Presentation

With Ministerial Law 9/5/94, the Minister for the Universities and for Scientific and Technological Research approved the Gestalt Therapy Training Course run by our Institute, in accordance with article 3 of Law 56/89.
The background to this recognition is fifteen years devoted to training psychotherapists. In this period we fully proved the truth of Paulo Freire's observation that 'nobody educates anybody'. We cannot think of our understanding of Gestalt Therapy, of our competence as teachers and supervisors, without a sense of deep gratitude towards our students. It is their questions that have stimulated our research, making us reconsider certain assumptions with a critical eye and encouraging us to develop hitherto unexplored aspects of Gestalt Therapy.

For us, being trainers has meant and still means taking-care-of-the-person of the student as an 'apprentice' of a therapeutic model which is to be assimilated and redeveloped in a personal style, which is to say in an original mediation between orthodoxy and creativity.
Gestalt Therapy, in its new, well-constructed analysis of the contact between the organism and its environment, seen as the prime structuring reality of any growth, makes it possible to marry the freshness of the human relationship with a strict theoretical and clinical definition of therapy.

The research we are carrying out with our group and in continuing confrontation with European and American Institutes, will be further stimulated in terms of reflection ad ascertainment in these new Training Programs.
In this sense we are also confident of the invaluable contribution of the academics and trainers whom we are happy to count among the teaching staff at our School, and whose experience and approach differs from our own. Our relationship with them over the years has been characterized by respect and constructive comparison regarding the very heart of the psychological and psychotherapeutic debate.

To our students

We hope that you will continue to make the Gestalt Therapy model known, both in terms of its methodological possibilities, which aim to bring out the artist in every student, and in terms of its theoretical and clinical richness, which offers - first and foremost to the therapist, and then to those s/he treats - the possibility of reopening the blocked paths of personal growth, by restoring the ability to make full nourishing contact with others and with the world, thus discovering or rediscovering meaning and freshness in one's life.

The Training Program

The training program consists of 2000 hours in 4 years, so divided:
200 hours of general academic theory
280 hours of theory specific to Gestalt therapy
600 hours of clinical training in group
400 hours of supervision
520 hours of clinical activity in public health services

Individual psychotherapy is requested and considered necessary in order to get the diploma. It's not included in the amount of hours above mentioned.

Admission

The accredited training program accepts only students who have previously get a Master degree in Psychology or Medicine.
They have to send a written request of admission (by email to training@gestalt.it) to the director of the Institute, explaining their motivation to be admitted, their previous experiences in the field of psychotherapy, their committment to research and clinical applications of psychotherapy.
The Institute can accept only 20 students a year.
Every year a maximum of 2 training groups can be activated, in 2 cities: Palermo and Siracuse. Requests of admission, together with a CV, have to be sent to the central administrative office of Siracusa:
by email to:training@gestalt.it
by mail to:
Istituto di Gestalt HCC Ital
Via S.Sebastiano 38
96100 Siracusa
ITALY