Salons

Upcoming Salons

Description: Gestalt therapy invites us to meet what is—fully, reverently, and with care. This workshop explores devotion not as dogma or sentiment, but as a disciplined, embodied orientation toward presence. Devotion in the therapeutic encounter arises through contact, humility, and human-to-human meeting—but also through the ritual structures that hold the work: our attendance to time, boundaries, beginnings and endings, the preparation of space, the rhythm of return, and the ongoing tending of the field. In both physical and virtual rooms, the therapist’s devotion is expressed in how we create and sustain the conditions for awareness. Every ritual gesture—lighting a candle, opening a laptop, arranging the chairs—can be understood as a way of saying “you matter; we matter.” Devotion, then, becomes a form of aesthetic and ethical care: attention to the relational, the environmental, and the temporal. Through dialogue, experiential practice, and reflection, we will explore how devotion and ritual together root Gestalt therapy in an ethic of presence, reverence, and responsibility—to self, other, and field.

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Description: In this presentation, Gestalt Therapists Charlie Bowman, LCSW and Peter Cole, LCSW will discuss their recent article I Am Here: A Gestalt Perspective on Navigating Through Troubled Times scheduled to appear in the Spring 2026 issue of Gestalt Review. They will explore the impact of the U.S.’s current authoritarian political climate on the practice of psychotherapy. They will discuss the Mass Induction of Trauma, a concept they introduce in this paper and will examine how therapists and clients can work together toward co-regulation and hopefulness in these trying times. Drawing on theory and practice, including field theory and relational gestalt therapy theory, Charlie and Peter will outline ways to sustain therapeutic presence and healing in today’s
challenging sociopolitical atmosphere.

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Description: “There are no facts, only interpretations.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche

Gestalt therapy has long emphasized presence, awareness, and dialogue — yet each depends on language, the very medium through which we both connect and distort experience. This presentation explores how linguistic habits shape perception, organize the therapeutic field, and subtly define what is possible in relationship. Drawing on field theory, phenomenology, and Korzybski’s “map is not the territory”, Dr. Elkind examines how words structure the world we inhabit and how therapists can learn to speak in ways that better mirror process, movement, and participation. Participants will gain new insight into how language both reveals and limits awareness, and how refining our use of words can deepen contact, support self-regulation, and enliven the dialogic field.

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Past Salons 

Past salon recordings may be accessed by GTILA members by logging in to your account in the upper right hand corner of the website. Once logged in, you may access the page https://gtila.org/salon-recordings/ directly or navigating to Training and Events>Salons>Salon Recordings

Description: Chairwork is centered on the belief that there is a healing power in: (1) Giving voice to one’s inner parts, modes, voices, and selves; (2) Telling and re-telling difficult or traumatic stories; and (3) Enacting or re-enacting scenes from the Past, the Present, or the Future.

Chairwork is an experiential psychotherapeutic method that was first created by Dr. Jacob Moreno, the founder of Psychodrama. It was further developed and made famous by Dr. Friedrich “Fritz” Perls, the creator of Gestalt Therapy, in the 1960s. Following Perls’ death in 1970, Chairwork was adapted and re-envisioned by a wide range of integrated therapists.

In 2018, Dr. Scott Kellogg discovered the Four Dialogues (Kellogg & Garcia Torres, 2021). The Four Dialogues Model, a crystallization of over 50 years of Chairwork practice, centers the work in four core stances: Giving Voice, Internal Dialogues, Telling the Story, and Relationships and Encounters. The Four Dialogues not only provide a framework for listening to patients, but also they provide guidance for working with a wide range of clinical issues in a manner that is both elegant and effective.

In this GTILA Salon, Amanda Garcia Torres, LMHC, and Scott Kellogg, PhD, will explore:

1. The History and Foundations of Chairwork.

2. The Four Dialogues Model of Chairwork Psychotherapy.

3. Using Chairwork to:

a. Resolve Inner Conflicts;

b. Heal Grief and Loss;

c. Work Through Traumatic Experiences; and

d. Challenging Experiences of Self-Hatred.

They will then do a live Case Consultation with a Clinician Volunteer to show how Chairwork can be useful in therapy – especially in the situations where the patient and the therapist are stuck or blocked.

This will be followed by a Q&A period if time permits.

The Chairwork Psychotherapy Initiative is the world’s first Chairwork-centered training institute. The founders, Scott Kellogg, PhD, and Amanda Garcia Torres, LMHC are proud to be following in thesteps of Dr. Fritz Perls, Dr. Jacob and Ms. Zerka Moreno, and other integrative therapists who havepaved the way for this exciting evolution of Chairwork. they developed the first stand-alone Chairwork Psychotherapy (Kellogg & Garcia Torres, 2021), and, at present, CPI is the only Chairwork Psychotherapy Certification Program in the world.

