Seattle Ongoing Psychotherapy Training Program
2012
A Couple of Individuals

for Therapists with Rita Resnick, Ph.D. & Robert W. Resnick, Ph.D.

Internationally Renowned Gestalt Therapy & Couple Therapy Trainers
March 3-4, May 5-6, September 29-30, November 17-18 2012 • Register Online!

An integrative training workshop series approaching both Individual and Couples Therapy from a Gestalt Therapy perspective. This is a field theoretical, phenomenological, dialogic and process model.

The workshop will include didactic theory presentations, discussions, observing the trainers work live (a rare training opportunity) followed by discussions of the work plus optional “hands on” practice with live supervision of volunteer participants. The balance of how much Individual therapy and how much Couples therapy will be by consensus of the actual group members.

As individual therapy is usually about different relationships in clients’ lives, combining these two modalities of practice sheds important light on how to negotiate both domains — being an individual and being part of a couple. Although not the same, individual and couples functioning both effect and are affected by the other – they are both limited and enriched by the other.

From a Gestalt perspective, both individual and couples therapy are exquisitely process-oriented and profoundly dialogic therapies. In individual therapy the relationship between the client and the therapist is crucial. The engagement (differences) of these two phenomonologies (client and therapist) is what allows awareness, choicefulness and the possibility for change. In couple’s therapy, tracking the couple’s actual engagement within the session is what leads to increased awareness, choicefulness and the possibility for change.

Contemporary Gestalt Therapy continues to stay vital, relevant and at the cutting edge of psychotherapy by constantly integrating (with discrimination), both theoretical and research findings from the fields of psychotherapy, neuroscience, cognitive psychology history, anthropology and more. For individual therapy, the heart of the work is in a fully engaged relationship with the client whereby the relationship becomes the window (“fresh fish”) to identify process.

The Resnick Couples Therapy model explicitly deals with the basic human dilemma that all of us deal with from birth to death: How to be with an other and maintain a self…? as well as the fundamental source of all couples issues: Dealing with difference. With rare exceptions, how couples deal with differences is far more important than what the differences actually are.

This workshop will be taught by seasoned Couples Therapy and Gestalt clinicians and Trainers who are willing to allow their own live work as psychotherapists to be seen, questioned, and compared with both their own theoretical formulations as well as other theoretical models and their practitioners. Participants will have the option of working as therapist with others in the workshop with live supervision from the faculty. The work will be carefully discussed and supervised in a respectful, supportive and collegial manner – hopefully providing useful and assimilable consultation. These workshops will teach participants our integrated theory and how it relates to both individual and couples work. All clinical work will be related to theory, hopefully making both more relevant and meaningful.

Workshops will include:

• Theory lectures on contemporary Gestalt and Couples Therapy encouraging questions, comments and comparisons (both within different Gestalt Therapy models as well as among Gestalt therapy, CBT, Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Emotion Focused, Systemic, Postmodern, etc.)
• Live “hands on” clinical work by the faculty with workshop participants (individual therapy) as well as model couples (couples therapy) with real live couples. Supervised practice for all therapists will be available and all clinical work will be related to theory — to clarify and to make both more meaningful and practical.
• Participants will see and discuss live work being done by the faculty rather than just “talking about what woulda, coulda, shoulda” happened — which unfortunately characterizes most clinical training and supervision today.
• Voluntary opportunities for participants to work as therapist with individuals in the group and with role-play and perhaps model couples all with live, supportive and collaborative supervision.
• Each piece of clinical work will be related to the theory. Discussion, comparisons, questions and comments are welcomed. Theory, methodology and technique will all be addressed. Bring your biases (you do have them), your open-mindedness to perceptually reorganize (hopefully) and your sense of humor (please).

24 CE Credits available for therapists attending this series GATLA is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GATLA maintains responsibility for these programs and their content. GATLA is approved by the BBS for continuing education credit for MFT’s and LCSWs as required by the Calif. Bd. of Behavioral Sciences, BBSE approval no. PCE 841.

We are planning for both the Resnicks to do this training. However, if the registration does not warrant both, only Bob Resnick will do the training.

REGISTER ONLINE!!

Schedule:
We will have an optional theory review (no additional cost) on Friday evening, March 3rd at 7:30PM at the same location. This is to bring any new people up to speed on the basic theory and for a review for those who have been with us previously and would like a refresher.

Times:
Friday Evening, 7:30PM – 9:00PM (March 3rd only – optional and encouraged.)

Saturdays: 9:00AM – 12:30PM | 2:00PM – 6:00PM
(Please arrive around 8:30AM for Coffee and snacks)

Sundays: 9:00 AM – 12:00PM | 1:30PM – 3:00PM
(Please arrive around 8:30AM for Coffee & snacks)

REGISTER ONLINE!!

Robert W. Resnick, Ph.D. & Rita F. Resnick, Ph.D.

From a Fusion Model to a Connection Model
From Stencils and Templates to Movement and Process

MARRIAGE AND RELATIONSHIPS TODAY (straight and gay) are, to a large extent, based on the assumption that two individuals fuse into one. More than 50% of all first marriages end in divorce, as do approximately 70% of second marriages. Add to this the remaining secretly “miserably married”– those living lives of quiet (or not so quiet) desperation based on fear of being alone, fear of damaging the children, financial insecurity, religious doctrine, social stigma, etc. — and we begin to see the magnitude of the problem. Simply put, we are either all seriously disturbed (pathologizing all of us) or there is something fundamentally flawed with our traditional model of relationships and marriage. Traditional models of marriage and coupling evolved within contexts that met the needs of the situation (environment and people) at the time — FORM following FUNCTION. Unfortunately, when FORM becomes rigid while FUNCTION changes, our models become outdated and obsolete — vestiges and remnants of another time wreaking havoc on today’s attempts for mutually nourishing, long term, primary relationships.

