Overview

It is perhaps the erotic that keeps clients coming back to therapy; the sense, however tremulous, that something else is possible, the disruption of 'business as usual', the hope for connection to something of substance, that thing that makes the heart sing with joy. Rarely is this longing explicit, but I believe it underpins what compels many towards therapy and perhaps represents a reach for the last fragile threads of hope in an otherwise despairing world. It is what we most need, and of what we are most afraid.

But this longing for the enlivening energy that wakes us from the ordinariness of our lives is a tender and delicate thing. This engagement with the erotic stirs our creativity, calling us into a recognition of what is most important. But it does so against the ordinariness of humanity, our stories of loss, harm and grief, and in a world that tangles ideas of romantic love with authentic intimacy. Pleasure and sex exist in a toxic morass of negativity, objectification, attachment, and commodification.

About the facilitator:

Dr Leanne O’Shea is a psychotherapist, supervisor, and educator. She studied the gestalt approach in Melbourne and London. In addition to her private practice work, she holds a number of teaching positions, including the Director of Training at Gestalt Therapy Australia. She is a faculty member with Gestalt Therapy Brisbane, and an Associate with Relational Change in the UK. She is interested in creating greater awareness of and sensitivity to our relational responsibility and is particularly passionate about the place of sexuality and the erotic within the therapeutic relationship.

Overview

In Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, Fritz Perls spoke not only about ambivalence as a core part of the human experience, but also about the central importance of being able to express our feelings of appreciation and resentment towards others – especially those who are important to us. In this workshop, we will first introduce our Four Dialogues Model of Chairwork Psychotherapy. We will then specifically focus on the Vector Dialogue Structure – which is an elegant and profound way of working through complex emotions in a safe way. After doing a demonstration, we will invite the participants to form small groups and to role-play and practice this approach using their own experiences or patient material; we will then debrief the experience. If there is any time remaining, we will do some case consultations.

About the presenters:

Scott Kellogg, PhD, is the author of Transformational Chairwork: Using Psychotherapeutic Dialogues in Clinical Practice (2015, Rowman & Littlefield). He is a former Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at New York University and a Past-President of Division of Addictions of the New York State Psychological Association. An ISST-certified Advanced Schema Therapist, he has also trained in Gestalt Therapy and Voice Dialogue. Dr. Kellogg currently runs a Chairwork-centered private practice in New York City. Through the Transformational Chairwork Psychotherapy Project, he has taught this method of psychotherapeutic dialogue to practitioners in the United States and abroad. Website: www.transformationalchairwork.com. 

Amanda Garcia Torres, LMHC, is a certified Chairwork Psychotherapist and Co-Director at the Transformational Chairwork Psychotherapy Project. Ms. Garcia Torres received her Master’s Degree in Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness from New York University and has also completed training in Voice Dialogue. She began her journey with TCPP in 2013 and has trained clinicians in NYC and internationally for four years. Her presentations and writings have addressed topics including Chairwork, trauma, social justice, and identity issues. Ms. Garcia Torres is in private practice at Chairwork Therapy NYC. Website: https://chairworktherapynyc.com/.

Overview

Does the idea of working with physical conditions in the therapy room fill you with dread? Do you avoid engaging directly with your client’s fibromyalgia, back pain, migraine or fatigue, believing that you can only work with the emotional suffering they produce?

Many psychotherapists are reluctant to address their clients’ physical symptoms or diagnoses, believing them to be beyond the scope of our practice. Yet persistent physical health conditions without clear long-term outcomes are on the rise. If we aspire to working with the whole person in therapy, we need to be ready to engage robustly with physical suffering – and take seriously our role in potential recovery.

This workshop looks at a new paradigm for working with chronic pain, advocating for the role we therapists can play in helping clients recover from, not just live with, distressing physical symptoms. Come and explore the meaning of pain through the lenses of modern pain science and gestalt therapy, learn why there is hope for recovery and experiment with how to befriend and engage with physical symptoms in the therapeutic process.

About the facilitator:

Gina Denholm is a psychotherapist in private practice in Brunswick West, VIC. She has a special interest in exploring chronic pain and illness through a Gestalt lens. In her practice, she draws on body process and parts work to help people befriend, make meaning of and often recover from physical symptoms in the context of their broader life concerns.