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Description: Within Gestalt therapy, addiction and trauma are not seen as isolated pathologies but as expressions of the field—creative adjustments that emerge in response to disconnection, overwhelm, and unmet relational needs. In this Gestalt Salon, we will explore how a relational and field-sensitive perspective allows us to meet these experiences with compassion, curiosity, and embodied awareness.

Rather than reducing addiction to a behavior or diagnosis, this conversation invites us to consider it as a movement toward restoration and contact—a spontaneous attempt by the organism–environment field to regain balance. Drawing from Field Theory, Relational Gestalt practice, and Polyvagal-informed awareness, we’ll reflect together on how therapeutic presence, co-regulation, and somatic attunement open possibilities for healing and integration.

Together we will explore:
– Addiction and trauma as field phenomena rather than intrapsychic dysfunctions.
– How the relational stance of the therapist supports contact, co-regulation, and embodied safety.
– How somatic and nervous system awareness enhances field sensitivity and deepens presence.
– The application of the Compassionate Relational Gestalt Trauma Model (CRGTM) within the living field of therapy.

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Description: What can we, as members of the Gestalt community in the US and globally, do to address the deep divisions that exist in places where we live, work, serve, worship and socialize? How do we effectively work with and relate to those with whom we vehemently disagree? How do we learn to support ourselves and others to live cohesively with ambiguity and uncertainty? In this seminar, innovative and viable concepts including radical respect, a relational model for managing the dynamics of differences, and developing a “Me to We Mindset”, all rooted in essential Gestalt concepts such as field theory, phenomenological inquiry and dialogue, will be presented. Together, we will explore and practice deep listening for bidirectional understanding of the beliefs, history, experiences, worldviews, perceptions, values, attitudes, and motivations of others. We will integrate this Me to We characteristic as an example of the intersection and blending of Gestalt therapy’s three fundamental philosophical foundations. The Salon will end by turning conversation into action as participants complete the statement, “Moving forward I will…”

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Description: This online seminar explores an unconventional , creative use of words- with applications to personal expression within therapy and beyond. The Western world relies heavily on verbal expression. Yet how often have we heard clients (and ourselves!) say: ”I can’t find the right words to say it’, or I’m no good with language’..or somesuch. This practical workshop explores three instant writing formats that may lend a Goodman or Dali- esque vibe to our creations made ‘here and now’.

These writing forms find application in group and individual therapy/ therapeutic work. During this workshop a few volunteers will be invited to share their work with the whole group and to comment on the process.

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Description: Before they can soar, every couple has to learn to walk, and they usually present to us for couples therapy when they are stumbling. It is rare that a lack of communication skills per se is driving a couple’s conflicts. More commonly, there are powerful longings giving rise to strong emotions. There is little more rewarding as therapists, or as useful for the couples, than helping each become aware of the deeper needs and pain driving the conflicts, and learning to help each see and be seen in the middle of the mess, toward beginning to cut through the noise. We’ll discuss four common ways that frustrated needs manifest as conflict, and how to help members of the couple find each other within those storms.

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This online seminar combines presentation, first-hand creative projective experience, small group sharing, and demonstration.

Often we think adulthood begins when someone turns 18 or 19, attends university, joins the military, or casts their first vote in a national election. Ever increasing neuroscience data shows the “adolescent” brain has a much longer life — approximately ages 12-24.

Therapists who work with adolescents, young adults, and/or parents can greatly benefit from a deeper understanding about “adolescence” and the important role resistance plays for successful launching into adulthood.

During this seminar we’ll focus on work and play with young people from the lens of the Oaklander Model and Gestalt Therapy. In addition to the role of resistance, we’ll explore Contact, Sense of Self, Emotional Identification and Expression, and how to provide much needed External Support. We’ll also discuss how to help when parents’ “unfinished business” from their adolescence gets activated, and they may struggle with healthy and consistent limits and boundaries, I-Thou relating, active listening, and providing solid and consistent external support that truly respects and applauds their adolescent’s evolving process.

Therapy can support parents with the grief of saying good-bye to children, the worry and frustration of emotionally and practically supporting 12-24 year-olds, and eventually welcoming adult-to-adult relationships with grown children.

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This introductory workshop invites therapists, trainees, Gestalt practitioners, and coaches to explore the Gestalt concept of introjection through the lens of gender identity.

In Gestalt theory, an introject is a belief or norm unconsciously absorbed from our environment without being fully assimilated. Participants will briefly examine how gender assigned at birth can become an introjected construct—a heteronormative expectation imposed by caregivers and society—which may conflict with an individual’s authentic gender identity.

