The New UKAGP Website is Live! 

We are delighted to introduce you to the UKAGP’s new website. This has been a long time coming and we apologise for the delays we have experienced in getting this live.  

It's not yet perfect, but we are pleased to have a website that can support both the administration of the organisation and the communication both to, between and from members and to the wider public.  

As we develop the content we hope to bring more resources to you regarding Gestalt in the UK and the wider EAGT community.

This website is public facing and also has the facility for a secure members area.  So, the information we all provide can be targeted to the audience it’s aimed at.

You will shortly receive an individual email with your new login details and a link to a profile form.  Our request is that you add in your professional profile to our directory. This facility is included in your membership fee and our hope is that we collectively maintain the UK’s richest resource of Gestalt practitioners for the public to access. The more profiles that are added the more successful this will be.

There is also the facility for you to add in your news items and events to be viewed either by the community or the wider field. This can be a lively facility both for members and non-members and we hope that everyone will contribute to maintain a resource rich and vibrant website.

Thank you,

Ruth Nightingale,
on behalf of the UKAGP Organising Committee 

UKAGP Community Day and AGM 2016

London, Sunday 5th June 2016 10.30 - 16.30

Following up on the theme of exploring our engagement within the Gestalt Community, we invite all Gestaltists and Humanistic Counsellors, Therapists and Students to engage in this opportunity of emergent meeting as an exciting contrast to our previously more structured conference days.

Our aim is to offer a space where to meet creatively, share ideas and let the emergent take shape. Join us in this experiment of no speakers and no agenda other than to hear the different voices in the Community and to explore the experience of being together as a large group.

There is limited capacity for this event so please make your booking early to avoid disappointment!

Programme

10.30-11.00: Registration and refreshments

11.00-13.00: Community Space: An experiment of emergent meeting

13.00-14.00: Lunch. Bring your own food - eat in and share the space

14.00-15.30: AGM

15.30-16.30: Community Space: Closing

For more details, and to book your place, please visit our dedicated conference page on our website. 

UKAGP Student Community Day - Who’s In Your Tribe?

An Experiential Exploration into being A Gestaltist in Training

4th June 2016 – 10:00 am to 4:30pm

Configuring your tribal group, and awareness of belonging is an essential part of Gestalt Therapy Training.

UKAGP are hosting a series of student days in different locations in the UK to provide a space for those in the midst of their training.

UKAGP are providing a space for all Gestalt Therapy students, at any stage of their journey, to meet, seek support and engage with each other.

At only £10 for the day, the UKAGP Student Community Day is a new and unique opportunity to build associations amongst the current UK Gestalt student community

This Experiential Exploration will help you:

• Build peer support
• Build an inter – training organisation network
• Develop subject interest sub – groups
• Gain clarity on training ‘rites of passage’
• Meet students at all levels of training to understand the path ahead

Venue

The Study Society in London, – Colet House, 151 Talgarth Road, London, W14 9DA

Conference Flyer

Is available to view / download here - please do share with anyone you think might be interested.
 

A Call to All Trainees

• Design a welcome and opening structure for the start of the day
• Shape experiments with form and flexibility suitable for a newly formed group
• Attend to props, materials and physical comfort for the day
• Create a closing structure and goodbye for our time together 

Becoming Qualified - My Personal Journey

by Dawn Gwilt 

I’ve been asked to write something for the UKAGP newsletter about my recent experience of becoming a qualified Gestalt practitioner. It is now six months since I submitted my final assignments (in July 2015) for my Advanced Diploma and UKCP registration, and I found out that I passed in November and became registered in December.  As I look back, my process divides into two very contrasting experiences of before and after submitting my work, and I’d like to write something about this contrast. 

The ‘before’ period was the two years after I completed my training and before I submitted my final assignments.  During this time I prioritised working on my case study and tape transcript, putting much of my life on hold in order to devote time and energy to writing.  What stands out from this stage of the process is the feeling of having to jump through so many hoops, and only gradually coming to understand what those hoops were.  

I often felt I was squeezing myself in order to fit, and with that memory I instinctively squeeze my arms to my sides and lower my head, making myself smaller.  Initially the criticism of my case study seemed harsh and at times I felt crushed and over-exposed.  A growing edge for me was to trust that I wouldn’t lose myself through working relationally rather than independently.   An experiential shift came as my tutor and I stayed with and worked through the co-transference  around criticism.  Gradually, what had seemed harsh developed into supportive dialogue, enabling me to grow into my own authority.  

Perhaps this was a necessary process leading to the ‘after’ period, which has been a complete contrast.  For the first time since I started my training, I am reconfiguring my support system purely for myself, finding and creating tailor-made supports without the added pressure of having to complete assignments for others to assess.  This is a delightful process!  

I have formed a peer supervision group with two of my fellow-trainees who qualified around the same time as me, as well as making other shifts in my supervision.  I have also started a self-questioning process about my work as a therapist – What do I like? What am I good at? When do I feel most effective, or least effective?  

As I move forward with these questions, I feel myself expanding, growing, taking up my full size and space.  An image comes to me of a cartoon character who has been flattened by a heavy weight, and now with the weight removed, is gradually springing back into shape. 

I know I am not alone in finding this process extremely challenging.  My understanding of the process of becoming qualified is to prove beyond doubt that I am a competent, safe, reliable and ethical practitioner, and I fully agree with the necessity of this.  

Some questions remain for me: Is it possible to make this assessment in a more supportive way? Is the process overly demanding?  Or is it necessary to go through this process in order to arrive at this place of looking outward, fully engaged with my excitement and emerging sense of direction?


Dawn Gwilt is a UKCP registered Gestalt Psychotherapist with over seven years clinical experience. She trained at Welsh Psychotherapy Partnership, and presently works in private practice at Birmingham Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre and Worcester Therapy Group.  She worked previously with Cruse Bereavement Care, Primrose Hospice, and Birmingham Women's Aid. Prior to becoming a psychotherapist she trained as a classical cellist and worked both as a teacher and a performer.

Website: www.birminghamtherapy.com

Reminder about Increased Membership Fees 

A quick reminder about the increase in membership fees that was approved at last year's AGM. 

These are now:

£30 per year for Full Members
£20 for Associate Members & Friends of UKAGP
£10 per year for Trainees

For those of you paying by a regular standing order, could you please adjust your payment accordingly to the new rates? This will save us admin time in chasing payments.

Many thanks, 

Ruth Nightingale,
UKAGP Finance Officer

UKAGP Consultative Group - Update

After the first short meeting to form the new Consultative Group at the UKAGP conference in July 2015, where representatives from various organisations came together in support of creating this group, and positive feedback from all the organisations contacted, we finally found a date that most people could make to meet.

This felt like a huge achievement, and I experienced excitement and energy as the group grew, and we continued to reintroduce ourselves, each iteration clarifying our sense of purpose as we began the process of finding out who we were and what we were doing there.

There was a sense of occasion, and it was recognised that there had been many previous attempts over the years to bring Gestalt institutes together, and that something about this felt different and with potential for a meeting of the wider community.

To read a detailed report of the meeting, and the our plans for the future of the group, please read the full consultative group update on the UKAGP blog.

Jacqui Lichtenstern,
Chair, UKAGP

UKAGP Organising Committee Vacancies 

News and Events

Within the UK Gestalt Community