Gestalt International Study Center

1035 Cemetery Road, P.O. Box 515, South Wellfleet, MA 02663

Phone: +1 508 349 7900

Conversations with Clinicians

Life and Practice Through a Gestalt Lens

Free live-online series

The Gestalt International Study Center’s (GISC) approach to clinical practice embraces traditional Gestalt theory while amplifying it with our unique approach, known as the Cape Cod Model. This free series will provide a deeper understanding of concepts such as contact, paradoxical theory of change, polarities, engaging resistance, and self-regulation as ways of engaging clients for growth and development. Clinicians working with individuals, couples, and families will have the opportunity to learn experientially and didactically in the series.

These sessions are free but you must register in advance. Each session meets from 12:00PM-1:00PM Eastern.

Session 4: Engaging Resistance When the Work Feels Difficult

Friday, March 7, 2025 with Stuart Simon, LICSW, MCC.

April - Spring Break!

Session 5: Hope in Hard Times

Friday, May 2, 2025 with Renya Larson, MA, LMSW, PCC, and Spencer Melnick, LCSW

Session 6: What Happened to You?

Friday, June 6, 2025 with Carol Brockmon, MSW, and Pamela Freeman, MSW, LCSW

Additional sessions to be announced.

Throughout this series you will:

Raise awareness of key Gestalt concepts and their clinical applications.
Cultivate an ability to see how to apply these concepts in practice with a client or client system.
Develop an understanding of how these concepts contribute to the Cape Cod Model.

SHARE WITH A COLLEAGUE

Participants

While this free series is designed for clinicians practicing psychotherapy or those studying to be clinicians, all members of the GISC community are welcome to attend.

Continuing Education

NASW-MA: Application for social work continuing education credits has been submitted. Please contact the GISC Office at office@gisc.org for the status of social work CE accreditation.

MaMHCA: Application for MaMHCA/MCEAP continuing education credits has been submitted. Please contact us at office@gisc.org for the status of CE's for LMHCs.

Session 4: Engaging Resistance When the Work Feels Difficult

Faculty: Stuart Simon, LICSW, MCC

Date: Friday, March 7, 2025

Often when therapists encounter resistance they see it as a problem to be solved or an issue to be resolved. From a Gestalt perspective, we look at resistance as opportunities for engagement, building awareness, and encouraging potential growth and development. In this session, we hope that participants will bring some examples of resistance from their practices for reflection and learning.

Session 5: Hope in Hard Times

Faculty: Renya Larson, MA, LMSW, PCC, and Spencer Melnick, LCSW

Date: Friday, May 2, 2025

As clinicians, we have all encountered clients who seem to have given up hope. How do we best support clients in these moments? We will begin our exploration of this question by reflecting on our own experiences. Indeed, we are all living in the world during a time of tremendous challenge. What personal relationship does each of us have with hope, and with hopelessness? How do we support ourselves (and our clients) with acknowledging realities we cannot change while still marshaling the energy we need to move forward? In addition to sharing our own experiences and creating space for participants to do the same, we will introduce the Gestalt concepts of Polarities and the Cycle of Experience and discuss how these concepts can help us (and our clients) navigate hope and hopelessness in times of challenge.

Session 6: What Happened to You?

Faculty: Carol Brockmon, MSW, and Pamela Freeman, MSW, LCSW

Date: Friday, June 6, 2025

Our clients and client systems are affected by trauma that exists at every level of system. There are trauma-inducing power structures, work situations, race and class issues and oppressions, gaps in opportunity, and intersectionalities, subjecting some groups and individuals to multiple forms of trauma-creating abuse. Everything that affects our psychological wellbeing can have social, political, and cultural causes as well as connections to family history and interpersonal experience. For therapy to be effective, we believe taking a person's or system's whole context into account is important, and that awareness in the therapist is crucial -- awareness of and openness to learning about all of the forces at work in your client/system. Let us help you use your concern and curiosity to learn what your client's key struggles are, to be knowledgeable about context and oppression, and to integrate that with your psychological and emotional understanding of the dynamics you are encountering.

DATES + FEES