Our Vision

To restore the Human sense of belonging in a desensitized world

Our Purpose

To achieve our vision through experiential group training of psychotherapists in the art
of mutual recognition, resonance and embodied dialogue

Our Values

Experiential

Embodied Knowing

Exploring Co-Creation

Expanding Through Difference

Embracing Play

Evolving Through Dialogue

The Gestalt Institute of Toronto is one of the oldest established psychotherapy training schools in Canada. We were established in 1973 as a center for some of the leading Gestalt practitioners of the day, including Lore Perls and Isadore From. In addition to the training of psychotherapists we have a tradition of providing one of the most challenging levels of personal growth and development workshops and ongoing groups. Our commitment to experiential learning means that our graduates have embodied the theory and approach in their lives as well as their work. Over and over we hear from our students and participants: I have never connected more deeply to others, I now can be myself within a group, or I have found my honest voice…

In June 2014 we became the first psychotherapy institute in Ontario to be recognized by the newly established College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO) as addressing all of the required criteria for training. The GIT continues to hold its own on the international scale with the quality of training as well as its association with leading international Gestalt trainers.

Gestalt therapy today is vital and expanding throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas with schools in Scandinavia, Russia, