NYIGT PROGRAM CALENDAR FOR 2011-2012

The program committee has worked very hard to bring this year’s exciting program to fruition.
As usual meetings will begin at 8:15 pm for socializing and the presentations will start
at 8:45pm and go to 10:30pm.

Unless another location is announced, all meetings except Group Process Meetings will be held at:
Frank Bosco’s Sound Health Studio
20 West 20th St.Suite 803,
New York, NY 10011.
Some of the weekend meetings may be at another location TBA.

This year we have added additional monthly Group Process Meetings, location TBA from 8:15pm-10pm. We are inviting all members to come together to discuss whatever emerges from their interest and excitement in Gestalt therapy. We felt that we would like to encourage members to go beyond the more formal organization of presentations and create a field of exploration.

A half-day meeting for the full membership to discuss and hopefully resolve issues that have emerged from numerous meetings. These include our processes of election, leadership, consensus, internet and f2f communications, the integration of members who live at a distance, and the future of the Institute.

Sat 12/10/11
2:30pm-5pm

Location TBA

Dan Bloom

“Who’s There?” The embodied person in gestalt therapy.

I ask a question. Somebody answers.
I reach across the room. To whom?
Whose eye catches mine in a shared secret moment?
Who do I love?
Who touches me when I need to be touched?
Who's there?
 
Gestalt therapy is a profound experiential existentialtheory/practice of psychotherapy, but it has yet to offer us any consistent guidance in answering these questions. This workshop will begin to develop answers through didactic presentation/discussion, experiential exercises, sensory/movement exploration, and experiment. With wit, imagination, and invention, we will build the concept of the “embodied person” in gestalt therapy from an embodied relational perspective – and see how this “new” view can re-organize our practical work.

Joseph De Paula -
A Personal Development Encounter    Group Model

This presentation concerns a Gestalt-based, personal development, encounter and support group model, which the presenter will define, describe and demonstrate.  It is an interactive, group process-oriented, encounter group modality to be conducted in the context of applying Gestalt principles such as field theory, figure/ground perspective and the Gestalt Contact Cycle.  It is designed to be led by a Gestalt trained, group leader/facilitator/therapist, (or can be led with a co-leader) in which the leader endeavors to co-create with group members' involvement, an interactive, heuristic encounter group for personal growth to improve members emotional and social intelligence; to develop skills to improve their personal effectiveness in relating to others, becoming more aware of their own "belongingness" needs, more sensitive, relational and emphatic toward others and their needs, appreciate cultural differences and relate/communicate in a more contactful way.

Lee Zevy -
How Dialectical Behavior Therapy Can Help Us Undo Fixed Gestalts and Build the Capacity for Experiment, Novelty and Growth

Using DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) in therapy to increase emotion regulation and enhance the capacity for experiencing the Aesthetic Criteria (novelty, excitement, etc.)

Marcia Lenahan, Ph.D. developed Dialectical Behavioral Therapy as skills based program to help individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder learn to integrate what she called “Emotion Mind” and “Cognitive Mind” into a model she formulated as “Wise Mind”. Lenahan understood from her own experience with BPD that BPD was to a large extent a learned problem with emotion regulation and given the plasticity of the brain now known to change relationally she developed a relational modular tool. Beyond BPD, this method has far reaching applicability and can be utilized wherever fixed gestalts prevent an expansive, flexible, related enjoyment of life.

We will use some of the DBT modules to understand how DBT effects change and then discuss it’s far reaching potential.

Elinor Greenberg -  
Love, Admiration, or Safety: A System of Gestalt Diagnosis of Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptations that Focuses on What is Figure for the Client

In this presentation, Dr. Elinor Greenberg will describe a simple way to diagnose and understand clients with Borderline, Narcissistic, or Schizoid adaptations based on what repeatedly becomes figure for them in interpersonal situations. Elinor will also explain her concept of the "Interpersonal Gestalt," a term she introduced to describe the process by which individuals form interpersonal figures through selectively attending to those aspects of the interpersonal field that relate to their deepest interpersonal wishes and fears. Elinor will use clinical examples to illustrate how the client's Interpersonal Gestalt can be observed during therapy sessions. The audience will be invited to explore their own Interpersonal Gestalts during a pair exercise. There will be time at the end for feedback and discussion. A paper on this topic will be available ahead of time.  

Sylvia Crocker -
Gestalt Experiments and the Truths of the Body

"The presentation I will give to the New York Institute will involve my detailing what I understand the roles experiments play in Gt, along with a presentation and demonstration of the several kinds of experiments that Gestalt therapists have been using. This will involve several kinds of verbal experiments, polarity work, two-chair work with important others to finish unfinished business, experimenting and identifying with breathing patterns, voice quality, gestures, etc. I believe members of the NYI have always used experiments, so what I hope to contribute via my presentation is greater awareness of the several kinds of experiments and what they can lead to, and generally a deeper understanding of the fact that through the use of experiments many of the body's truths are given the opportunity to speak, and many things a client "knows without knowing that he knows" can be brought to light. I am concerned that in some training institute experiments are not taught, yet they are central to the Gestalt approach from its inception. I am giving a pre-conference workshop in Puebla on experiments in Gt in the hope that more discussion will be stirred up and experiments will become more widely understood and fruitfully employed."

Carl Hodges - A New Concept of Field

A further exploration of field in Carl's groundbreaking work.

Group Process Meetings will be monitoring the process, not necessarily the presentation.

All are welcome to join our mailing list or for more information about the Institute at: info@newyorkgestalt.org