would like to describe how the ideas and principles of the Gestalt therapy have penetrated my formerly entirely different phenomenology.
My very first participation in the 1991 Summer Residential in Yenne (France) was a considerable cultural shock for me. Meeting so many people from all over the world confronted me with multicultural experience I had never encountered before, since I came from a small, and due to the communist regime isolated country. Above all, the Gestalt therapy seemed to respond to the new questions that I asked myself in my private, public and professional life – questions that were brought about by the new era, the new post-revolution political and cultural milieu.
I came to Yenne from a country which, at the beginning of the 1990s, was full of conflicts. Our old, deeply rooted stereotypes clashed with the new possibilities of a free society. We had certain notions concerning the way how a free and democratic society should function, but they were rather dreams than realistically based plans.
The communistic introjects were trying to manipulate us for forty years using words like: “The society means more than an individual, an individual is not worth anything. If you violate the confluence of the whole, if you display your opinion, you will suffer in isolation. If you leave your decision up to the community, it will take care of you, you will not starve, you will get a job and you will get as much as the others… Nobody should be different, nobody should get more or should be more talented…”
Our reactions to these introjects used to be self-imposed rules such as: “You must be very careful about the opinions of other people concerning you, you should be rather conspicuous, you should watch out whether they are not watching you, you should not trust anybody… Hide in your privacy, do not bother about others! Try to outwit them all, prey on the system that preys on you…“
The ideas about democracy and freedom often took the form of: “A democratic society means an absolute freedom, the market will provide for everything, there is no longer any need to pay attention to others. The stronger and the more able will be the winners. Those not capable of looking after themselves have not much value…”
In addition to my personal processes the Gestalt therapy has helped me realize how deeply I had been influenced by this cultural context, enabled me to understand how the conflicts described above acted also in me. The Gestalt has thus opened a new dimension not only in my psychotherapeutic practice, but, above all, it offered a new perspective, new way of thinking, new path I was looking for.
The phenomenological point of view illuminated how thoroughly entangled we are in our interpretations and how little we realize what we actually experience. How the stereotype introjections and projections determine our behaviour and distort genuine contact and dialogue in the society. How the figures of our present perception are deeply influenced by our social, cultural and historical ground.
The field theory has enabled me to see how the particular phenomena in the society are tied together and how they mutually influence each other in time and space. I became aware of the fact that to move freely in the field also entails assuming responsibility for the way I influence the field. This insight led directly to the appraisal of the significance of the dialogue – the need for dialogical relationships within the field.
I have always been very sensitive to all manifestations of intolerance, yet thanks to the Gestalt theory I grasped the roots of the xenophobic mood in the post-communist society. A long-term pressure in the direction of confluence, minimizing all differences within the society and – last but not least – many years of successful isolation of this country from any experience with foreign influence has borne ominous consequences. I have been deeply touched by the way how in the course of the Summer Residentials the multicultural varieties are consistently appreciated and the diversity of each individual is respected. For me it represents actual living Gestalt in practice.
I could go on discussing the significance of the concept of support and self-support or talk about the relevance of organismic self-regulation or analyze the still very imperfect dialogical processes in our society in more detail. Yet I suppose that even such a simplified insight as this one could indicate how important and influential the encounter with the Gestalt therapy and therapists was for me. And I would expect that the reactions of a number of other people coming from similar fields would probably be very similar to mine.
Finally, I would like to mention in a few words what I consider to be the main contributions of the thirty years of endeavor pursued by the Los Angeles group headed by Rita and Bob Resnick and Todd Burley who set their goal at spreading the ideas and art of the Gestalt therapy all over the world. To do it justice I would need many words and probably several articles, but I will try to be very brief.
In the field of the psychotherapeutic training the people coming to the Summer Residentials learn not only the principles of Gestalt therapy but primarily a new way of thinking. For those who – like for example me – are coming with the theoretical background influenced by the dynamic psychotherapy mixed with cognitive behavioral elements, the holistic and phenomenological way of thinking is something entirely new. In addition to that, the GATLA team keeps up with modern neuroscience, so I would not hesitate about calling the Summer Residentials “a space for developing the mind“. A significant factor, of course, is that the teaching of theory stems from its practical experiencing in all possible roles – as a patient, therapist, observer, supervisor, trainer.
No less important asset of the Summer Residentials is what I have already described above as my personal experience. I privately call this training “a space where one can learn how to live in democracy and how to live in freedom“. If, as the next very important result of the training organized by GATLA, I mention it’s contribution to the foundation of Gestalt Institutes and Gestalt trainings all over the world and particularly in the Czech and Slovak Republics and other post-communist countries, then I mean not only the significance in spreading the Gestalt as a psychotherapeutic method, but also the political and social impact.