Dealing with differences is the second fundamental dynamic that is at the root of almost all couples issues. Most people are acculturated to view difference as dangerous (as threats to their autonomy, criticisms, attacks, betrayals, etc.) and therefore try to eradicate difference by either becoming like the other (fusion) or trying to make the other like them (conflict). In reality all contact (and connection) can only happen through difference. Difference is connective tissue. The Resnicks, respectful and appreciative of difference, have evolved new ways to collaborate, engage, compromise, trade and even celebrate differences.

This model of coupling enthusiastically supports marriage and other committed long term relationships. Only with a long-term primary relationship, can couples build a shared ground of mutual support and understanding.

The Resnicks are, however, fundamentally questioning how people historically and currently attempt to do this. Clearly, current models of marriage and other committed long-term relationships do not work very well for most people. Trying harder at that which doesn’t work simply leads to more frustration and blaming of self or other. This Couples Therapy Training Program is aimed at helping people have more nourishing, enduring and successful marriages and other long-term primary relationships.

Doing therapy with couples is more than embracing a theoretical orientation, a methodology or an eclectic bag of tricks and techniques. It is more than coming up with “deep understandings” from childhood, brokering behavioral “deals” that usually only postpone the explosion and subsequent withdrawal, or unhooking couples from their old narratives and trying to get them to buy the therapist’s new story. In order to do effective couples therapy, therapists need to look beyond trying to help “make the relationship work” within a coupling model that doesn’t work and to widen their perspective and the clinical work to a process approach. Relationships and marriage are difficult, rhythmical and not for the faint of heart. Most importantly, ongoing primary relationships are worth the effort.

2012 MARKS THE 41st YEAR of GATLA’s

There are many aspects of GATLA’s Summer Residential Training Program that distinguish it from other training programs in Gestalt Therapy and make it a cutting edge training opportunity as well as a benchmark for Gestalt Therapy Training Programs worldwide:

IN 2012 GATLA HAS INVITED SEVERAL “DISTINGUISHED GESTALT VISITORS” to be part of the training. These are Gestalt teachers and trainers who have made or are making an important contribution to Gestalt Therapy. These guests will have the opportunity to supervise some trainees, sit in on groups and add their perspectives, give evening presentations and add an unparalleled richness to our community. There will be opportunities to talk, eat, “schmooze” and laugh with these honored guests. In 2012, DGV will not work as therapist in the groups, but may offer optional opportunities in evening sessions. The DGVs for 2012 are: Lucana Grey, MA from San Francisco, CA (former Director of the Church St Integral Counseling Center), Alan Cohen, MSW, (faculty and clinical director at Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy NYC), Connie Newman, M.A., (faculty, Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy NYC) and Brigitte Rasmus, Dipl. Psych (Lecturer at several universities, currently at Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna (SFU), co-founder of Institute for Integrative Gestalt Therapy Würzburg (IGW), Germany).

STRONG COMMUNITY — International in scope – participants from 20-25 different countries. Internationally trained faculty.

FIVE LEVELS OF TRAINING Basic — MasterClass. Interdependent groups, interweaving theory, supervision, group work and personal therapy.

SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT — Therapists and consultants can do their own personal therapy and training away from their home community.

CLINICAL PRACTICUM — Participants have an individual therapy client whom they see daily with live supervision. This offers an ongoing experience both with therapy and intensive supervision over time.

MASTERCLASS — a group for very experienced Gestalt Therapists — will again be offered in 2012. This group offers an opportunity for very experienced therapists who have completed their training (with GATLA or other institutes — Gestalt or not) to observe and do personal work with all three core faculty members: Todd Burley, Ph.D., Rita Resnick, Ph.D. and Bob Resnick, Ph.D.

PARTICIPANTS PRESENT THEIR WORK — Optional evening presentations.

TRIOS OR QUARTETS — Practice Gestalt methodology under the supervision of a Trainer, Group Leader or a member of the Clinical Practicum or MasterClass.

FACULTY COMMITTED TO DIALOGUE — We are constantly evolving and changing our program based on feedback and proposals from participants, from advances in psychological science as well as Gestalt theory and practice.

RETURN RATE OF OVER 80% — Attests to the relevance, flexibility and growth of this program.

Training Levels

BASIC GROUP: The Basic Group is designed for applicants who are new to Gestalt Therapy or who have limited post-graduate training in Gestalt Therapy. Many Basic Group members come to our training with years of useful and relevant experience, however they are not familiar with Gestalt theory or therapy.

ADVANCED GROUP: Designed for clinicians who have a minimum of 2 years of Gestalt Therapy training.

ADVANCED INTENSIVE GROUP: Each member of this group is assigned a client from within the group to work with in front of the large group as well as within the trios.

CLINICAL PRACTICUM GROUP: The Clinical Practicum group focuses intensely on improving participants’ clinical skills and emphasizes the integration of clinical work and Gestalt theory.

MASTERCLASS: Designed to meet the needs of very experienced Gestalt therapists who have completed training with GATLA or other Institutes. They will work directly with core faculty (Todd Burley, Rita Resnick, and Bob Resnick) followed by in depth discussion of therapeutic and theoretical issues, enhance therapeutic and supervisory skills as well as an opportunity to get sophisticated feedback on personal research, clinical, and teaching or service projects.

Please click photos for more information on this program.