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EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR GESTALT THERAPY
•
ISSUE NUMBER 20
•
MAY 2012
A Goodbye Letter from the President
D
ear members of EAGT,
This will be my last letter as
president and now that I am
writing it, I have already stepped back. I
took this decision on March 28th. This
last letter will be rather a personal one.
This year I got deeply confronted
with the limitation of life and with the
limits of medicine. „Out of the blue“ my
wife fell ill with an acute leukaemia. It
arose within just a couple of days and
the doctor, who diagnosed it, explained
her that she would have just 5-7 days to
survive, if she did not undergo immediately a high dosed chemotherapy. Now
she is since January 26th almost without
interruption in hospital and will have
to stay there until midst of June, before
she hopefully gets a longer period to recover.
From one day to the other our life has
changed completely. Within a few days a
happy, healthy, strong and independent
woman changed into a seriously ill, weak
and dependent one, ﬁghting for surviving. It felt for both of us as if someone
had pulled the ground away that we were
standing on. I had to learn a lot about
this illness, therapy possibilities and the
healing chances. And of course I had to
set all priorities new. Getting aware, that
the long term healing chances for her
type of leukaemia statistically are not the
best ones, I decided to cancel all my obligations in teaching abroad for this year
and to step back from all my engagements in European associations (EAGT
and EAP). I missed the board meetings
in March and ﬁnally I asked the Executive Committee (EC) to accept my resignation, before my period as president
would have expired anyway in fall. Glad
fully they accepted and Bas Lokerse as
Vice-President was ready to replace me
as chair of EAGT until a new president
will be voted on at the AGM which will
be held in September. I am happy, that
the EC (including the oﬃce manager) is
a well functioning team – this makes it
easier to step back.
What do you do as partner, if there
is nothing that you can do besides hoping, that medical help will work? From
Gestalt therapy and psychotherapy research we know about the importance of
presence, contact and reliable relations
as protective factors in healing processes.
And we know that life takes place in the
here and now. So this is what I am practicing since then: visiting my wife daily
several hours, taking one day after the
other as a precious gift and just doing
what feels right for this day. I am deeply
impressed about the mental strength of
my wife, how she deals with the illness,
trying to accept what is, but not losing
faith, that she can survive, knowing that
her life (and life anyway) is limited, but
that there is still a chance to prolong it
in a good quality at least for an uncertain
couple of months or hopefully years.
Together we feel a deep connectedness and it is wonderful to experience
also the presence of our 4 children and
grand children. We are supporting each
other and this gives us all a great energy
of connectedness and strength to go
through all this suﬀering, struggling and
hoping.
I am leaving EAGT with good feelings. It was a great experience to chair
this association, to see it growing and
developing and to have had the chance
to contribute to its development ﬁrst as
Chair of the Training Standards Committee and later on as President, representing EAGT also in EAP. I want to
thank you for your conﬁdence. And I
want to thank all active members, colleagues in the EC, General Board and
the various Committees and working
groups for their great cooperation and
contributions. It was a pleasure to support all kind of activities coming from
these groups. I wish our association and
my successor all the best for the future.
Most probably I will not come to the
AGM in Krakow. I regret to miss the
chance to say goodbye personally to all
those present, but I hope you will understand, that I will have other priorities.
Peter Schulthess
Former President
2
EAGT Newsletter #20
Letter from the President a.i.
W
ith immediate eﬀect, Peter
Schulthess resigned from
all his EAGT functions
due to the serious illness of his wife
and his deep desire to spend the time
they have together with each other.
The signs for this were already visible
in March. Peter has asked me, as vice
president, to take over his duties. I did
this without hesitation and with sense
for responsibilities, although the circumstances by which I had to take this
over were not desirable.
I had another farewell in my mind
for the man who further professionalized EAGT with such a great dedication. Energetic and passionate as he is.
If I still can mention a minus...delegating is not his forte.
I had pictured a good-bye presented with all egards, bells and whistles.
However, I picture this moment yet
to come. Perhaps we can say goodbye
to EAGT together, during the Krakow
conference in 2013.
Back to the now. For the ﬁrst time
I could lead, as vice president, the
meetings in Amsterdam of March
this year, supported by the substantive knowledge of Gianni. Together we
are a good team. There is a welcome to
the new General Board members. The
discussions are dynamic and substan-
tive. The atmosphere is constructive
and open.
Following the report of the GPO
committee, we’ve discussed extensively
about the GPO NOGT as a part of
EAGT. The EAGT is seen as a house
with several rooms. For now a room is
reserved for the therapists and a room
is reserved for practitioners in organizations. With this in mind it is logical
that each country has one NOGT. In
countries where this is problematic is
asked to go into a dialogue with each
other concerning this topic.
Interesting is the discussion about
a possible name change of the EAGT.
From European Association for Ge-
stalt Therapy to European Association
for Gestalt Theory. I know we’ve already spoke about this before. For me
a way to go from forming an opinion
to once making the step in constituting a decision.
As part of the cutting down on the
expenses I propose a diﬀerent meeting
schedule. Therefore I would like to
bring-in the move of the Annual General Meeting which is now held in
September of each year to the beginning of each year, to March or April.
Obviously you will be kept informed
about this.
I hope to see you all at the Krakow
conference in 2013. The organization
of the conference has a somewhat slow
start which raised some concern with
some GB / EC members. I have been
told that this has to do with the Polish
laws. Let yourself not be distracted by
this, as it promises to become a good
conference with a program for the
therapists as well as for practitioners in
organizations.
I wish you all a wonderful summer
and I look forward to seeing you at the
Annual General Meeting of members
in September, Krakow.
Warm regards,
Bas Lokerse
Vice President
Abbreviations explained
AGM
a.i. (ad int)
AM
CM
CoC
EAP
EC
GB
= Annual General Meeting
= Ad Interim
= Associate Member
= Cooperative Member
= Chamber of Commerce
= European Association for Psychotherapy
= Executive Committee
= General Board (Executive Committee and
Representatives of European NOGT members)
GPO
HR&SR
IM
NOGT
OM
OrM
PC&QS
= Gestalt Practitioner in Organizations
= Human Rights & Social Responsibility
= Individual Member
= National Organizations for Gestalt Therapy
= Ordinary Member
= Organizational Member
= Professional Competences
& Qualitative Standards
3
EAGT Newsletter #20
Application for becoming EAGT president
Application for becoming EAGT president:
Gianni Francesetti
D
ear EAGT members,
With a lot of emotion and
a bit of trepidation I have chosen to propose my candidacy as president
of our organisation. I would like to say
something about my background, motivation and vision.
I started my work in the EAGT as
Italian representative in 2005 and I went
to London for my ﬁrst ‘Extended Board
meeting’ (the General Board was not settled yet). I was worried of not knowing
anybody and of not understanding English enough. I was right, but also surprised how welcoming and supportive
the atmosphere was. I am still grateful to
Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb who invited
me to take this role and to the other colleagues that were active at that time in
the EAGT (Ken Evans, Peter Schulthess,
Katia Hatzilakou, Bas Lokerse, Joppie
Bakker, Guus Klaren, Dick Lompa, Harm
Siemens, among others, and of course
Marga Berends). Since then, I have appreciated how meaningful it can be to
have a European point of reference for
a Gestalt therapist and how important
it is to have an international horizon
and net of relationships. I have learned a
lot from thousand of contacts with colleagues from all European Countries and
I wouldn’t be the same person and therapist if I hadn’t met our organisation.
I have seen the EAGT develop: in
number of members, changes in structure, activities, conferences, contacts,
committees, working groups, etc. We,
together, have produced and are producing a valuable net of relationships, learning experiments, occasions for contacts,
improvements of our competencies and
reputation, sense of belonging to an alive
and fertile community. My gratitude is
one of the motivations for my candidacy
and my experience in this organisation
leads my vision of its development.