Another reason why I appreciate the training within the Summer Residentials and why I keep returning to the point is its support and contribution to the cultural variety. Annual meetings of people from all over the world and their mutual relationships are a living proof of the idea that where diversity is accepted, there is contact. The fact that it is not only my experience is proved by the existence of the large Gestalt family constituted by many graduates of the Summer Residentials who tend to come back and meet each other.
And last but not least I would like to mention one lesson I learned from my experience with the gestalt therapists. It was learning the lesson of generosity from all those, who enabled our training – both GATLA people and Metanoia people. They taught me a significant attribute of a real dialogical relationship: the pleasure of “giving and getting“.
The GATLA summer residential is much more than an excuse to miss out on part of the Oz winter, and get another T-shirt. Much more than an opportunity to connect and re-connect with colleagues who have become friends and who come from all corners of the globe - through sharing meals, bar chats, musical evenings under the stars, jaunts to local places of historic or scenic interest. Even more than an opportunity to get away from the office and have food given to me that I don't have to cook!
The actual training bit is excellent. The design of the program, interweaving therapist, client, and supervisor roles from different training groups appeals to me. The faculty are highly skilled and supportive practitioners, teachers and mentors, and I have expanded my knowledge and understanding of Gestalt theory and practice through attending three programs so far. With mini-lectures in the day, presentations by staff, participants, and visitors in the evenings, optional workshops on writing, the experience is a rich tapestry. Taking the assessment process is also a valuable process - mainly in learning anxiety management!
An unexpected learning came from working with people for whom English is a second or even third language. The effect is to bring to the therapeutic process a focus on clarity and simplicity of expression, on careful listening, observing of non-verbals, and led to an appreciation of the core issues of humanity across cutural differences. For me, Oz as the 'lucky country' gained new meaning. My own personal growth has been nurtured in the process, and my teaching has benefited greatly. I'll be back.
I am a clinical psychologist from Turkey. I started my Gestalt Therapy training in UK at Metanoia Institute. Todd Buttler, who was one of the tutors of Metanoia and my supervisor in 1995, recommended me to attend to the summer residential training workshops of GATLA and gave me the corresponding adress.
I was very hesitant and shy to apply for such a programme because of economic reasons and I was very scared of its being international and crowded. But then I decided to write and learn the details of the residential programme and I am very content now that I did it. I can never forget my first residential training in Spain in 1996. I not only had a wonderful and satisfactory training but I met such beautiful persons from different parts of the world who support me in many different ways. I especially never forget my roommates from Brazilia and Norwey with whom I shared a lot and my therapist Liv Estrup who helped me to make contact with my childhood experiences the first time in my life.
When I came back to my country I was so impressed by the training that I began to tell about it to my colleques but I was feeling a little bit lonely as at that times there were almost no therapists in my country who had Gestalt Therapy training. So although they tried to share and understand my excitement about Gestalt and summer residential training something was missing. It was the first time that I seriously began to think about what can I do to start Gestalt Therapy training in my country.
Next year I went to Belgium summer residential training which I was looking forward inpatiently through the whole year. It was also very satisfactory but after the first years excitement and perhaps because of my private situation I realized the cultural diversities as well as the commonalities, more. Although I found it a little bit difficult to tolerate the diversities it made me to be more aware of my need to be “confluent”. I heard about the AAGT the first time in that residential and had great support from different people to think about running a workshop in the next AAGT conference. Although I was so scared even thinking about it, I decided to take a risk and was accepted to run a workshop first in Third Annual International Gestalt Conference in Clevaland in 1998 and then in Fourth Annual International Conference in New York in 1999. Meanwhile I never forget the people who shared my worries about starting Gestalt Therapy training in my country and not hesitate to offer both personal and proffessional help. I am very grateful for it to all of therm.
In my third summer residential training in France, I was very happy to be with a colleque who started her Gestalt therapy training in Turkey. Now, in the end we founded our Turkish Gestalt Therapy Association and we have more than 30 trainees. I would really like to thank Rita and Bob Resnick, and Todd Burley for organizing summer residential workshops in Euorope (which is much easier to afford for me) and also accepting me in every sense. I learned a lot from them both personally and professionally to a great extend. I am greatful to them for giving the courage and support I need for starting the Gestalt training in Turkey and also giving me the opportunity to meet wonderful people from all over the world. Although we are very “young” and inexperienced as a figure in our Gestalt therapy training experience, we are honoured to have GATLA summer residential training experience as a very “old” and experienced ground.
