| Join Our Mailing List |
| NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS: Please validate your existing email by entering it above to avoid missing news and updates. |
Topic Workshops
Trauma and the Relational Field: Creating a Holding Environment When Working with Traumatized Clients
May 16-17, 2008
Friday, 1-6:00pm; Saturday, 9am-5pm
The holding environment is an intentionally crafted space in the relational field that specifically addresses the issue of "safety'. This in effect supports clients in allowing pieces of themselves to emerge that were previously unexplored and potentially provide a corrective experience. This experiential based workshop will illustrate the efficacy of the holding environment and how it can enhance the therapeutic relationship as to support trauma survivors through their often harrowing journey of recovery and wellness.
Goals
- To assist professionals in understanding the importance of consciously creating a holding environment within the relational field when working with survivors of trauma.
- To explore methods to assist in co-creating the "holding environment" using the cycle of experience, awareness raising and corrective experience.
Objectives
- Participants will be able to recognize the ways in which the "concept of safety" impacts the relational field between clinician and client.
- Participants will learn how to create a "safe environment" which is essential for working with survivors of trauma.
- Participants will be given the opportunity to explore a range of interventions to support the relational work with trauma survivors.
Limit: 20 participants
Fee: $145
CE: 11
Elizabeth Bach-Van Valkenburgh, LISW Bio
Carrie Burick, MA, ATR Bio
Gestalt Coaching: Setting the Foundation
May 19-23, 2008
Over the last forty years, members of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland have been creating organization development and coaching theory from the fields of Gestalt Psychology and Gestalt therapy. Steeped in phenomenology and existentialism, holism, field theory, and systems theory, the Gestalt approach to OD and coaching has evolved into a present-centered, awareness building, high impact form of intervention. Besides the unique approach towards making interventions, it has a particular bent in its core assumptions that has led to the development of the Gestalt "consulting stance" and the "unit of work". This workshop reveals the gestalt coaching stance and the application of the unit of work within coaching. It lays the foundation of Gestalt theory by teaching the core concepts of the paradoxical theory of change, the cycle of experience, contact, unit of work, presence, levels of system, and much more.
Gestalt Coaching: Setting the Foundation is a five day workshop. Each of the five days will be a fast moving mix of theory and practice, where small lectures are provided and then participants immediately begin to practice the concepts. On average, the workshops will be 40% theory development and 60% theory use.
Workshop Objectives
Participants will become aware of the following:
- 1. An overview of gestalt concepts that apply to coaching.
- 2. A clear understanding of the use of the gestalt cycle of experience as diagnostic and coaching tool.
- 3. An experience of the power of the paradoxical theory of change where "the more one is what one is, the more one changes".
- 4. Techniques and Methods for gestalt coaching such as the unit of work.
- 5. An understanding of the use of self as a coaching tool and/or technique.
- 6. Encouragement and support to stretch into new styles.
Questions
Call Herb Stevenson at 440-338-1705 or email him at therbstevenson@aol.com if you have any questions.
The workshop fee is $1225.00, includes all course materials. Graduate Credit: One hour of graduate credit will be granted for completion of this workshop through Cleveland State University. The fee for the graduate credit is an additional $414.25 (course number EDT 518)
Facilitators
Herb Stevenson, MA, CDP, CPC. Bio.
Jay C. Brinegar, MA. Bio.
Sarah M. Toman, PhD. Bio.
Jackie Lowe Stevenson, MSSA, LISW, EAGALA. Bio.
Calm Amidst the Storm: Introduction to Gestalt Couple's Therapy
June 6-8, 2008
Friday, 1-7:00pm; Saturday, 9:00am-6:00pm; Sunday, 9:30am-1:30pm
Have you ever lost your footing with a couple?
Spend a weekend learning to focus on the shared process with a couple, the couple's unique system, rather than on rapid-action content. This experiential workshop will strengthen work of the seasoned therapist, and help an inexperienced therapist to get started. It also is an introductory workshop for the Cleveland Couples Therapy Training Program.
