TRAININGS & WORKSHOPS
I am available to train and teach.
Please email me at adamjosephweitzlcsw@gmail.com to inquire.
GESTALT THERAPY 101:
THE ESSENTIALS
This training workshop focuses on the ways Gestalt therapy may be useful for clinicians coming from a variety of backgrounds. A brief general description of the history and development of gestalt therapy will be followed by a presentation of the practice of gestalt therapy and the theory that supports it.
People often ask, “What is Gestalt therapy?” This workshop begins to answer that question. Of particular focus will be the therapeutic relationship, the process of change in gestalt therapy, the role of awareness and experimentation, and more. In keeping with Gestalt therapy theory and practice, the present moment in the room, and the curiosity of participants, will inform the shape of the workshop.
This workshop will attend to the ways that gestalt therapy theory and practice speak to the core social work values of “social justice; the dignity and worth of the individual and the importance of human relationships”. Gestalt therapy is intrinsically aware of the mutual influence that exists between people, as well as between people and their environments.
Gestalt Therapy does not pathologize clients. Instead, people are understood to be developing the best adaptive strategies they can to meet life’s demands. Sometimes those adaptive ways of living become entrenched, or no longer serve the person. The Gestalt therapist aims to bring this circumstance into awareness and to support the client in discovering what new ways they might develop to meet the current needs of their lives.
This presentation includes didactic and experiential activity. My aim is to offer a meaningful and useful introduction to the theory and practice of gestalt therapy. No prior knowledge of gestalt therapy is required to participate. All who are interested are welcome.
CONTACT AND RELATIONSHIP
IN GESTALT THERAPY
We are in relationship from our first awareness, and throughout our lives. Gestalt Therapy recognizes that it is the nature of our relational experiences over time which, combined with our biological temperament, shape our personalities and those of our clients.
This interactive presentation will focus on Gestalt Therapy’s understanding and use of relationship. Gestalt Therapy has developed useful theory to describe the process, and the value, of meeting the other with awareness. This theory is foundational to the practice of gestalt therapy.
This presentation will explore the philosophical underpinnings of gestalt therapy’s relational theory, particularly Buber’s I-Thou, as well as the ways attention to relating with clients may be a prism for change. Participants will learn key Gestalt Therapy relational concepts, such as contact and contact boundary. The workshop will define and explore interruptions of contact, including projection, retroflection, introjection, confluence and egotism.
Throughout this presentation, didactic and experiential learning will be tailored to meet the needs of clinicians from a variety of backgrounds. It is suggested that participants participate in Gestalt Therapy 101: The Essentials (above), prior to attending this presentation.
A GESTALT THERAPIST
DISCUSSES OBSESSIVE
COMPULSIVE DISORDER
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) affects a sizable minority of people. It doesn’t discriminate in terms of gender, age, race, socioeconomic or other demographic factors.
Clinical understanding of OCD has expanded to include a spectrum of different manifestations or “themes”. A key aspect of this presentation will be describing these OCD “themes”. We’ll look at what they all have in common, while recognizing that every person’s experience with OCD is unique. I will offer a brief history of our professional understanding of OCD. In addition, we’ll look at the causes, as best our profession can hypothesize, for this disorder.
Gestalt therapy theory and practice will underpin the learning in this workshop. The format will compare and contrast the ways other psychotherapy modalities theorize on, and treat, obsessive-compulsive behavior. These modalities include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and medication management.
This presentation will include didactic and experiential work. It is recommended that participants be open to interactive group discussion. No prior knowledge of gestalt therapy is required to participate. All who are interested are welcome.
YOU, ME AND
OUR CELLPHONES
Colleagues often speak to me about the ways cellphones are having an impact on our work as therapists. How do we work with the beeps, buzzes and flashing screens that our clients’, and our own, cellphones emit during sessions? How do clients express their attachment to their cellphones? How are communications between therapist and client shaped by use of cellphones? Outside of session, how do cellphones promote or interrupt contact in clients’ relationships? How do cellphones support and inhibit community and society?
In this workshop we will explore these and other questions through the lens of Gestalt therapy theory and practice. Relevant neuroscience and attachment theory will also be included.
This workshop takes up the emergent need to acknowledge and understand cellular phone presence in gestalt therapy sessions and in our clients’ lives. We will heighten awareness of cellphones in the phenomenological field and seek to clarify how we are encountering the novel in this paradigm shift in our professional lives and society. A short presentation on the topic will be followed by interactive and experiential small group activity, with whole group processing as well.
No prior knowledge of gestalt therapy or technology are required to participate. All who are interested are welcome.
LOOKING UP AND
LOOKING DOWN:
RANKING, AN ACTIVITY
AT THE CONTACT BOUNDARY
Ranking and privileging exist throughout the natural world, with many, maybe most, species ranking and privileging as part of their organizing norm. In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to explore ranking and privileging through the lens of Gestalt Therapy.
This presentation arises from my awareness of both subtle and extreme “top dog/underdog” dynamics in our shared social and political field. Historically, we’ll consider that Gestalt Therapy, indeed psychotherapy, emerged from circumstances that included the extreme top dog/underdog stratification of two world wars.
The verb, “ranking”, describes an activity. Whether foreground or background, ranking is a ubiquitous phenomenon of living. This presentation will offer an overview of some of the ways ranking exists in the animal world. Considering other species will be ground for considering how we humans make use of ranking as an organizing principle.
Our work together will include heightening awareness of our own relationship to ranking ourselves, ranking others and with being ranked. Theoretically, the question, “How might ranking be, or not be, held in our contacting experiences?” may be taken up. Synonymous nouns, such as “hierarchy” and “pecking order” will be part of the afternoon’s vocabulary.
Attendees will be invited to consider the ways that we humans manage an ongoing tension between stratifying and equalizing to better and worse result. The afternoon will include didactic and experiential teaching and learning.
No prior knowledge of gestalt therapy is required to participate and all who are interested are welcome.
“Adam Weitz is an outstanding psychotherapist - knowledgeable, empathic, and contemporary. He is a practitioner dedicated to his clients’ well being as approached through the humanistic art of therapeutic conversation with practical, in-the-world “trying out of new experiences” experimentally, as supported by insights from the field of neurobiology. I am delighted to recommend Adam Weitz LCSW.”