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Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Study Program

We invite you to learn more about the program of the Study of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. We offer classroom training seminars and online sessions.

We offer you the program of the Study of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, which was prepared on the basis of the most current knowledge of developmental psychology, psychopathology and neuroscience, as well as the relational approach of Gestalt taking into account the field theory. The program takes into account the individual, social and cultural context in working with children, adolescents and their families, whose youngest representatives are “delegates.”

The program consists of:

  • 8 offline training seminars (20 training hours each: Friday: 15:00 – 19:00, Saturday, Sunday: 9:00 – 15:00)
  • 7 online superintendent-lecture sessions (5 training hours each: Thursday: 15:00 – 19:00).

Methodology

In total, the program includes 195 training hours. Training seminars are held at the Lodz Gestalt School in Lodz, Poland, and include lectures, exercises, exploration of participants’ own experiences, and super-visionary elements. Superintendent-lecture sessions are designed to provide a space for the exchange of experience, assimilation of knowledge and are consultative in nature, on the one hand, and on the other hand, they include a two-hour lecture/seminar led by an expert and complement the knowledge from the classroom sessions.

Stages of Learning

During the first year of training at SPDiM (4 face-to-face meetings and 4 online meetings), participants/participants will learn the basics of the Gestalt approach in working with children and adolescents.

The second year is an advanced level with the opportunity to explore psychopathology.

The program provides opportunities to learn through theory and practice, work based on analysis of case studies, and share personal experiences. Each seminar will have a consultation to explore theory in the most practical way.

Receipt of Certificate

The program ends with the receipt of a certificate of participation issued by the Lodz Gestalt School / an affiliate member of EAGT.

The program is implemented by an international team of experienced professionals – training practitioners – who have been working with children and young people on a daily basis for more than 20 years.

Detailed program of the study:

Year 1

Seminar 1 – Stationary:

Theoretical basis of modern Gestalt therapy of children and adolescents. Moderators: S.Tosi, N.Zhivolkovskaya, facilitator: K.Slifirskaya.

  • Here and now – the experience of children and young people in the world
  • Basic approaches of gestalt therapy:
    • Phenomenological;
    • Aesthetic;
    • relational oriented field theory
  • Contemporary gestalt concepts (M. Lobb):
    • “dance of reciprocity” (“dance o reciprocity”);
    • aesthetic relational knowledge;
    • development theory
  • The concept of psychopathology in the Gestalt approach:
    • psychopathology field;
    • The psychopathology of the situation;
    • diagnosis “of the ground”

Seminar 2 | Online super-vision and workshop session:

Ethical and formal aspects of psychotherapeutic work with children and adolescents in Poland

Seminar 3 – Stationary:

Organization of therapeutic work with children and adolescents and their families: a gestalt approach. Chaired by N. Zhivolkovskaya. Facilitation: K. Slifirska.

  • Children and adolescents in contemporary psychotherapy (here and now):
    • psychotherapist competencies;
    • key goals of psychotherapy;
    • common (key) requirements/needs for psychotherapy;
  • structure of the psychotherapeutic process:
    • Activating the co-creative field of the process;
    • Meeting with parents; meeting with family;
    • meeting with the child/adolescent;
  • therapeutic model in the gestalt approach. Clinical protocol:
    • Psychotherapist’s impressions; anamnesis:
      • family structure,
      • family relations,
      • symptom;
      • figure-background formation;
  • diagnostics:
    • DSM-5,
    • Diagnosis: DSM-5, gestalt therapeutic diagnosis based on relational aesthetic knowledge;
  • The first meeting with the child teenager/parents:
    • setting,
    • therapeutic contract,
    • Creating a therapeutic relationship;
  • Ethical foundations in working with children and adolescents and their families.

Seminar 4 | Online super-vision and workshop session:

Supervision/consultation

Seminar 5 – Stationary:

Meeting the family. Family system. Chaired by S. Tosi. Facilitation: K. Slifirska.

  • Theory of attachment and self-regulation, meeting systems between parent(s) and child/adolescent;
  • key goals of psychotherapeutic work:
    • Motherhood and fatherhood, parental competence;
    • siblings;
    • adopted child and family;
    • foster child and family;
    • Children in divorced families (single parent or new family);
  • Meeting the family: intentionality of contact;
  • symptom as a sign of relational suffering;
  • Psychopathological fields: transmission and transformation (G. Franchesetti).

