The program of the Lodz Gestalt School includes all of the following topics required by the EAGT Association.

TOPIC 1: HISTORY AND ROOTS OF GESTALT THERAPY:

Philosophy; anthropology; psychoanalysis; existentialism; phenomenology; Gestalt theory; Eastern philosophies, GT’s Jewish roots, body work, art, radical social philosophies.

TOPIC 2: GESTALT THERAPY THEORY:

Organism/environment field; figure/field resolution; creative adaptation; paradoxical theory model of change; authenticity; contact-withdrawal. Cycle of experience; theory of self; consciousness/awareness; polarities; resistances/interruptions to contact; therapeutic process.

TOPIC 3: THE HUMAN BODY AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

Personality theory; health and illness; child development and contemporary infant research; the person in society, gender and sexuality, the impact of global change on the individual.

TOPIC 4: GESTALT THERAPY TECHNIQUES:

Experiment; reinforcement; sleep work, chair work, Art work, breathing, sleep work, etc.

THEME 5: DIAGNOSIS: comparative approaches.

Differential diagnosis; DSM and ICD; psychodynamic diagnosis; Gestalt. Phenomenological diagnosis

TOPIC 6: VARIOUS CLINICAL TOPICS:

Gestalt perspective in psychopathology; neurosis, psychosis, personality disorders (borderline, narcissism, dependent, histrionic, etc.), anxiety/mood/eating disorders/psychosomatic disorders, addictions, etc.

TOPIC 7: APPLICATION DOMAINS AND STRATEGIES:

Individual; couples; families; groups; organizations, therapeutic communities, etc.

TOPIC 8: THE GESTALT THERAPIST IN THE THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP

RELATIONSHIP: Gestalt perspective of transference, countertransference; dialogue, contact, I-Thou relationship, co-creation of contact, inter-subjectivity….

THEME 9: Human rights and social responsibility

Social, cultural, political and ecological aspects of therapy in general and their implications for the Gestalt therapist. Therapist’s responsibility to individual clients and to the community/environment in which they practice.

TOPIC 10: PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS OF ETHICS

EAGT Code of Ethics, Ethics Committee, complaint procedure, implications of ethics in personal and professional sphere. Ethical aspects of international political change, ethical implications of technological developments (e-learning, e-supervision, e-therapy), etc.

TOPIC 11: RESEARCH IN GESTALT

Research methods in Gestalt practice, quantitative/qualitative methods, comparative methods, self-descriptive methods.