When I became chair of the Trai-
ning Standards Committee and part of
the Executive Board (Belgrade, 2008),
I could experience more directly this
blooming life. I had the occasion (also
as member of the Pool of Experts of the
EAP), not only to participate in EAGT
meetings, but also to travel and visit
many institutes. It has been a wonderful
chance to meet colleagues and cultures
from diﬀerent countries and to improve
my vision of what the international Gestalt community is and can become.
Besides my roles in the EAGT, I was
also the President of the Italian NOGT
(2007-2011) and I am a member of
the Executive Committee of the Italian
NAO. In this National Association I am
the treasurer and I am chairing the committee for the psychotherapist’s competencies, a working group connected with
the analogous in the EAP.
I am an associate member of the New
York Institute for Gestalt Therapy, and
I feel this belonging as an important
background for all my activities. Another
important side of my professional experience is the teaching and writing part:
I am a trainer of the Istituto di Gestalt
HCC Italy and of the Scuola di Gestalt
Torino and I teach in other institutes in
Italy and abroad. I have written many
papers on Gestalt therapy, especially on
the topic of psychopathology and clinical practice. In this area I am co-editing
a book with the title ‘Gestalt therapy in
Clinical practice. From Psychopathology
to the Aesthetics of Contact’ and I am
the coordinator of a Two Year Training
Program on these issues.
I feel this background supports my
decision to candidate as next EAGT
president: I know this association and
the connected organisations quite well
and I want to commit myself in the
further development of the EAGT. I
think we have to continue to welcome
and support those countries that are not
represented yet in the General Board,
those training institutes that are willing to cooperate with us and maybe become accredited members. We have also
to improve our training standards in a
qualitative direction, a new deal already
started with the working group on professional competencies.
Another important point for Gestalt
therapy is to increase the sensitivity to
research, quantitative and qualitative:
this is probably one of the main future
issues for any approach. I want to underline another ongoing development:
the GPO movement that is enriching
our association. This probably will imply
further adjustments in the EAGT that is
becoming not only the therapists’ home,
but the place that supports everyone applying Gestalt Therapy theory in diﬀerent contexts. In case I am elected, my
commitment is devoted to supporting
these developments and to cultivating
the energies that all members in diﬀerent ways are bringing to the EAGT. According to our theory, I see my leadership as a way of making the leadership
itself ﬂoat where the energy is growing
in the ﬁeld. And, of course, this is possible only thanks to the commitment of
everybody interested and involved in the
life of our community.
Grateful to what I have received
from all of you, I hope I can express my
gratitude throughout my further commitment.
Gianni Francesetti
4
EAGT Newsletter #20
Treasurer’s Report
W
ith the acceptance of my
last term as EAGT treasurer
I promised you a ﬁnancially
healthy organization to pass on to my
successor. In order to realize this additional cut down of expenses are necessary. During the past years in a number
of areas cut down of expenses took place,
such as bankcosts by making use of SEPA
payments and PayPal payments, meeting
costs, postage and digitization of ﬁles.
On the other hand I have to conclude that the expenditures have increased further by expanding various
committees such as GPO committee,
Research Committee and the PC&QS
Committee. Besides that we also have
one-time only expenditures which are a
burden on the balance and have aﬀected
our ﬁnancial capacity. This may be related to a lack of a long-term vision. The
balace sheet looks rosy, at least it seems
so. An important part of the money is
‘earmarked’ money and not available for
general aﬀairs. In total, including scholarship, this is € 20.114,During the GB meeting it was decided to make a further cut down of expenditures on board- and committee costs.
This means that committees only once a
year, meet on site. The Executive Committee and the General Board continues
meeting on-site twice a year.
The only thing we cannot cut down
on expenditures is our personnel. Form
2012 our oﬃce manager Marga will
have an extension of her employment of
2 hours per week. Given the work this is
urgently needed. Marga had an employment of 18 hours per week and she has
to work 24 hours per week.
During the Annual General Meeting
I will come forward with a proposal for a
long-term ﬁnancial policy.
Below you will see the estimate for
2012 and the balance of 2011. If you
like to receive a complete fynancial Report please send Marga an E-mail and
she will forward it to you.
Bas lokerse
Treasurer
BALANCE 2011
Description
Debit 2010
Deposit
€ 4.300,00
Scholarship
Credit 2010
Debit 2011
€ 21.207,00
€ 1.200,00
ABN / AMRO
€ 1.200,00
€ 1.456,00
€ 3.115,00
€ 576,00
€ 599,00
€ 11.228,00
€ 5.201,00
Debtors 2009
€ 830,00
€ 685,00
Debtors 2010
€ 2.905,00
€ 936,00
Cashbook
Assets
Debtors 2011
€ 4.369,00
HR&SR
Donations Jub. Book & DVD
€ 3.848,00
€ 14.359,00
€ 750,00
€ 830,00
10% levy 2011 & 2012
€ 3.725,00
Balance
TOTAL
Credit 2011
€ 15.497,00
€ 21.295,00
€ 21.295,00
€ 15.998,00
€ 36.112,00
€ 36.112,00
5
EAGT Newsletter #20
ESTIMATE 2012
Estimate 2011
Inc. 2011
Exp.2011
Official numbers 2011
Inc. 2011
Exp.2011
Executive Committee (EC)
General Board
EC (EAP meetings)
Costs HR&SR
Costs Ethics committee
Costs NOGT committee
Costs Fundraising comm.
Costs GPO committee
Costs TS Committee
Costs Research committee
Costs PC&QS
Costs Conference
Total costs office manager
Costs Congress
Costs Ceremony S. Ginger
Costs PR
Costs AGM
Costs CoC
Desk costs
Postage
Newsletter
Bank costs
PayPal costs
Website
Costs Tbilisi
EAP/NAP fee
ECP (NOGT share)
Bookspronsoring
EAP (accreditation share)
€ 100,00
Membership fee 2008
Membership fee 2009
Membership fee 2010
€ 2.900,00
Membership fee 2011
€ 60.062,00
Membership fee prepaid
€ 500,00
Membership fee 2012
SV TI accreditation
SV IM accreditation
Re-registration fee (IM+OrM)
€ 500,00
ECP
€ 1.000,00
Accreditation fee
€ 500,00
Donations
€ 0,00
Administration costs
€ 150,00
Jubilee book
€ 500,00
DVD (H.Siemens)
€ 500,00
Advertisement
€ 0,00
Loss & Profit calculation
€ 8.000,00
€ 6.000,00
€ 2.500,00
€ 4.000,00
€ 2.000,00
€ 500,00
€ 500,00
€ 5.000,00
€ 3.000,00
€ 1.000,00
€ 1.000,00
€ 2.600,00
€ 19.000,00
€ 1.500,00
€ 1.500,00
€ 9.463,00
€ 4.137,00
€ 1.485,00
€ 1.705,00
€ 454,00
€ 0,00
€ 0,00
€ 6.134,00
€ 3.048,00
€ 106,00
€ 129,00
€ 2.300,00
€ 18.684,00
€ 500,00
€ 607,00
€ 0,00
€ 586,00
€ 1.000,00
€ 2.000,00
€ 1.500,00
€ 750,00
€ 250,00
€ 1.000,00
€ 0,00
€ 1.000,00
€ 100,00
€ 1.584,00
€ 1.161,00
€ 1.400,00
€ 615,00
€ 321,00
€ 1.028,00
€ 1.632,00
€ 1.060,00
€ 0,00
€ 1.012,00
€ 200,00
€ 800,00
€ 841,00
€ 1.505,00
€ 1.400,00
€ 0,00
€ 230,00
€ 35,00
€ 300,00
€ 0,00
€ 1.747,00
€ 66.712,00
€ 66.712,00
€ 58.139,00
€ 122,00
€ 80,00
€ 145,00
€ 1.384,00
€ 48.477,00
€ 873,00
Estimate 2012
Inc. 2012
Exp.2012
€ 8.000,00
€ 5.000,00
€ 2.500,00
€ 1.000,00
€ 1.000,00
€ 500,00
€ 0,00
€ 2.500,00
€ 1.000,00
€ 500,00
€ 500,00
€ 0,00
€ 21.000,00
€ 1.000,00
€ 0,00
€ 1.500,00
€ 1.500,00
€ 2.100,00
€ 1.500,00
€ 1.500,00
€ 1.500,00
€ 650,00
€ 350,00
€ 1.500,00
€ 0,00
€ 5.100,00
€ 100,00
€ 4.500,00
€ 100,00
€ 0,00
€ 0,00
€ 225,00
€ 2.000,00
€ 500,00
€ 63.578,00
€ 200,00
€ 300,00
€ 500,00
€ 1.000,00
€ 500,00
€ 0,00
€ 150,00
€ 0,00
€ 0,00
€ 0,00
€ 2.753,00
€ 58.139,00
€ 69.053,00
€ 69.053,00
Explanation on bold Italic numbers:
Official numbers 2011; column income; € 48.477,00. This amount is misleading compared to previous (2010) and following
(2012) years because part of the 2011 fee was received in 2010 in order to meet our financial obligations.
