Continuing Ed Workshops
Step outside your usual ways of working, explore timely ideas, and deepen your clinical practice through the experiential lens of Gestalt Therapy.
Introduction to Gestalt Theory & Practice
This introductory class will provide a beginning understanding of Gestalt Therapy and practice. You will learn about Gestalt theory, methods and techniques, and about what is at the heart of our creative, experiential therapy.
In addition, we'll answer your questions about our training programs in Gestalt therapy. This workshop is particularly useful for those considering entering our training programs.
In this class you will:
Obtain a beginning understanding of Gestalt theory and practice.
See a video of a gestalt therapy session.
Witness a live demonstration of a Gestalt therapy session, followed by discussion.
Learn about our post-graduate training programs.
Meet one or more members of our faculty and students/alums of our training programs.
The class is FREE, but registration is required.
🗓 Sunday, November 22, 2026
⏰ 1 - 4pm EDT
📍In-Person Only
🔄 FREE
📃 No CE Hours Offered
👤 Various Faculty
An Aesthetic and Phenomenological Diagnosis of Contacting: The Six Fundamental Movements
In this workshop, participants are introduced to a precise phenomenological language for those subverbal interactions that form the foundation of lived-experience: the Six Fundamental Movements. These patterns emerge through ongoing movement dialogues within the first year of the infant-parent dyad, and are seen to have a functional similarity in the making of meaning within the patient-therapist dyad. The analysis of these movements, unfolding within therapy, enables therapists to uncover routine inhibitions in contacting, appreciate their important function in the immediate present, and discover how to restore the lively flow of lived experience.
Objectives Day 1:
Understand the forming of contacting through movement.
Learn how contact and support are inseparable.
Learn the relationship between aesthetics and contacting.
Objectives Day 2:
Understand how all moving patterns that support contacting are in relation to the other. I do not exist without you.
Understand that, and how, the client and therapist influence each other through ongoing movement dialogues.
Understand how our internal receptivity and kinesthesia, is crucial to aesthetic diagnosis.
🗓 Saturday, October 24 & Sunday, October 25, 2026 (must attend both for credit)
⏰ 10 - 5pm EDT
📍In-Person Only at HI New York City Hostel, 891 Amsterdam (between 103rd & 104th streets), New York, NY 10025
📃 12 CE Hours Offered
🔄 $350 ($300 for current GCPT students - contact the office for more info)
👤 Ruella Frank, Ph.D.
Voice Attunement for Therapists
Somatic and Embodied, Voice is central to human experience and integral, while invisible, to the therapeutic process. Voice attunement opens therapists’ ears to deepen perception, connection, and intention with clients. Through a gestalt lens, we will explore voice as a window to inner states and processes using discussion, experientials, case examples, and demonstrations. In this workshop, you will:
Understand the connection of voice, body tensions, and defenses.
Learn to use vocal cues to hear clients with greater attunement.
Learn to use your voice responsively to nurture rapport, support, and co-regulation.
Access voice as an additional channel to inform therapeutic interventions.
For clinicians at all levels and anyone interested in exploring the nature of voice.
Day 1
Participants will learn how to:
Identify connections between voice, body tensions, and defenses.
Identify ways voice can reflect inner states and processes.
Attend to vocal cues to hear clients with greater attunement.
Enhance capacity to:
Identify connections between voice, body tensions, and defenses.
Identify ways voice can reflect inner states and processes.
Day 2
Participants will learn how to:
Apply the Day 1 objectives.
Practice and explore use of voice therapeutically.
Explore connections between vocal expression and contact.
Day 1 is a pre-requisite for Day 2, except anyone who has taken Day 1 or Level 2 ‘Voice and ERTs’ previously is eligible for Day 2.
Make sure to register for the correct event.
🗓 Friday, January 15, 2027 - DAY 1
2:30 – 5:30 pm (ET)
3 CE hours • $140
($120 current GCPT students - contact the office for more info)
🗓 Saturday, January 16, 2027 - DAY 2
10 am – 1 pm (ET)
3 CE hours • $140
($120 current GCPT students - contact the office for more info)
🗓 January 15 & 16, 2027 - BOTH DAYS
6 CE hours • $260
($230 current GCPT students - contact the office for more info)
👤 Naaz Hosseini, MA, LP
Getting Real With Clients
How do we deal with real clients?” is the most common request I hear from trainees and graduates. While our method of working with each other in training provides a solid foundation, it does not fully prepare us for clients who are not familiar with Gestalt therapy. We will cover a variety of ways to engage clients in experiential work, particularly new clients and those who can’t – or won't – engage in experiential methods. This will be a hands-on workshop including demonstration and practice exercises, valuable for both beginning and experienced therapists.
