“Gestalt Contact Styles: Bring choice on how to contact the world”
Online Experiential Seminar
The seminar will be conducted in English with simultaneous translation into Polish
As organisms we can only exist in constant contact with the environment. This contact not only ensures our survival: its quality determines our nourishment and consequent growth, our ability to respond to various situations (responsibility), and our overall enjoyment of life.
However, negative experiences of our childhood, as well as the absence of necessary positive ones, forced us to limit and distort our relationship with others, with reality, and with our own self in order to protect us from what we saw, felt and thought…
Unfortunately, almost without realizing it, the protection of the past has turned into the prison of the present -very much like the little rope that keeps a huge elephant tied up- and as a result prevents us from fully participating in and savoring life.
In this workshop, we will explore 6 basic defense mechanisms (or “contact boundary functions” as they are called in the language of Gestalt Therapy):
🔸INTROJECTION: Unquestioningly swallowing undigested foreign injunctions and becoming a human parrot or a mouthpiece (e.g. media).
🔸PROJECTION: Blaming others for own vices, since “hell is—other people!” (Sartre).
🔸RETROFLECTION: I hold back and bottle up until I develop an autoimmune disease, cancer, etc. or I explode and then I start all over again.
🔸DEFLECTION: I play dumb and become my own spin doctor, so efficiently that in the end nobody understands me, not even my very self.
🔸CONFLUENCE: I never rock the boat, like the good boy/wife/follower that I am, I always say “yes”.
🔸PROFLECTION: I give to receive, the helpless helper, expecting you to know my needs/feelings without me asking.
We will theoretically examine the above protective mechanisms through rich audiovisual material with examples from films and scenes of political and social life; this will help us realise how these mechanisms function on a collective level. At the same time, we will delve deeper through experiential exercises to discover how we use these mechanisms in our personal lives.
The seminar is 50% theoretical - 50% experiential. In addition to personal explorations there will be processes in dyads and the whole group. For participants who wish to take part in the experiential part, they need to have access to a camera and microphone. The use of a big screen (e.g. laptop) is also recommended for better participation.
By increasing our awareness of our current reality, we can restore to ourselves the freedom to consciously choose how, when, and how much to take part and interact with the environment and realise our own, true, desires!
History & Philosophy of Gestalt Therapy
Liv Estrup:
"Don’t miss this dynamic presentation about the history and philosophy of Gestalt Therapy.
Dimitris presented his work at the GATLA Summer Residential in Bulgaria to high praise.
His use of art and language bring new life to our Gestalt history.
I thoroughly recommend it." Liv Estrup, Faculty
Jay Levin:
"Dimitris meticulously provided an exceptional socio-cultural perspective of the background origins and influences on the development of Frederick and Lore Perls’ Gestalt therapy theory and practice, presenting a colorful and lively exposition of its many rich contexts. I was deeply absorbed, entertained and informed by the breadth and depth of his explorations as well as his openhearted personal style of presenting this highly overlooked and neglected material, including the often-ignored political implications. I highly recommend this presentation.” – Jay Levin MA (Clin Psych), LMHC, NCC
🟣Facilitator:
Dimitris Tzachanis, founder of Gestalt Synthesis, is an accredited psychotherapist by the National Society for Psychotherapy of Greece (NOPG), holder of the European Certificate of Psychotherapy and member of the European Association for Psychotherapy. He trained in Gestalt Therapy by the Gestalt Institute of San Francisco, was the head of the institute in Greece and is a member of the European Association for Gestalt Therapy (EAGT). He is also an accredited body psychotherapist, graduate of the Center for Psychotherapy & Counseling "Wilhelm Reich” and member of the Greek and European Association of Body Psychotherapy.
He has studied Social Anthropology (BA) at Kent University and Psychoanalytic Studies (MA) at Brunel University in London. In addition, he has finished trainings in Trauma Therapy, the Diamond Approach, IFS, Healing the Inner Child and others. He is inspired by the Transpersonal therapeutic philosophy and in his approach he has integrated elements from various therapeutic modalities. He is working both individually and with groups, designs and facilitates therapeutic and training seminars and is teaching Gestalt Therapy at Kethesy.
Dates
Sat/Sun, October 04 & 05, 2025; 5pm - 9pm. Warsaw Time (CET)
Cost: Early Bird 120 EURO / 137 USD / until 23rd of August
as of 24 August Regular Price 145 EURO / 165 $
International account number for making payments (you can pay in euro):
Inspiroway - Andrzej Solarz
IBAN: PL 65 1050 1168 1000 0090 8471 0905
BIC SWIFT: INGBPLPW
International account number for making payments (you can pay in usd):
Inspiroway - Andrzej Solarz
26/40 Noakowskiego Street
00-668 Warsaw
IBAN: PL 47 1050 1168 1000 0090 8477 5734
BIC SWIFT: INGBPLPW
PayPal: paypal.me/inspiroway (when choosing, please add 4 Euro/ 5 USD PayPal fee)
Regisration :
https://forms.gle/cczdSYHjyGemhbGw9
The seminar is aimed at:
• Anyone interested in personal development.
• Mental health professionals and trainees
(psychologists, mental health counsellors, psychotherapists etc.)
CERTIFICATE: Participants will receive a certificate of participation: these 8 hours can be used for re-registration to EAGT.
The seminar will be recorded, so there is the option for participants that miss sessions to watch it asynchronously for 3 months (90 days) after its completion.
#GestaltTherapy #TerapiaGestalt
#DefenseMechanisms #MechanizmyObronne
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