Column expenditures 2012:
Increase of workcontract with 2 extra hours for office manager.
Move from Belgian CoC to Dutch CoC (CoC = Chamber of Commerce).
Increase of EAP fee to having more EAGT members.
Booksponsoring (for the time being a one-time only sponsoring).
6
EAGT Newsletter #20
Report from the Training Standards Committee
D
ear colleagues and friends,
recently, the TSC has continued to work in the direction
to welcome new training institutes connected to the EAGT: we have four new
associated members:
• Psihoterapijsko Gestalt Udruzenje
Montenegro in Montenegro;
• Georgia National Gestalt Institute
(GNGI) in Georgia;
• Psihika D.O.O. in Croatia;
• Interregional Institute fro Gestalt
Therapy and Art (MIGIS) in Ukraine
and one cooperative member;
• Psiho-Integrum D.O.O. Sarajevo,
Company for educations and providing
Services in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In April we visited the ‘Institut
Français de Formation Psychocorporelle’ (Paris) and we are in the process of
accreditation of the ‘Istituto di Gestalt
HCC Italy’ (Siracusa, Palermo, Milan):
with these two organisations our accredited institutes will be 27.
We are also going on with the reaccreditation of already accredited institutes and the follow up procedure of
those accredited institutes that have to
make some changes in order to fulﬁl our
standards. As I told you in the previous
newsletter, we are expecting a lot of work
for reaccreditations in 2012 and 2013,
because many institutes were accredited
in 2007 and 2008. Because of cut down
in expenses, the TSC will meet face to
face only once a year, in March, so the
September reaccreditations will be done
via Skype.
Another issue addressed in the committee: the situations of purchasing/selling/changes in ownership/closing down
of accredited training institutes. We
have prepared some guidelines in order
to guarantee our standards in such situations of important changes (see below).
This document has to be voted on in
the next AGM and, if approved, it will
be an Appendix of our oﬃcial paper on
training standards.
Finally, this committee too is in a
phase of changing: Faye Page has stepped
back because she will be too busy in the
next couple of years. I want to thank
Faye for her commitment and fruitful
contribution in these years in our group
and welcome her back when she is ready.
Furthermore, since I am proposing my
candidacy as next EAGT president, in
case I am elected, we will need a new
chair for the TSC. Nurith Levi is willing to candidate for this job and I am
really glad and grateful for her decision.
I am sure that she would continue this
work in a professional, competent and
fair way. So, in September we may have
two vacant places in the TSC, luckily we
have new candidates that can continue
the delicate and busy work that this task
implies.
So, this could be my last report as
TSC chair: I was elected in Belgrade,
2008, I have enjoyed this experience,
the collaboration and support from the
other members, the chance to meet colleagues from diﬀerent training institutes
in many countries a lot. I am grateful
to the EAGT for having given me the
occasion to have this experience and to
all of you for your trust and support in
these years. A special ‘thank you’ to Peter Schulthess (from him I have learned
this job), to Ken Evans (for his trust as
President when I started) and to Marga
Berends (for her continuous availability,
commitment and competence).
Last but not means least, I want to
thank my colleagues of the TSC committee: Faye Page, Lidija Pecotic, Nurith
Levi, Ester Neumanova.
My best wishes to all of you for a joyful summer!
Gianni Francesetti
Chair Training Standards Committee
EAGT Training Standard Paper
Appendix IV
Guidelines for changes in the
ownership of accredited TIs
T
he EAGT TSC has prepared
these guidelines in order to support Training Institutes in case
of ownership changes or closing down.
Changes can happen in case of:
– selling/purchasing of a TI;
– splitting of a TI into two institutes;
– generational passage of direction that
implies changes in ownership.
Training Institutes must notify to
the TSC chair and oﬃce manager these
changes as they occur.
In these cases, the accredited institute has to guarantee that the previous
agreements with trainees, staﬀ members,
associations and the qualitative/quantitative standards of its training programs
are respected.
The former owner must:
– inform all parties involved in the training programs (trainees, staﬀ members,
associations, institutional partners, etc.)
about the planned changes. This must be
done considering that all parties need a
transitional period in order to assimilate
these changes. This communication has
to be sent to the EAGT President, TSC
chair and oﬃce manager.
– Support all parties in a transitional
period where these changes can be as-
7
EAGT Newsletter #20
similated.
– Guarantee that in the process of
change the continuity of previous agreements with trainees/staﬀ members/institutions/international and national associations are conﬁrmed and respected.
– Specify if there are any changes in the
original contracts.
The new owner must:
– guarantee the respect of agreements
and contracts established with trainees
and staﬀ members by the former owner; he must speciﬁcally guarantee that
the program/trainers/training structure
agreed with trainees is respected;
– guarantee the respect of agreements
and contracts established by the former
owner with institutional partners and
international and national associations,
particularly with the NOGT;
– guarantee the continuity of the previous qualitative and quantitative training
standards. In case of not already fulﬁlled
training standards’ conditions he has
also to guarantee that they will be met in
the established time limits. This means
that the owner assumes completely the
agreements settled between the EAGT
and the former owner.
Including in the new contract the
explicit acceptance of these ‘Guidelines
for changes in the ownership of EAGT
accredited TIs’ by the new owner.
Send to the EAGT oﬃce manager
and TSC chair a written communication
where:
– changes in the ownership and any other
changes in the institute’s structure, staﬀ
and training programs are described;
– the way to deal with the transitional
period is described;
– it is explicitly stated that all the previous agreements between the Institute
and EAGT are accepted and will be respected.
It is explicitly stated that the institute
continue to fulﬁl the EAGT training
standards in all its parts and agreements.
Specify in detail any changes.
These guidelines must be respected
also in case of a TI’s splitting or generational passage with implications in the
ownership and explicitly accepted by the
new owners.
Even in cases of changes of directors
without implications for the institute’s
ownership, the accredited institute has
to guarantee that the previous agreements with trainees, staﬀ members, associations and the qualitative/quantitative standards of its training programs
are respected.
Application for Chair of the Training Standards Committee
Application for becoming Chair of Training Standards Committee:
• Nurith Levi
A
t the coming meeting in Krakow
the next president is going to be
elected. Dr. Gianni Francesetti,
who is at present the chairperson of the
TSC is candidate for this role. In the
(hopeful) case of him being elected, the
TSC will have to elect his successor and
I humbly present myself as candidate for
the next Chair of TSC.
I am a social worker, psychotherapist,
family therapist and marriage counselor
certiﬁed and accredited in all these modalities also as a supervisor. In the last
moths I was re-accredited by EAGT for
the second time, which means 15 years
of full membership in EAGT. I am the
chairperson of the Israeli NOGT and
the academic director of the Gestalt training program at the Bar-Ilan University,
in which I am also a trainer. Besides, on
top of all, and most important, I am a
proud mother of four and grandmother
of eight darlings whom I enormously
enjoy together with my husband.
I ﬁrst became interested in the work
of TSC while I was preparing the documents for the accreditation of ISGTA,
and realized for the ﬁrst time what a serious, important work has been invested
in formulating and establishing the various institutions of which our association
is composed.