Objectives
- To examine Gestalt couple system theory and practice;
- To examine the Gestalt interactive Cycle of Experience;
- To improve the ability to focus on process rather than content when observing a couple.
Fee: $295
CE: 16
Debra Dunkle, Ph.D., LISW Bio
Lester P. Wyman, Ph.D., LISW Bio
Life Coaching: The Gestalt Approach
June 9-11, 2008
Life Coaching: A Gestalt Approach is a three day journey through the field of Life coaching. Day One will provide a theoretical review of how Life coaching evolved and the theoretical foundations that have been built in the last decade, including use of assessments and professional certification. Day Two will continue the theory building as primary concepts underlying Gestalt theory will be presented and overlain onto Life coaching. Day Three will focus on a series of exercises and live coaching that will enliven the theories presented and create a series of experiences that will enable the student to embody the coaching process.
Workshop Objectives
Participants will become aware of the following:
- 1. An overview of coaching how it has evolved into the field of Life coaching including clear distinctions between coaching and therapy and consulting.
- 2. Coaching theories and models that have evolved over the last decade from various fields including sports, business, consulting, and psychology.
- 3. When to use psychometric assessment tools.
- 4. Methods for creating coaching tools and techniques from everyday materials.
- 5. Gestalt theoretical concepts such as the paradoxical theory of change, cycle of experience, unit of work, presence, awareness, contact.
- 6. Personal coaching styles used by the participants with encouragement and support to stretch into new styles.
Questions
Call Herb Stevenson at 440 338 1705 or email him at therbstevenson@aol.com if you have any questions.
The workshop fee is $575.00, includes all course materials. Graduate Credit: One hour of graduate credit will be granted for completion of this workshop through Cleveland State University. The fee for the graduate credit is an additional $414.25 (course number EDT 518)
Herb Stevenson, MA, CDP, CPC. Bio.
Sarah M. Toman, PhD. Bio.
Gestalt Experience Workshop: An Introduction to Gestalt
June 20-22, 2008
Fri., 1-7:30pm; Sat., 9am-6pm; Sun., 9am-1pm
If you are seeking growth and transformation in your personal and/or professional life, we invite you to begin, continue, or renew your relationship with the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland (GIC) by participating in this personal development and professional growth weekend. Working with a diverse participant population, faculty from GIC team up to demonstrate experiential Gestalt concepts and methods and facilitate personal growth in a group format. Through active engagement with the Gestalt process in a supportive learning environment, this workshop nurtures the important work of awareness and self-discovery, fosters expanded choices for making conscious change possible, encourages you to be fully present in the moment, and allows you to safely experiment with new behavior. Participants are supported and encouraged both to engage in their own personal growth and to be part of the personal growth of others. This workshop satisfies the Introductory Gestalt Workshop prerequisite for the GTP training program. References will be requested of all participants.
Workshop hours: 16.5
Fee: $275
Philip Belzunce, PhD Bio
Debra Dunkle, PhD, LISW Bio
Ethics: The Values of Connection
June 21-22, 2008
Saturday, 9:00am-6:00pm; Sunday, 9:00am-1:00pm
Much more than an obligation to protect our clients' rights, ethics is better understood as the very fabric that underpins and supports our most basic efforts in working with clients and interacting with others in our everyday lives. Through didactic presentation and experiential exercises, we will derive a set of field-informed ethics from Gestalt Theory and its lens that clarifies how the roles of shame and belonging impact ethical human interaction and development. Finally, we will review the ethics established by the major therapeutic disciplines and explore how the Gestalt process informs these sets of ethics.
Objectives:
- To learn the field-informed ethics derived from Gestalt Field Theory
- To review and understand the ethics established by the major therapeutic disciplines
- To experience the difference between an externally imposed set of ethics and an internally integrated set of ethics, and what the presence of either says diagnostically about the health of a field
- To learn how these ethics can provide a basis for working with a variety of populations
- To gain an enhanced awareness of ethical responsibilities, particularly as required by Ethics Codes
Workshop hours: 11
Fee: $225
Robert G. Lee, PhD Bio
Timothy H. Warneka, MEd, LPCC Bio
Working with the Body
June 27-28, 2008
Fri., 1-8pm; Sat., 9am-6pm
This workshop is for therapists interested in the basic principles, techniques, and approaches to body-oriented work in therapy. Participants will develop fundamental skills and perceptions for using body-focused work in their practices. Emphasis is on learning to see body patterns, body and experience, the Cycle of Experience and body phenomena, and using breathing in therapy.