Through theoretical framing and focused experiential exercises, participants will reflect on how these introjects can lead to internal conflicts such as feelings of incongruence or self-negation when one’s true self does not align with assigned labels. Emphasizing Gestalt principles such as contact at the boundary, awareness, and organismic self-regulation, this session will briefly introduce an affirmative therapeutic approach to working with gender diversity.

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As an artist and a Gestalt therapist, Guy-Pierre will share with us how he sees aesthetics is at the core of our practice and how it can help us as Gestalt therapists and how it can be used in our therapist/patient process.

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Relational Gestalt Therapy with Lynne Jacobs, Gary Yontef, & Rich Hycner

We are thrilled to invite you to join us on this rare opportunity! Lynne Jacobs, Gary Yontef and Rich Hycner are worldwide recognized for advocating the importance of emphasizing relationality and dialogue as part of Gestalt Therapy’s principles.

In this salon, you will learn about their personal and professional paths, alone and with each other, toward what became known as Relational Gestalt Therapy (RGT). They will explore the nuances of RGT, how Martin Buber’s concepts impacted their work, their challenges and successes met along the way, and particular experiences that they feel emergent to share with us during this rare meeting together.

It will be a moment to explore history through the voices of some of the most respected luminaries who dedicated their efforts to developing and amplifying the Relational Gestalt Therapy approach in the last several decades.

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Bringing Presence to What’s Still Unfinished: An Introduction to Relational Focusing with Ren Barnebey

Join us for an exciting new salon offering with Certified Gestalt Therapist and PGI Faculty member, Ren Barnebey.

Most of us have experienced repetitive pain that never seems to fully resolve or finish. We can spend a lifetime nursing wounds, resentments and painful patterns that endure in spite of how much therapy and personal work we’ve done. 

 Eugene Gendlin developed a process called Focusing which is simple practice to do, but can have profoundly healing effects.

In this workshop-style salon Ren Barnebey will describe the process of Focusing, illustrate how Focusing is actually a practical application of the phenomenological and dialogue and how this simple practice can be utilized for our own healing as well as our clients.

Brief lecture along with experiential exercises. No partner work is required. Demonstration if time allows.

For experienced and beginning gestalt therapists

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Moving Moments: Finding Ourselves and Each Other with Jennifer Bury

This workshop-like salon views movement as the foundation of all contacting. Kinetic engagement with one’s own body – and the bodies of others – can simultaneously make us aware of our own basic fragility, our interconnectedness, and our power to create ourselves and our lives. By paying attention to the movement within us, between us, and around us, we make sense of the world. This workshop will include movement-based experiments, lectures, and shared discoveries to help foster our kinesthesia and increase our awareness of how we are simultaneously shaping our interactions and being shaped by them. In this way each can participate in inventing themselves and the world with, and through, each other.

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Remembering Erv Polster, Part 2: In Conversation with Alan Cohen

In the second installment of our GTILA salon series Remembering Erv Polster, Alan Cohen (New York) will present videos featuring Erv and share insights into Erv’s vibrant personality, his passion for connecting with people, and his enduring contributions to the field.

Tickets can be found on EventBrite

Gestalt Therapy and Trauma with Stephanie Goldsmith

This presentation describes how trauma affects the mind and body, how we conceptualize trauma from a Gestalt lens, and how clinicians can use process-based interventions to help heal the impact of trauma and restore wellness.

All proceeds from this salon were donated to Los Angeles fire relief through Direct Relief.

Tickets available on Eventbrite!

GTILA Presents: Relational Journey Work: Gestalt Therapy & Psychedelics w/ Chris Avitabile & Michelle Fryback

In this GTILA salon Michelle Fryback and Chris Avitabile, both Certified Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapists, will introduce you to psychedelic supported therapy including preparation, medicine day journey and integration sessions using a Gestalt therapy lens.

Chris and Michelle will elaborate on how relational Gestalt therapy is a complete supportive theory for psychedelic journey work, and ways it can help therapists to facilitate integration for clients who might have had experiences both difficult and/or life changing.

Tickets are available on EventBrite

Remembering Erv Polster, Part 1 of 2
GTILA presents: “Remembering Erv Polster: Sneaky Genius” w/ Lynne Jacobs

Join us on October 20th as Lynne Jacobs engages with the GTILA community in an enriching two-part salon series dedicated to the legacy of Erv Polster. Experience a heartfelt conversation exploring the profound impact Erv had on one of the foremost voices in Gestalt Therapy. Lynne reflects on their spirited discourses surrounding the nuances of theory and practice, which were not only enjoyable but also deeply enlightening.

“We used love to argue with each other about the theory and practice of gestalt therapy. That was always fun and enriching. Meanwhile, I was learning from him about the superlative joys of small moments.” – Lynne Jacobs

We invite you to be part of this special tribute. Register now.