I am not really a “rules’-person”, yet
I feel that the training standards besides
being practical guidelines, are a part of
the identity-card and a manifestation of
our professional values. Since I became a
member of TSC 4 years ago, I am com-
mitted to the work of our team and ﬁnd
satisfaction in our activity, which brings
us into close contacts with colleagues
from all over Europe, from whom I have
learnt a lot.
In the next years I believe, the TSC
will be facing some challenging issues, reviewing our standards and modify what
needs to be adjusted to current needs of
the ﬁeld. Some of these issues will be:
moving from only quantitative standards to a well-balanced combination of
quantitative and qualitative standards,
developing new means of distant-supervision via skype, looking for ways
to support and encourage training programs in countries that are just starting
to develop their professional ﬁeld in psychotherapy, including some new topics
in the curricula (like social responsibility
and research) and others that I cannot
yet foresee.
I believe that I can contribute to this
ongoing process by stepping into the big
shoes of my most proﬁcient predecessors
and hope to get your trust and support.
Respectfully,
Dr. Nurith Levi
8
EAGT Newsletter #20
Applications to the Training Standards Committee
Applications for becoming Training Standards Committee members (in alphabetical
order):
• Richard Lompa
• Olaf Zielke
I
would like to candidate myself for
membership in the Traning Standards Committee of the EAGT.
Throughout the years I have fulﬁlled
several positions in the EAGT. One of
these was as chair of the Ethics Committee where we worked together closely
with the Training Standards Committee.
One of the requirements for certiﬁcation
is having fully functional code of ethics
and complaints and appeals procedures.
For the last 35 years I have been a
permanent member of the training staﬀ
of the Nederlandse Stichting Gestalt
(Dutch Training Intsitute). As such I
participated intensely in the certiﬁcation procedure of this training institute.
I have also had experience in the training
of Gestalt therapists in several other
countries than the Netherlands. Professional considerations in the training of
Gestalt therapists has had my interest for
many years.
Currently I am a member of the Appeals Committee of the EAGT and am
aware that I would no longer be able to
continue with this if elected a member
of the Traning Standards Committee. If
elected I would terminate my membership in the Appeals Committee.
R. E. Lompa, MSc
M
y name is Olaf Zielke; I’m
from Hannover, Germany.
I had my ﬁrst contact
with EAGT in June 2003 in Vienna, being a member of the executive board of
the German association for Gestalttherapy – DVG. Since then I have been the
German delegate for EAGT meetings.
After Christof Weber became delegate for
DVG I accompanied him at the EAGT
meetings, as I now accompany our DVG
president Veronica Klingemann. After all
these years of being involved in EAGT I
feel that it is now the time for me, to apply for becoming a member of the TSC
committee. Therefore some basic information about me:
I work as a teacher at a psychiatric
hospital for children and adolescents. I
also work in my oﬃce with clients as a
gestalttherapist. With four colleagues I
organized the Berlin EAGT conference
in 2010.
Olaf Zielke
9
EAGT Newsletter #20
Applications to the Ethics committee
Applications for becoming Ethical Committee members (in alphabetical order):
• Matteo Maria Bonani
• Steve Vinay Gunther
T
o all EAGT members,
I would like to bring to you my
application as candidate for the
ethics committee. The motivation comes
primarily from my curiosity about the
actions to improve the quality of our
profession. For me, the psychotherapist
is one of the guardians of the “Polis”
(Platone, Phedro), who takes care about
people’s health and relational health: and
this is the society’s ground.
Our effort in
“Thymos”
(that in
Gr e e k
means
a n i mus,
the capacity
to be
acceptant with who have good intention and
to be assertive with those who have no
good intention) competences are what
is requested to us. To take care about
principles and values of a good practice
and to have guidelines for high standard
levels of training is what I want to promote.
I’m a psychologist, Gestalt psychotherapist since 2010 (H.C.C. Institute,
Italy). I work in the psychiatric area since
2006, as coordinator of mental disability
services; now my ﬁrst occupation is to
take care of the care givers, as supervisor
and staﬀs trainer, always in the psychiatric, neuropsychiatric and disability area.
I see every day the eﬀect of bad practice,
and I feel really angry every time, so I
want to use my feelings and understandings to contribute in the process of good
practice improving.
An other reason of my interest is
the particular time which is going on in
Italy: cause of the need to simplify procedures for the profession’s exercise, a lot
of interest is now concentrated around
the diﬀerent professions like psychotherapist, counsellor, coach etc. so the
professional associations are elaborating
a lot of standards for trainings. To follow
this process, I collaborate with a working group of psychologists in the professional association of my region. I would
like to contribute to the institutional
commitment of the Ethics Committee
and I want to develop ethical issues in
my country to improve the ethical sensibility in our profession.
Thank you for your kind attention, I
wish you a beautiful spring
Matteo Maria Bonani
I
am a maverick. Which is not really
surprising, having American Jewish
ancestry, being raised in Australia,
with a Christian transsexual father, and
me getting into
meditation as
a teenager.
It is this
quality
that allowed
me to
found
my own institute (Northern Rivers
Gestalt), develop it as a high quality
training, and get it accredited with the
education department. I was also a cofounder of GANZ, and a key part of the
development of accreditation for Gestalt
centres.
Now, after 17 years I have moved
on; kids left home, and some grandkids
arrived. My teaching is all international
these days – Mexico, USA, Greece, Japan, China.
I am looking to contribute my skills
and knowledge – 25 years of Gestalt, and
one way I see doing this is by serving on
the EAGT ethics committee.
If I think that the mainstream beliefs
are excluding diversity, I am the voice of
diﬀerence in the group. This has often
earned me an outsider status, including
at times in the Gestalt community.
For instance, I am opposed to the
contemporary risk management approach, where therapeutic choices are
inﬂuenced by a fear of litigation.
Such diﬀerences, combined with ethics complaints from some ex-students,
resulted in an embroiled relationship
with GANZ which ended my membership. I found I could no longer support
or agree with the choices and direction
of the organisation anymore, and they
determined the same thing about me
from their end.
I still see a place for professional assocations, and consider that the EAGT
has an approach more aligned with my
values.
I am ready to consider all sides of
ethical questions. I am keenly interested
in politics, justice and fairness (my ﬁrst
thesis was on psychotherapy and social
change). I am an advocate of dialogical
and restorative justice, rather than punative pseudo-legal remedies in relation to
problems with professional behaviour.
Having been the subject of some ethics complaints, I have my own signiﬁcant learning, as well as a cogent critique
from the inside as to the serious problems with the way ethics committees
sometimes operate.
My perspectives regarding ethics,
power and the therapeutic relationship
are not theoretical or abstract positions,
taken out of a book. They are hard won
insights and awarenesses, which I am
happy to contribute to a collective process.
Steve Vinay Gunther
10
EAGT Newsletter #20
Letter from the Secretary
D
ear friends,
It’s a big pleasure for me to
write here for you and show
you what I have done in this period for
the EAGT. I feel a good energy when I
stay here with you and write about what
I did in this last period (6 months) as
secretary.
Exactly I have scrutinized about:
− 22 new applications, all became ordinary members (this means they meet
EAGT criteria), 20 re-registrations (after every 5 years we have to improve to
in total 100 hour experience as Gestalt
therapist divided as following: 20 hours
supervision, 30 hours refresher courses
and 50 hours of inter vision);
− 12 supervisor applications and
− 1 change from associate member to
oridnary member.
Most applications were very easy
to scrutinize, this is because they come
from accredited training institutes. I
want to congratulate Lidija Pecotic be-
cause we have received 15 new members
from her Croation TI!
In the end I think it’s important to
share with you our commitment to try
to transform the newsletter into a journal
where you (and, above all, young Gestalt
therapists) will be able to publish articles
or send us something creative, but we
are in a slow progress. Probably we will
create a speciﬁc work group.
I wish to thank Marga and the executive committee for the help...we are
very connected!!
Thank you very much for your attention and patience.