This workshop is a prerequisite for the Advanced Training Program Working with Physical Process.
Workshop hours: 14
Fee: $295
Lalei E. Gutierrez, PhD, SMFT, RPP, CPE, CPC Bio
Philip R. Belzunce, PhD, SMFT, DAPA, RPP, CPE, CPC Bio
Working Dialogically with the Dragon: Addiction as Existential Dilemma and Choice
August 15-16, 2008
Friday, 9:30am-5:30pm; Saturday, 9:30am-5:30pm
For many years our culture has been consumed with fear of those who cannot control their wants. At the same time, we consume massive amounts of food, alcohol, drugs and almost everything else. For many of us the existential question is, "Who am I?" For the addict, the question expands to, "Who am I (and what do I feel) without the next drink, pill, donut, or other substance?" But, we are all part of this context that supports or helps to create options to this present field. To do this we need to dialogue and own our part with the dragon. Participants will engage in experiential exercises and practice skills for working dialogically with addiction.
Goals:
- To explore the questions above within the field context of or culture of substances.
- To experience the challenges of recovery.
- To explore our own beliefs about the polarites of control and excess.
Workshop hours: 12
Fee: $225
Michael Clemmens, PhD Bio
Gestalt Experience Workshop: An Introduction to Gestalt
September 5-7, 2008
Fri., 1-7:30pm; Sat., 9am-6pm; Sun., 9am-1pm
If you are seeking growth and transformation in your personal and/or professional life, we invite you to begin, continue, or renew your relationship with the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland (GIC) by participating in this personal development and professional growth weekend. Working with a diverse participant population, faculty from GIC team up to demonstrate experiential Gestalt concepts and methods and facilitate personal growth in a group format. Through active engagement with the Gestalt process in a supportive learning environment, this workshop nurtures the important work of awareness and self-discovery, fosters expanded choices for making conscious change possible, encourages you to be fully present in the moment, and allows you to safely experiment with new behavior. Participants are supported and encouraged both to engage in their own personal growth and to be part of the personal growth of others. This workshop satisfies the Introductory Gestalt Workshop prerequisite for the GTP training program. References will be requested of all participants.
Workshop hours: 16.5
Fee: $275
Michael Clemmens, PhD Bio
Denise Hyble, MS, LMHC, LMFT Bio
Working with the Body
September 19-20, 2008
Fri., 1-8pm; Sat., 9am-6pm
This workshop is for therapists interested in the basic principles, techniques, and approaches to body-oriented work in therapy. Participants will develop fundamental skills and perceptions for using body-focused work in their practices. Emphasis is on learning to see body patterns, body and experience, the Cycle of Experience and body phenomena, and using breathing in therapy.
This workshop is a prerequisite for the Advanced Training Program Working with Physical Process.
Workshop hours: 14
Fee: $295
Denise Tervo, PhD Bio
Will Heindel, MA Bio
Voice of Shame
September 19-21, 2008
Friday, 9:30am-6:00pm; Saturday, 9:00am-5:30pm, Sunday, 9:00am-1:00pm
Shame plays a powerful role in all cultures and in all of our lives. Here, we use a Gestalt lens to explore how hidden shame dynamics influence our growth and development, relationships and intimacy, our work lives, our health and the health of our society. On the first day we will build and experience the shame/contact model as introduced in Robert Lee and Gordon Wheeler's book, Voice of Shame. The second and third days will focus on applications of that model to intimate and strategic situations, offering Deborah Ullman's seven step model for healing painful shame binds and addressing habitual patterns of stressed behaviors that lead to somatic disturbances, converting them from experiences of isolation to opportunities for connection.