Seminar 6 | Online super-vision and workshop session:

Sexuality in therapeutic work with adolescents.

Seminar 7 – Stationary:

The crisis of adolescence. Coach: B. Starrs Facilitation: K. Slifirska.

  • Adolescent psychotherapy and the specifics of interaction with parents;
  • autonomy and separation;
  • identity:
    • personality-function,
    • gender,
    • sexuality;
  • Body therapy in working with adolescents;
  • Typical symptoms of relational suffering in adolescents.

Seminar 8 | Online super-vision and workshop session:

Sexuality in therapeutic work with adolescents (K. Kościółek)

Year 2 program:

Seminar 9 – Stationary:

Diversity of approaches to child and adolescent psychopathology. Led by S. Tosi, N. Zhivolkovskaya. Facilitation: K. Slifirska.

  • Psychopathology of the situation (according to Wollants)
  • Types of experiences (neurotic, borderline, psychotic, post-traumatic). (according to the Spagnuolo Lobb model)
  • Suffering at the edge of contact: absence. “Weather,” “landscape” (according to Francesetti).
  • Typical forms of suffering according to DSM-5.
  • Diagnosis in therapy with child/adolescent and gestalt therapist: possibilities and limitations. Forms of vitality in psychopathology.
  • Group and individual psychotherapy for children and adolescents in clinical practice.

Seminar 10 | Online super-vision and workshop session:

Supervision/consultation

Seminar 11 – Stationary:

Fundamentals of psychopathology and specific clinical suffering in children and adolescents (Part 1). Chaired by N. Zhivolkovskaya. Facilitation: K. Slifirska.

  • Specific types of suffering – clinical model (forms of vitality in psychopathology:
    • Situations of anxiety, fear and panic attacks;
    • Post-traumatic stress and dissociative situations).
  • Typical forms of suffering according to DSM-5.
  • A relational perspective towards different types of experiences and relational interventions in the suffering of children and adolescents.

Seminar 12 | Online super-vision and workshop session:

Introduction to working with Violet Oaklander’s method in child and adolescent psychotherapy – online

Seminar 13 – Stationary:

Basics of psychopathology and specific types of suffering- clinical model (part 2). Moderator: B. Starrs Facilitation: K.Slifirska.

  • Specyficzne formy cierpienia (formy witalności w psychopatologii:
    • Depressive and manic situations;
    • Anorexia and bulimia;
    • Experiences of addiction;
    • Gender Identity Experience).
  • Typical forms of suffering according to DSM-5.
  • Relational aspects in the experience of suffering by children and adolescents.

Seminar 14 | Online super-vision and workshop session:

Supervision/consultation

Seminar 15 – stationary:

Basics of psychopathology and specific types of suffering in children and adolescents (Part 3). Led by S. Tosi, N. Zhivolkovskaya. Facilitation: K. Slifirska.

  • Specific forms of suffering:
    • neurodevelopmental experience;
    • Experience of excretion disorders;
    • Experience of schizophrenia and other psychotic spectrums
  • Typical forms of suffering according to DSM-5
  • Clinical complexity. Intersections of major individual characteristics with specific types of suffering and clinical situations. Recognizing forms of suffering and the ways in which these forms appear in different situations, in children and adolescents with different individual characteristics (according to Francesetti: “weather”, “landscape”).
  • Basic dimensions of personality according to DSM-5.

The training program provides theoretical and experiential education aimed at developing the skills of a gestalt therapist working with children and adolescents.

Study of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy – edition 1 – organizational information – summary:

Organizer: Lodz Gestalt School

Date of the first convention of the 1st edition: 28.03.2025

Date of the last convention of the 1st edition: 31.05.2026

Number of hours: 195 training hours – 15-month program implemented between 2025 and 2026

Place: Headquarters of the Lodz Gestalt School, ul. 125 Piotrkowska St., Lodz

Number of participants: minimum 14, maximum 20 people

Cost: PLN 22,500 (PLN 4,500 registration fee + 15 installments of PLN 1,200 each)

Languages: Italian, Russian, English with Polish translation provided.

Schedule of the 1st edition: SCHEDULE

Enrollment: Application form

Additional information can be obtained at:

  • phone number: 793 427 777