My best wishes to all of you for each
moment of your life.
Michele Cannavò
Letter from the External Relations/NOGT oﬃcer
D
ear colleagues,
In the NOGT area there is just
few news from November last
year. First, I would like to congratulate
to the Dutch NOGT–NVAGT on their
re-registration! You did a good job and
were very eﬀective! Congratulation!!!!
Also, the German NOGT–DVG will be
re-registered very soon, we are just waiting for the ethical issue to be done, so
I hope they’ll get their certiﬁcate in the
next months. One more NOGT is in
the process of re-registration, Belgium
NOGT–SBG and I hope they will also
ﬁnish the procedure before this summer.
In the process for OM are the same
four countries: Latvia, Serbia, Poland
and Spain. I hope that this year some
of them will also become OM. From
Malta, Finland, Hungary and Slovakia
we don’t have any news, but we hope
the new contact will be established in
the future concerning NOGT’s in these
countries.
Also, there is news in the joint membership area with Greece and Austria.
These two countries are in the process
for joint membership category.
During the September meeting in
Krakow 2012 we will give you again
the questionnaire for 2012 to see how
things are developing in your country.
For those representatives that won’t be at
the meeting we will send the questionnaire by e-mail. I invite all of you to give
your answers to the questions so we will
be informed about NOGT situation in
your country.
I would like to invite you to inform
us about national conferences in your
countries and to think about some PR
EAGT event in your country, so more
therapists will have opportunity to hear
and know about EAGT community. If
you have any suggestions and proposals
please don’t hesitate to contact me by email.
Wishing you a fruitful spring and
beautiful summer!
Jelena Zeleskov Djoric
NOGT oﬃcer
11
EAGT Newsletter #20
Report Human Rights and Social Responsibility Committee
I
am saddened that Peter Schulthess
should take the decision to step back
from an active role from our committee temporarily because of serious illness of his wife. I wish them a good being together and strength to cope with
this diﬃcult period in their life.
At the time of publication of this
Newsletter has everyone already received
a letter by email about our new wind that
blows on our FORUM page. Gabrielle
Nachtschatt takes the lead to make this
medium more eﬀectively in our HR&SR
activities. With FORUM we create a
platform to share how Gestalt therapist
and Gestalt Practitioners are active in all
kind of social and political activities, not
only professional but also in their personal lives. How we can make these kind
of activities more visible and how we can
support these activities.
We also use FORUM as stepping
stones to the next EAGT conference in
Krakow. The title ‘The heART of connecting co-creating individuals and
communities’ inspired our committee
to actively contribute to this conference.
The current global economic crisis is
aﬀecting us not only in our wallet, but
pushes particularly vulnerable groups
to the margins of our societies or even
be emitted. New forms of community
building are necessary in response to
these exclusion processes. FORUM and
the conference are good places to go into
dialogue and to build expertise in new
forms of community building. I invite
you to take part in the FORUM dialogue.
Although our conference ’Social,
political and cultural relationships as
therapy’s grounds’ in Venice is months
behind us, we are still in the phase of
post contact. All speakers are currently
working to transform their lectures in
an article. The articles from the Italian
speakers must be translated into English.
Our group collectively takes the editing
of a book that will be the ﬁnal chord of
this conference.
EAGT and Peace Brigades International has approved a Memorandum of
Understanding which is a new step forwards in our cooperation. In a co-creating process that has led to this agreement we have now created conditions
for the support of this NGO in the ﬁeld
of human right defenders. To the edition of this Newsletter we are in dialogue with PBI representatives in charge
of volunteer support how to implement
our program. All Gestalt therapist who
showed their willingness to act as a volunteer Gestalt therapist for PBI will be
informed as soon as more information
is available.
Although we are limited in time and
opportunities to meet face to face more
often, it is inspiring to see how we put
forward steps in several areas as committee. Sometimes our work is comparable
to a procession (two steps forward, one
backwards, stand still, two step forwards
etc.) but from meta perspective we go
ahead. It is a pleasure to be part of an
international group of motivated and
inspiring colleagues.
I wish you all a nice summer!
Guus Klaren
Chair HR&SR Committee
12
EAGT Newsletter #20
Report PC&QS working group
D
ear all,
as I have already described in
the previous newsletter, the
working group on Professional Competences & Qualitative Standards has been
set up with the goal of deﬁning the professional competence of a Gestalt therapist. The EAP has already established
a group with the aim of deﬁning the
competence of a psychotherapist (Peter
Schulthess is one of its members). This
is necessary in order to establish what a
therapist is capable to do and what a client/customer can expect from her/him.
This can also have an impact on the possibility to recognize a psychotherapist
when s/he migrates in another European
country. The EAP group is describing
the core competences: what a psychotherapist must be able to do regardless
to her/his modality. And this is a very
good starting point for the EAGT working group that will develop the speciﬁc
competences characteristic of a Gestalt
therapist.
This development may have an impact on our training standards too, we
already have quantitative standards and
a list of content that a training program
must have, but to clarify the competences can help to assess the quality of
a training. Furthermore, it will support
to understand our approach as a complex, well developed and theoretically
grounded method and our work as a
thoroughly way of dealing with the relationship in the here and now. With
the description of competences we can
improve the assessment of trainees too,
and trainers and supervisors can rely on
a common ground of competences that
are explicitly deﬁned.
The group is now writing the ﬁrst
draft of the speciﬁc competences of a
Gestalt therapist, it is a diﬃcult and very
creative process, and I hope we have a
ﬁrst paper before the next General Board
meeting in Amsterdam. Then we will
ﬁnd a way to share, chew and elaborate
this draft with all people interested in
this process.
Thank you very much to the active
members of this working group: Jelena
Zeleskov-Djoric, Jan Roubal, Daan Van
Baalen, Ivana Vidakovic, Beatrix Wimmer.
Warm regards and best wishes,
Gianni Francesetti
Chair of the PC&QS working group
Application to the GPO committee
Application to become GPO committee
member: Pierre Mellegers
D
ear EAGT members,
My name is Pierre Mellegers, I’m 46 years old and I
have working experience in several companies in Human Resources Management and Organizational Learning functions. My
professional
b a c k ground
started
in ’89 by
graduation Information
systems.
After then I followed a PhD in Human
Resources Management and Change
Management. In ’97 I started my Ge-
stalt development and followed 6 years
of several courses in Gestalt therapy.
The combination of working in several business environments and Gestalt
development was very exciting. The ﬁrst
years of following Gestalt development,
it felt like a journey in becoming a master in communication and dialogue.
Everywhere I looked I saw the poorness
in making contact with each other and
the need for accepting each other on a
more fundamental bases.
So two years ago I started my own
company called Mindwork from where
I advice and facilitate organizations in
leadership programs. I act as a coach,
group facilitator, policy maker and interventionist.
For the last 5 years I carry out the
GPO standard how it is organised by
now towards my professional colleagues.
In Gestalt I see the possibility to help organizations in several needs. In a world
where employees asks for authentic leaders, I think that Gestalt can contribute
in building bridges in personal needs
and organizational demands.
My contribution to the professional
GPO platform is to transfer organizational topics into Gestalt and visa versa. I’m highly motivated to build on a
Gestalt platform where we are visible
towards organizational leaders and management development departments. For
example, I facilitate an organization in
2007-09 and write a chapter for a forum
of organizational developers where the
book will be published in June this year.
On this way I promote Gestalt acting.
I’m looking forward to join the GPO
committee. And I can’t wait to combine
this professional platform to several other professional platforms in working on
the human dimension theme.
Regards,
Pierre Mellegers
13
EAGT Newsletter #20
Application for Chair of the GPO Committee
Application for becoming Chair of GPO
Committee: Frans Meulmeester
D
ear Colleagues,
In our last GPO meeting, Bas
announced that he wants to
step down as chair of the GPO committee.
The committee agreed, that I would
apply for this function and therefore, let
me shortly introduce myself.