Participants will learn how to:
What to do in the intake (that is not covered in the intake guide!)
Introducing the concept of experimenting.
How to deal with client’s self-consciousness when starting chairwork.
🗓 Saturday, March 6, 2027
⏰ 10 am – 4 pm ET (1 hour lunch break)
📍Virtual
📃 5 CE hours
🔄 $195 or $135 for current GCPT students. Contact the office for more info.
👤 Ken Meyer, PhD
Boundaries & Edges
As clinicians, we are tasked with helping our clients find and set boundaries. But let’s be real: we can’t effectively support our clients in this powerful work until we explore our own edges. The spring season is upon us, and so is a unique opportunity to learn about, play with and reclaim our boundaries together. The result? Confidently guiding our clients to do the same.
Can you imagine, for your clients and for yourself:
Feeling the difference between a life full of exhaustion vs. one of enjoyment.
Learning to elevate situations instead of just bearing them.
Engaging in responsive interactions instead of getting caught off guard, freezing or snapping back.
Not wasting precious energy on things that drain you.
By the end of this series, you will:
Clearly communicate what boundaries are and are not.
Effortlessly map where boundaries exist in the nervous system.
Expertly utilize practical, somatic tools.
Support your clients and yourself to experience this season (and beyond!) more centered, awake and alive!
🗓 April 8th, 15th & 29th 2027
⏰ 12 - 1pm EDT
📍Virtual
📃 3 CE Hours Offered
👤 Amber Bankson, LMHC, SEP
Understanding Sex Addiction: From Cycle To Recovery
Sex addiction is often misunderstood as simply a problem of excessive sexual behavior. In reality, it is a complex cycle involving attachment wounds, emotional regulation difficulties, shame, compulsive coping strategies, and neurobiological processes that can leave individuals feeling trapped despite repeated attempts to stop. This workshop provides clinicians with a practical and accessible framework for understanding the addictive system, recognizing common clinical presentations, and supporting clients in moving from compulsivity toward recovery.
Participants will explore the addiction cycle, the role of shame and trauma, the brain's reward and stress systems, and the relational dynamics that sustain addictive behaviors. Through lecture, discussion, case examples, and experiential exercises, clinicians will gain tools they can immediately apply in their clinical work.
Participants will learn how to:
Understand the neurobiology of addiction, including dopamine, reward, craving, and withdrawal processes.
Identify the core components of the sex addiction cycle and the role of toxic shame through a gestalt therapy lens.
Recognize common defense mechanisms, distorted thinking patterns, and attachment dynamics associated with compulsive sexual behavior.
Differentiate between healthy sexuality and compulsive sexual behavior.
Apply practical clinical interventions to support clients in disrupting addictive patterns and strengthening recovery.
🗓 Thursday, May 20, 2027
⏰ 8 – 9 pm (ET)
📍Virtual
📃 1 CE hour
🔄 $165
👤 Alessandro Hillel Zanoni, LP-D, NCPsyA, SCPsyA, CSAT
Gay Gen X 101 is a clinical workshop for therapists exploring the unique considerations of working with gay men in midlife. Participants will examine the impact of minority stress, developmental trauma, internalized shame, HIV-related fear and loss, family acceptance or rejection, identity development, and midlife transitions. This experiential workshop offers practical Gestalt-informed tools for supporting healing, resilience, and authentic self-acceptance.
DAY 1 - Participants will learn how to:
Identify and safely address clients’ internalized shame.
Facilitate a therapeutic alliance between the wounded gay child and the resourced adult self.
Help clients identify and work with toxic self-sufficiency.
DAY 2 - Participants will learn how to:
Understand the WINDOW OF TOLERANCE as it impacts the nervous system.
Understand how PTSD impacts gay men, often silently.
Offer Post Traumatic Growth as an antidote to PTSD.
Understand how generativity vs stagnation shows up in gay midlife.
Gay Gen X 101
🗓 Fridays, June 4 & June 11, 2027
⏰ 10:30am - 12pm EDT
📍Virtual
📃 3 CE Hours or 1.5 Per Session
🔄 $305 or $155 per session
👤 Tom Lorio, LCSW
The Gestalt Center for Psychotherapy and Training is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Social Workers, (#SW-0201), by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychologists, (#PSY-0025), and by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychoanalysts, (#Psyan-0001), Licensed Mental Health Counselors, (#MHC-0079), and Licensed Creative Arts Therapists , (#CAT-0073).