"If we were to choose one key idea to stand as a symbol for the Gestalt approach, it might well be the concept of authenticity, the quest for authenticity…the therapist cannot teach what she does not know...A therapist knows within herself that she is communicating her own fears as well as her courage, her defensiveness as well as her openness, her confusion as well as her clarity.
"The therapist's awareness, acceptance, and sharing of these truths can be a highly persuasive demonstration of her own authenticity. Such a position is not acquired overnight. It is to be learned and relearned ever more deeply throughout one's entire life."
- Levitsky and Simkin-1972
Overview
I am inspired and excited to create and share an in-depth Gestalt Advanced training for QEC practitioners. Lawrence is inspired to get our home ready to welcome you and do his part in hosting your stay.
The aim of Gestalt is to explore and discover our wholeness, our authenticity. Through raising awareness we are able to integrate the disparate parts of ourselves, to become who we truly are.
The aim of QEC is to uncover the resistances and blocks we unconsciously hold to the flow of healthy self-regulation. By accessing the power of the subconscious we can change hard-wired destructive and limiting beliefs and behaviours, freeing us up to become who we prefer to be.
When Gestalt and QEC are blended and offered within a therapeutic Healing Relationship we have a powerful recipe for change.
"If we were to choose one key idea to stand as a symbol for the Gestalt approach, it might well be the concept of authenticity, the quest for authenticity."
The Training Course
This course will be run over 6 months, or as was suggested on the retreat recently, we aim to cover “6 years in 6 months!”
It is open to certified QEC practitioners who want to deepen their own work on themselves and become more skilful authentic QEC practitioners.
Conditions of certification are:
1. Attendance at both live weekend workshops in Devon (Melanie's home)
2. Attendance at weekly online lectures and small group supervision sessions (held on Wednesday evenings)
3. Commitment to work on self
4. Completion of one case study- demonstrating application of Gestalt-QEC (from February 2025)
The course is held in two parts:
Part 1
Begins with weekend workshops teaching fundamentals of QEC theory and practice. We then have a break of two months over Xmas.
Part 2
Begins with a weekend workshop. The focus is: use of experimentation to expand awareness and application of Gestalt-QEC.
There will be a Case Study in Part 2 with one client over 8-10-week timeframe.
Dates and times can be found here.
Exclusively available to QEC Practitioners. 12 places available.
Weekend workshops in Exton, Devon, with lovely walks near Melanie’s home
Programme
Part One, Weekend One
Times
9am to 6pm Friday and Saturday
9am to 3pm Sunday
Training Programme Outline
These three days of live training include:
- All lectures will be followed by practicums in triads, exploring what was learned
- My ongoing presence and supervision are available on all occasions
Day One
- Overview of Gestalt therapy, meet Fritz Perls
- Dialogue and the Therapeutic Relationship
Day Two
- Phenomenology
- Awareness raising, key to growth & development
Day Three
- Zones of awareness
- Goodbye
Lectures Part One: first 3 months
Times
6pm-8.30pm UK time
- All lectures will be followed by practicums in triads the following week, during the lecture weeks
- My ongoing presence and supervision are available, and I am sitting in, in turns, on all supervisions to support and teach
Lecture One
- The normal Gestalt Cycle of Healthy Self-Regulation
- Practicum: share what came up when you saw what was “normal”
- Where may you be blocked, for how long, by whom?
- Use QEC to forgive your “past” – specifically and uniquely to you
Lecture Two
- Interruptions to contact in the Gestalt Cycle
- Practicum: choose an interruption that is ‘most one you have’
- Share how it prevents your fullness of expression or action or withdrawal into a fertile void
- Use QEC to change it
Lecture Three
- Identity – who am I?
- Practicum: dialogue about this conundrum
- Share how much of your identity has come from the needs and wants of others?
- Use QEC to make a different, perhaps better, choice of who I want to be!
Lecture Four
- Our Interconnectedness
- Practicum: share in your supervision group what your individual connectedness is and arises from the following topics…allow a full story to unfold and explore what it means to you as well as what it says about you:
- Jug of milk
- Tractor
- Smell of a bonfire
- Pile of clothes next to a river
- The sensation of wind
Lecture Five
- Live Demo: Melanie working Gestalt-QEC with one of the students
- Q&A
- Supervision and goodbyes to end of Part One
Part Two, Weekend Two
Gestalt will be taught through lectures and live demos, experiential work in triads supervised by Melanie.
Lawrence will be our host for making vegetarian lunches and providing teas and coffees
These three days will cover Gestalt experiment in expanding growth and awareness.
1. Grading and pacing
2. Challenge versus support
3. Empty chair and two chair dialogue
4. Dream work
5. Polarities and conflict resolution
Lectures Online
The final 5 sessions are online with Melanie on alternate weeks (see dates) and cover practical application of Gestalt therapy and integration with QEC work in specific areas.
Session one: Working with a client: assessment, treatment and structure. 8-10 sessions of Gestalt-QEC is required with a case study to certify
Session two: Resourcing a client
Session three: Working with Anxiety and Depression
Session four: Working with Shame
Session five: Working with Trauma; final session and goodbye
Practicums
Practicums will be held online in your triads every other week and will explore what was learned in lectures. These will be recorded and share with Melanie when invited to do so. Melanie will sit in every fourth practicum.
Certification will be done in May 2025 on satisfactory completion of case study and having attended all lecture sessions and practicums
The coastal town of Exmouth is 15 minutes from Melanie where B&Bs can be found