My professional background has
started in 1972 as a teacher in an elementary school, but short after, I started
to work as a trainer in healthcare and
since the early eighties I have always
combined the work of being a trainer,
teacher with the work of being a counsellor, coach, therapist.
Since 1975 I am interested in Gestalt.
First as a client, but later as a student.
From the start I have looked for
ways to integrate the Gestalt approach
into my work as a teacher, trainer and
counsellor. When I ﬁnished my Gestalttherapy training (1989), it was clear for
me that I wanted to combine the work
as Gestalt therapist with my other work
as a trainer, consultant and coach in organizations. I always favoured this combination.
Therefore I welcomed warmly the
initiative within the EAGT, to give more
attention to the application of the Gestalt approach in organizations and from
the beginning I was involved in the ex-
plorations and discussions of standards,
programs and later on in the GPO committee.
The last year, together with my colleague Vaclav Sneberger, I have developed a handbook for authorization and
certiﬁcation of respectively GPO institutes and individuals.
In the Gestalt institute MultidiMens,
where I am one of the core trainers, I
have always been responsible for the
training programs and workshops on
the application of Gestalt in organization. Besides that, I have supported and
worked as guest trainer in other institutes in Europe, like in Czech Republic
and Greece to start departments for Gestalt in organizations.
All together, I think I can contribute to the GPO committee as their new
chair.
I can only hope, that you will support this nomination.
Frans Meulmeester
Report from the Ethics committee
D
ear colleagues,
The Ethics Committee is
happy to welcome a new candidate who will be elected in September,
by the annual meeting of members. To
me it seems very important that candidates have equal opportunities to present
themselves.
Both candidates have written their
introduction in this Newsletter, and we
thank them for doing that.
We have a careful procedure for can-
didates in general: everyone can candidate him or herself. Before the AGM
meets, the candidate or the board will
ask a member to nominate him of her.
During the meeting of members they
will be nominated by one member and
there will be another member who second that. Only after that the members
present will vote.
Best regards, on behalf of Jan Roubal
and Beatrix Wimmer,
Joppie Bakker
14
EAGT Newsletter #20
GPO lecture
D
uring the GPO meeting we
have decided to forward the
GPO Newsletter to all members. We would like to bring the work of
GPO’s extensively under the attention
of all members who work as therapist or
perhaps work as well as therapist and as
Gestalt Practioner in Organizations.
To prevent that same articles are written in both newsletters I have chosen
– and also as decided in the Executive
Committee meeting, to publish lectures
presented by General Board members in
the Newletter – to publish my lecture/
input during the General Baord meeting
of March, 2012 in this newsletter and
to publish my GPO report in the GPO
newsletter. I wish you a lot of reading
pleasure.
Bas Lokerse,
Chair GPO
JERA:
I run my own organization for carrier
development. The name of my oﬃce is
JERA. JERA means: harvest, fruitful season, cycle. The results of my work.
Carrier development is an umbrella for:
• Coaching / supervision
• Carrier reﬂection
• Replacement and outplacement
• Reintegration
Sessions are mostly individual. Every
fortnight my client and I have a session
and every session is one and a half hour.
My customers:
Customers are organizations in the educational section, healthcare and business
services. Clients are mostly highly educated professionals (bachelor or master).
The organization will pay for the sessions.
Clients are presented by the manager
(management) of the organization or by
the company doctor. They usually inform me brieﬂy what the reason for the
guidance is. I contact the client for an
initial appointment.
Dealing with:
In my work I have to deal with:
• A customer who pays the bill and their
aspects of an eﬀective employee.
• A client who is willing to learn, acquires insight into the way of working
and deals in a diﬀerent way with the organization.
I always say: I can’t change the organization but I can teach you to deal in a different way with the organization.
Topics of Conversation:
Topics of conversation/learning lie in
the areas of:
• The organization
• The tasks or function of the client
• Inside the client
• Private
Or a combination of diﬀerent facts.
Gestalt (therapy) method:
I work from the Gestalt (therapy) method and the supervision method. I have
integrated both theories in what I call
the ﬁeld theory. I call it that way.
Though I do not know whether the
science is correct. The question may be:
what is the diﬀerence between therapy
and GPO in the Gestalt approach?
The base:
The story of the client is the base for
guidance. It is the subjective truth of
the client. It is the basis of the quotation which I send to the organization;
the estimate of the required sessions, the
type of process, time line and costs. I
use a three-way conversation as the truth
of the client deviates too much from the
true of the organization.
Sessions:
The start of the sessions is maybe the
same as in therapeut sessions. I always
ask: ‘is there unﬁnished business and
where do you want to work this session’.
The story of the client is the key.
Learning issues/questions are the red
thread for guidance.
Sometimes the learning issues are
work related (time management, dis-
cipline problems) and sometimes the
learning questions are more client related (less energy, can’t say “no”, it’s never
enough). Learning questions can be supplemented or revised.
Case:
Annemiek is a teacher in “Men and Society” at an educational institution regarding secondary education. She teaches in
a new building which is well designed
with a lot of glass and has also a learning square. Her room is next to the pupil
entrance. Besides her teaching tasks she
manages the resources of the ﬁeld. She is
reporting ill with burnout symptoms.
The story:
Annemiek is angry and frustrated.
The room where she is working is
absolutely not suitable for its intended
audience. Too many incentives for the
students and as a result of that this is
at the expense of her energy. She does
not feel heard by the management team
when she raises this. She is still going to
school because she feels responsible for
the students and the guidance of a SIO
(Student In Education.). She is annoyed
by her colleagues in the way how they
interact with material.
Analysis of the Problem:
The circumstances under which Annemiek has to do her work are quite
restrictive. The way how she deals with
it is costing her more energy than it generates. She points out, discusses it and
expects the management to address the
issue. If not then she will deal with it
herself. Her style of coping is addressing
it actively. This approach does not work
anymore and yet she continues.
She has the same style of working at
home. She asks her husband or children
to do a task and if they forget it or just
don’t do it she does it herself.
Method of working:
In my working method I put Annemiek
15
EAGT Newsletter #20
in the centre and with her the situation
of that moment. Her experiences of the
past year and the way she dealt with it.
Occasionally I ask her to go deeper
into parts of her story. My working
material is that what is and not what is
missing. From her story I learn she has
little conﬁdence in the management
and it seems she doubts her educational
qualities.
Together with her I’m working on
the here and now, raising awareness and
getting in touch with herself, sharing experiences and feelings. I make her home
situation, with her ins and outs, into a
learning situation. She can safely work
on her way of dealing with situations.
These learning experiences will be
used later in the reintegration process. I
pay a lot of attention to her usage of language. She has sacred duties and often
speaks in negative terms. After six sessions I make, together with Annemiek,
a reintegration plan that provides for a
gradual return to the organization.
She, herself, goes in consultation with
the board to make her wishes known.
These talks are successful and they increase her self-conﬁdence. The result is
recorded in the reintegration plan.
Involved parties:
This case shows that a GPO not only
deals with the client but also with the
management of an organization and the
medical oﬃcer. During the reintegration
process the then and there is shaped into
the here and now.
What lies outside the direct ﬁeld can
aﬀect the route. I will name a few examples;
- The organization determines how many
sessions they want to pay for.
- The organization and the medical ofﬁcer have to agree on the reintegration
plan.
- The organization has to be willing to
work together with the client on improving the working conditions.
It’s not just the working conditions
which caused the burnout. It’s certainly
has been a trigger. The case also shows
that the client’s approached her problems in her private situation the same
way. A part of the learning process lies
on the mental level.
The involvement of the client:
portant. I am part of the ﬁeld.
I believe that the tools of the therapist are the same as of the GPO. I believe
that the ﬁeld is diﬀerent, or in other
words due to another input / question /
problem there is a diﬀerent ﬁgure.
Additionally, to the supervision
methodology I also use other tools. For
example; NLP and Voice Dialogue.
Other methods such as core quadrants,
drawing, organizational constellations I
use it independent of the learning question.
Double contracts:
So therefore a double contracting takes
place. One with the client self and in the
same time with the organization of the
client. Both expressed in the price oﬀer.
