Learning Goals – Online Weekend Training Program

Weekend 1 – Awareness and the Paradoxical Theory of Change

1. Describe the paradoxical theory of change
2. Discuss what it means that the gestalt therapist is not a “change agent”
3. Explain the relationship between awareness and change in gestalt therapy theory
4. Discuss the notion that the moment of awareness is itself a curative moment     
5. Explain the concepts of figure and ground and their connection to awareness
6. Discuss the impact of the paradoxical theory of change on the therapeutic relationship
7. Begin to identify the application of the paradoxical theory of change in the clinical demonstrations provided

 Weekend 2–  Dialogue and Relation

1. Describe the principle of Presence
2. Describe the principle of Commitment to Dialogue
3. Describe the principle of Inclusion
4. Describe the principle of Confirmation
5. Contrast the concepts of “presence” vs “seeming”
6. Describe how increased awareness contributes to dialogue
7. Explain Buber’s I-It and I-Thou modes of relating and how both are necessary

Weekend 3 – Working with Shame

1. Discuss the concept of shame
2. Compare the experience of shame and guilt
3. Discuss the treatment of shame, guilt, and the shame-guilt bind
4. Describe how the principles of Dialogue and the Paradoxical Theory of change support the treatment of patients with strong shame tendencies
5. Recognize triggers for shame in the therapeutic dyad for both patient and therapist
6. Recognize the difference between embarrassment and shame
7. Use an understanding of childhood developmental experience to explain the formation of shame experience in patients and self

Weekend 4 –  Phenomenology and Field

1. Briefly describe how phenomenological theory applies to gestalt therapy
2. Describe “perspectivalism” and its relationship to phenomenology
3. Discuss how Merleau-Ponty’s concept of embodied perception relates to the Gestalt Therapy definition of Self as a dynamic, boundary process
4. Discuss the implications of Merleau-Ponty’s concept of embodied perception for our work with clients
5. Differentiate “field” as a phenomenal field perspective from field as a thing (situation)
6. Discuss co-creation and how it relates to field theory
7. Discuss how field theory matters to our work with patients

Weekend 5 – Foundational Concepts

1. Describe 2 of the evolutionary changes that led to the emergence of contemporary relational gestalt therapy
2. Discuss the relationship between organismic self-regulation and creative adjustment
3. Explain the concepts of figure and ground and their relevance for therapy
4. Describe the gestalt therapy concept of the contact boundary
5. Explain the gestalt therapy approach to anxiety
6. Identify the role of contact and support in the clinical demonstrations provided
7. Discuss the gestalt concept of polarities and its relevance for clinical work

Groups B

Weekend 1 –  Phenomenology and Field

1. Explain the Gestalt concept of Awareness 
2. Describe the relationship between Gestalt phenomenology and the Paradoxical Theory of Change
3. Describe the phenomenological attitude
4. Differentiate “field” as a phenomenal field perspective from field as a thing ( situation)
5. Discuss co creation and how it relates to field theory
6. Discuss how field theory matters to our work with patients

Weekend 2 – Experiment

1. Describe when experiments are effective as a part of the therapeutic process
2. Describe how experiments are effective as part of the therapeutic process
3. Explain the idea that “dialogue itself is an experiment”
4. Discuss whether there is a conflict between working relationally with experiments and the paradoxical theory of change
5. Discuss why an attitude of uncertainty would be important when working relationally with experiments
6. Describe the difference between “using a technique” and working relationally

Weekend 3 – Dialogue Part 2

1. Explain the difference between “reality and actuality” (Staemmler)
2. Discuss the relationship between dialogue and interpretation (Gadamer)
3. Discuss the role of interpretation in gestalt therapy
4. Explain the difference between a hermeneutic of suspicion and a hermeneutic of trust
5. Discuss the hermeneutic circle and its relationship to therapeutic practice
6. Explain 3 ways in which a relational approach to therapeutic work serves to dignify the patient
7. Identify one strength and one challenge for yourself as a relational gestalt therapist

Weekend 4 – Shame is Relational

1. Compare and contrast individualist and relational perspectives on the concept of self
2. Explain the idea that shame is an index of reception in the field
3. Discuss DeYoung’s statement “Shame is the experience of one’s felt sense of self disintegrating in relation to a dysregulating other”
4. Identify an experience of personal shame that was dysregulating and impacted experience of self
5. Identify and explain 3 relational approaches to treating shame
6. Explain how the therapeutic relationship is primary to the treatment of shame
7. Discuss the therapeutic role of inclusion and presence in the treatment of shame

Weekend 5 –  Enduring Relational Themes

1. Contrast the classical diagnostic approach with the humanistic approach to patterns of personality in relational Gestalt therapy
2. Make a beginning differentiation of Narcissistic, Borderline, and Schizoid personality disorders
3. Begin to use an understanding of these personality styles to understand clinical choices in psychotherapy
4. Identify a patient’s enduring relational themes (repetitive perspectival themes)
5. Identify developmental processes as they occur in therapy
6. Apply the dialogic method to working with enduring relational themes
7. Recognize the influence of your own enduring relational themes on the emergence of experience in clinical work

Group C

Weekend 1 – Working Relationally

1. Define what is meant by the description of the phenomenological method as “a
   discipline to identify and enhance direct, immediate experience and to reduce the
   distortion of bias and prior learning.”
2. Understand the role that the therapist’s attention to his or her own body plays
   in the practice of inclusion.
3. Describe the difference between inclusion and attunement.
4. Describe how a body-centered approach facilitates an authentic therapeutic
   presence.   
5. Describe how an understanding of field theory is enhanced and deepened
   through awareness of experience arising in the body. 
6. Explain how the foundational relational Gestalt Therapy concepts of confirmation
   and the paradoxical theory of change relate to bodily experience.

Weekend 2 – Dialogue, Meaning and Meeting

Weekend 3 – Working with Groups

Weekend 4 – Psychopathology

Weekend 5 –  Field Theory Part 2

1. Briefly describe how phenomenological theory applies to gestalt therapy
2. Describe “perspectivalism” and its relationship to phenomenology
3. Discuss how Merleau-Ponty’s concept of embodied perception relates to the Gestalt Therapy definition of Self as a dynamic, boundary process
4. Discuss the implications of Merleau-Ponty’s concept of embodied perception for our work with clients
5. Differentiate “field” as a phenomenal field perspective from field as a thing (situation)
6. Discuss co-creation and how it relates to field theory
7. Discuss how field theory matters to our work with patients