Objectives
Participants will:
- Learn about the poles of human experience (belonging and shame)
- Learn about the relationship between the expression or experience of shame and a hidden yearning for connection
- Be able to identify the signs and camouflage strategies of hidden shame and hidden yearnings
- Learn a seven-step model for healing painful shame binds and addressing physically self-destructive stressed behaviors
Workshop hours: 16.5
Fee: $375
Robert G. Lee, PhD Bio
Deborah Ullman, MA, LMT Bio
True Self True Wealth: A Gestalt Approach to Financial Well Being
September 26-28, 2008
Friday, 6 pm-9 pm; Saturday, 9:30am-4:30pm; Sunday, 9:30am-3:30 pm
Money carries deep emotional meaning in our lives. Whether we are considering our families of origin, our present lives or our future, money plays a vital role. Over time, each of us has developed a sense of ourselves as financial actors in the world--in the True Self True Wealth approach we call this particular aspect of self "The Economic Self:. The Economic Self was formed in our family of origin. If the Economic Self remains out of awareness, it may impede our ability to actualize our potential for personal, professional and financial development.
Peter and Daisy bring over 20 years each of Gestalt group leadership to the process of helping workshop participants develop awareness of the Economic Self. Because the Economic Self was formed in one's family of origin, the work frequently becomes deeply engaging and often brings up emotionally charged issues. The workshop leaders dedicate themselves to creating a safe, confidential, nurturing space for this challenging yet profoundly rewarding exploration.
The workshop then turns to the specific financial challenges that attendees are working with in their present lives. We do this work in the context of the "Six Pillars of Financial True Wealth". The leaders work with this material in direct consultation with the participants-- in dyads, triads and in the whole group. Vital financial education that might seem dull or "heady" out of the context of people's lives, comes alive when considered in the context of the real life issues people bring to the workshop. Each workshop attendee may disclose as much or as little about their financial lives as they feel comfortable with.
Each group member is supported in setting their intentions for the future in integrating what they have learned in the workshop into their lives.
Workshop Objectives
Participants will:
- Learn both theoretically and personally about the nature of the "Economic Self".
- Learn how family of origin issues impact your Economic Self.
- Learn about healthy and unhealthy financial boundaries.
- Learn the "Six Pillars of True Wealth".
- Apply the "Six Pillars of True Wealth" to your own financial challenges.
- Create a specific plan that addresses your most important financial issues.
This workshop is for:
- Anyone who wants to increase his or her sense of empowerment in the financial dimension of life
- People who consider themselves rich, poor, or anywhere in between.
- People who are dealing with financial changes in their lives such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, etc.
- Mental Health professionals who want to learn about helping others deal with their financial issues.
CE: 12
Fee: $250
Peter H. Cole, Chartered Financial Consultant, LCSW Bio
Daisy Reese, LCSW Bio
Friday Night at the Movies
October 3, 2008
Friday, 6:30 pm-9:30 pm
Meet with other Couple Therapists and:
- Network with peers.
- Have fun watching movie clips that depict common issues in couple systems.
- Practice describing the patterns you observe in the couple system.
- Share interventions, questions and dilemmas.
- Develop your skills as a couple therapist.
- Brainstorm with your peers on couple treatment, ethics specific to couple treatment and insurance matters.
- Share some popcorn.
CE: 2
Fee: $25
Karen Tomoff, LPCC, Bio
Attunement and Mindful Awareness: The Alchemy of Parenting
October 24, 2008
Friday, 9 am-5 pm
How can we make sense of our childhood experiences in order to be present for, and raise compassionate and resilient children? Mindful and attuned parenting grows out of awareness; a core component of gestalt relational theory.
This workshop will provide an opportunity for parents to explore past experiences as overlays for current patterns in their parenting. This learning will heighten awareness as a key to growth and healing with their children, and provide an opportunity for parents to bring themselves more fully into their relationships.
Workshop Objectives
- To learn gestalt relational theory as it is connected to mindful awareness
- To explore emergence of patterns in parenting
- To expand capacity for awareness in parenting
Fee: $125