From the organization of the client:
the number of sessions, costs, the expectation of the coaching, the employability
of the employee.
From the employee: the frequency
of sessions, the learning ﬁeld/learning
issues, the commitment of the process,
the eﬀort, the purpose of the journey.
Openness and transparency are very imExperience in the here and now
Figure and background
Summary:
With the speciﬁc contribution of Annemiek as working material I work together
with her on her awareness (what happens
here, what does it do with me?), acceptance (from that what is), and the opportunity to choose (the chosen method of
working). It oﬀers space, which together
with suﬃcient tools are the basis to work
on the actual reintegration. A recurring
theme during the sessions is the balance
of energy.
She started teaching at HAVO (the
school of higher general secondary education) and VWO (pre-university education) where the emphasis lies more on
transfer of knowledge. In the meantime
the re-integration has been completed.
Profession
Specific work situation
Acting
Wanting
Willing
Person
(part of a team)
Thinking
Feeling
Awareness
Contact / out of contact / boundaries in contact
16
EAGT Newsletter #20
EDWIN NEVIS – A Tribute
EDWIN NEVIS
May 20, 1926 – May 20, 2011
A Tribute
I
once referred to Edwin as the Father
of Gestalt in Organisations (Gestalt
OD). Counting Fritz and Laura
Perls, Paul Goodman and Isadore From
amongst his trainers, he quickly became
one of the pioneers of applying the original theory and methodology of Gestalt
therapy outside the privacy of the psychotherapeutic space. With his friend
and colleague Richard Wallen he brought
his newly acquired knowledge and skills
into management training and organizational consulting, and then increasingly
into social arenas. Indeed, his last book
as co-editor is subtitled Social Healing
Interventions by Gestalt Practitioners
Worldwide.
He was a member of the founding
group in 1955 of what became the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland (GIC) and
its Director for 12 years. He was a cofounder of the GIC Organisation and
Systems Dynamics Center (GICOSD)
in 1975 and part of the faculty which designed and developed the many training
courses there. He was also co-founder,
Chair and later faculty of the International OSD Program. Program 1 was
1993-94, and Program 10 is currently
running. He made his ﬁnal appearance
as faculty during Program 9.
He was on the faculty of the Massachuset’s Institute of Technology Sloan
School of Management for 17 years
where he was director of the Program
for Senior Executives. Amongst his colleagues there can be mention such people as Ed Schein, Chris Argyris and Pe-
ter Senge – all established names in the
world of organizational development.
With money from a donation by a
grateful client, he co-founded the Gestalt International Study Center (GISC)
with his wife Sonia in 1979. When they
moved to Cape Cod in the early years
of this century, he promptly set about
building a training center there. Recently
named after Sonia and himself, the center, in Wellﬂeet, Cape Cod, is the home
of GISC and its many training programs
in personal, professional, organizational
and social development.
Last year, he received the OD Network Lifetime Achievement Award. He
commented that it was “about time!”
And as usual, he was right!
I ﬁrst met him as one of my teachers
on the International OSD Program 2 in
1995. By Program 3, I was his colleague
on the faculty. We soon became friends
and formed a working partnership, ﬁrst
on the IOSD Program and then on a
number of GISC programs that we designed, facilitated and developed togeth-
er. We went from that to becoming close
buddies, who enjoyed each others’ company and shared a liking for good Irish
whiskey, good cigars and long conversations. We also both enjoyed shopping
– especially in stationary stores. We had
a weakness for unusual pens and pocketsized notebooks. He became such an expert on my choice of shirts that he would
sometimes dash into a department store
ahead of me and gather a selection of the
ones he knew I would like, just to prove
that not only did he know my taste, he
knew how unchanging it was!
Edwin had the best collection of traditional jazz I have ever heard, and he
loved to hum and sing along to whatever
he happened to play, from Bessie Smith
to Peggy Lee, from the trumpet of Louis
Armstrong to the trombone of Jack Teagarden.
He was a stylish and classy dancer,
and once he got going the dance ﬂoor,
he was hard to stop. He had diﬃculty
being still within earshot of good dance
music.
He had a copy of every book published by his teacher, friend and colleague, Paul Goodman.
As a trainer and mentor of Gestalt
OD practitioners for over 50 years,
there are generations of us who owe our
knowledge and our skills to his always
supportive work.
Dear Edwin...I am honoured, grateful and proud to have been your student,
colleague, partner, friend and whiskey
& cigar buddy for so many wonderful
years. Thank you.
I will miss you.
Seán Gaﬀney
17
EAGT Newsletter #20
Reports from European Countries
AUSTRIA
Beatrix Wimmer, OEVG
D
ear Colleagues,
here in Austria we have
been busy with processing
some of the topics addressed at our conference on Paul Goodman into articles
which will be published in the new issue
of the German journal “Gestalttherapie”.
The interview with Susan Goodman was
translated into German and the English
version will be published soon, too!
In our continuing training program
we started the year with a workshop with
Sylvie Schoch de Neuforn from Paris on
“Focusing for Gestalt Therapists” and in
March we organised a well attended book
presentation with Stefan Blankertz from
Germany “Verteidigung der Aggression.
Gestalttherapie als Praxis der Befreiung”
(Advocacy of Aggression. Gestalttherapy
as Practice of Liberation).
Autumn will bring Jean-Marie Robine to Vienna; he will lead a workshop
on “Working with Shame and Anxiety
in Gestalttherapy”, conducted in French
with consecutive German translation.
OEVG will also host a short-time
workshop with Karin Deacke (in German language) „Potenziale der Gestalttherapie – verdeutlicht an der Arbeit
mit esoterisch-spirituell involvierten
Klienten“ (Gestalt Therapy’s Potential:
Working with Esoterically and Spiritually Involved Clients).
Anybody interested with German
language skills can ﬁnd all relevant information on www.oevg-gestalt.at
Additionally members of OEVG are
participating in the EAGT project of
describing professional competencies for
Gestalt Therapists. This working group
chaired by Gianni Francesetti as TSC is a
very fruitful and challenging experience
with intense professional exchange in
the international group.
We are very glad that at the annual general meeting of our NOGT we
reached an agreement for a joint membership within EAGT. That means that
OEVG members can now be also members of EAGT with a shortened administrative process and at reduced fees!
We are looking forward to our annual joint springtime OEVG-excursion;
this time we are planning for a bicycle
ride to a small town close to Vienna to
visit an art exhibition at one of Austria’s
famous modern art museums (more information at www.essl.museum).
I wish you all a very joyful and successful spring and summer!
ITALY
Matteo Maria Bonani
SIPG
D
ear all,
In this moment S.I.P.G. is
collecting all the contributes
from the last conference in Palermo,
“Beauty and Pain; from psychopathology to the aesthetics of contact”: a lot of
work for publishing this collection.
It is a pleasure to tell you something
more about the third Italian Gestalt
Therapy conference.
There were 500 people present, a big
result, and many opportunity of development: workshops, panels, lectures, mini
lectures by student and young therapist,
book presentations, posters. There were
more than 20 process groups, they met 3
times per day, at the end a lot of creative
contributions enriched the closing time
of the conference. The social dinner was
rich of contacts and beauty moments: to
see the directors of institutes dancing together is something you cannot forget.
What more: the new president was
elected, Michele Cannavo, our EAGT
secretary and also 3 directive council
members, me, Michele Ammirata and
Roberta La Rosa.
Gianni Francesetti, past president, has
been elected as president of the F.I.A.P,
the Italian N.A.O. of the E.A.P. , a good
success for the Italian Gestalt therapy.
Last March, in FIAP there was a
workshop focused on the psychotherapist competences. At S.I.P.G. some
working groups developed the discussion
around criteria and monitoring of standards training to reach the competences
described on the E.A.P. document.
As you can see, Gestalt is good represented inside the process of developing
our profession.
The experience about the working
groups brought S.I.P.G. to the promotion of organising other meetings focused to other issues. In this way we
want to enrich the participation in the
Italian Society of Gestalt Psychotherapy.
I’ll sure tell you something about this
next time.
Big hug and “good spring wind” (in
a Japanese haiku: “haru no kaze”).
ISRAEL
Nurith Levi
G
ood news from Israel: we ﬁnally have a full training program, planned and structured
according to EAGT standards!
Although Gestalt was introduced to
Israel over 30 years ago, and although
there are over 250 professionals in the
helping professions who have varied
degrees of training in Gestalt, circumstances didn’t allow for a proper training
program to thrive – until now.
In the past we had a one or two
years, post-graduate program at the
school of social work in Tel Aviv University, that is basically experiential, and for
some years we had a branch of the Cleveland Institute that functioned in collaboration with Israeli trainers and oﬀered
one-week modules twice a year. Thanks
to these two initiatives many people
were exposed to Gestalt and some (like
myself ) were captured for life...about 10
18
EAGT Newsletter #20
years ago ISGTA was established (the local NOGT) and we hosted many distinguished trainers from the United States
and from Europe who brought with
them the spur and the encouragement
to enhance our activity.
There was always a plan and a wish
to establish a training program and last
summer they materialized, thanks to the
resourcefulness of two people who were
disappointed at revealing there is nowhere to get a proper training, and took
action to change the situation.
The young training program, runs
under the auspices of the Bar Ilan University, school of education. Due to the
peculiar situation of psychotherapy in
Israel (no regulation what so ever!) and
with an eye to the future, it is essential
to have an academic umbrella in order
for such a program to have any sort of
acknowledgment in the public eye. It is
at the same time the only way to attract
professionals who need their training to
be accredited by their employers.
The ﬁrst 24 trainers who started this
year will hopefully be the pioneers who
will eventually, also become interested in
the activities of EAGT.
EAGT Membership
New Members from December 2011
Christian Funk
Pieternel Geurts
Jannetje Steeg
Karin Swinnen
Laura Corsi
Tini ‘t Hart-Ottens
Karel van Nimwegen
Tamara Dukić
Vali Ferković-Krapić
Jasminka Pribanić
Veronika Reljac
Željka Frković
Dalibor Božić
Maja Heberling
Lahorka Jurčić
Krunoslav Kolarić
Zorica Janković
Monica Bronzini
Guido van Belle
Anne-Marie van Dolder
Karin Endeman
Jessica Léonard
Dia de Lijster
Arthur Stolzenbach
Sandra Zoric
Itaka Martignoni
Wacław Urbaniec
Konstantinos Michailidis
Sonja Božič
Kyriaki-Eleftheria Kalogianni
Dorota Jadwiga Szmatuła
Lucyna Klimas
Anna Biczewska
Grzegors Zabiński
Ivan Janko Cafuta
Katrijn Huygens
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
Belgium
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
Croatia
Croatia
Croatia
Croatia
Croatia
Croatia
Croatia
Croatia
Croatia
Croatia
Italy
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
Bosnia&Herzegovina
France
Poland
Greece
Slovenia
Greece
Poland
Poland
Poland
Poland
Slovenia
Belgium
OM
OM
OM
OM
AM
AM
AM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
AM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
Katia Morel
Carla Engelsman
Femke van der Poel
Huibert Steen
Barbara Nagadowska
Belgium
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
Poland
Altered membership status (from AM to OM)
Marjolein Bouman Hoejenbos The Netherlands
Katleen Feys
Belgium
Theo Gielis
The Netherlands
Snezana Andreeva
Macedonia FYROM
Marijana Markovik
Macedonia FYROM
New accredited Supervisors
Despina Balliou
Yianna Yiamarelou
Wacław Urbaniec
Magdalena Zaleska
Nurith Levi
Ester Neumanova
Barbara Nagadowska
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
OM
Greece
Greece
Poland
Poland
Israel
Czech Republic
Poland
New Training Institutes
Psihoterapijsko Gestalt Udruzenje Montenegro
Montenegro
AM
Georgia National Gestalt Institute (GNGI)
Georgia
AM
Psihika D.O.O.
Croatia
AM
Interregional Institute for Gestalt Therapy and Art (MIGIS)
Ukraine
Psiho-Integrum D.O.O. Sarajevo
Bosnia & Herzegovina
CM
Abbreviations explained:
OM = Ordinary Membership (formerly called full membership)
AM = Associate Membership
GPO = Gestalt Practitioner in Organisations
19
EAGT Newsletter #20
The 2013 EAGT conference in Krakow
D
ear members,
The organising committee
proudly presents to you the
beuatiful logo of the 2013 EAGT conference!
I think this is an inviting opening
sentence to start this article with as I believe it needed an attractive opening sentence. It seems there are some worries
concerning the organising of the next
EAGT conference. With this article we
would like to take your worries away
when reading it.
In Poland laws are operating in another way than in most other European
countries, or perhaps they are working
in a similar way as in Poland. The Polish
NOGT PTPG is organising this confe-
rence and as the NOGT is a non-proﬁt
organisation they are not allowed to gain
any proﬁt by organising the conference.
Therefore calculating all involved costs
take time as everything needs to be estimated and calculated very precise and
carefully. That is one side the organising
committee has to deal with, the other
side is that the Polish court stopped the
work of the Polish organising committee
as they required permission and resolution of the Annual General Meeting by
members of the Polish NOGT. Given
that the NOGT PTPG had to arrange
an immediate meeting for their members.
Everything is ready and is available
for opening and publishing the website
www.11eagtkrakow.com, so you can
register yourself and you can submit
your abstracts. We’re just waiting for the
approval of the Polish court and when
this is given, most likely midst or end of
May open for public, you can do all the
aforementioned things.
I am sure when the website is open
for public you’ll feel invited and you
will get enthusiastic and you will feel the
same enthusiasism again the Polish had
when they presented themselves at the
Berlin Conference!
I look forward meeting you at the
13th EAGT conference!
Ewa Canert Łaka
on behalf of the organisational committee
EAGT Newsletter #20
Agenda AGM
September 8th, 2012
LocaƟon: details will follow on website: www.eagt.org/bulleƟn_board.htm
City & Country will be: Krakow | Poland
Time: from 13:30 Ɵll 17:30 hours
1. Welcome.
2. Minutes of last mee ng (Zürich)*.
3. Ma ers arising.
4. Reports of:
a. President a.i.;
b. External Rela ons & NOGT’s oﬃcer;
c. Treasurer;
d. Secretary;
e. Chair of TSC;
5. Reports from Commi ees:
a. Ethics commi ee
b. Gestalt Prac oners in organisaons (GPO);
c. Human Rights & Social Responsibility (HS&SR);
d. Educa on & Children;
e. Fund Raising Commi ee;
f. PC&QS1 working group;
g. Research Commi ee.
6. Vo ng on:
• Elec on of President;
• Elec on of Chair of TSC;
• Elec on of TSC member;
• Elec on of Ethics Commi ee member;
• Elec on Chair GPO commi ee;
• Elec on member GPO commi ee;
• Re-elec on of PR/NOGTs;
• Re-elec on of TSC;
• Re-elec on of GPO members;
• GPO Handbook *;
• Change of CoC2 *;
• Statutes change(s) *;
• Appendix to TS paper *;
7. All other business.
8. Date and place of next AGM
(September 19th, Krakow, Poland)
Note: The documenta on on the topics marked with * can be downloaded from our
website, www.eagt.org/bulle n_board.htm. If you will a end the AGM we request you
to print and bring the a achments with you. We appreciate your coopera on!
1
2
PC&QS = Professional Competences & Qualita ve Standards
CoC = Chamber of Commerce
European Association
for Gestalt Therapy
We wish you all a very
EAGT Oﬃce
c/o Marga Berends
Noorderdiep 304
9521 BL Nieuw Buinen
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0) 599 614661
Fax: +31 (0) 84 719 3196
E–mail: eagtoﬃce@planet.nl
Web: www.eagt.org
Editor: Lars Berg, Sweden
<lars@egenart.info>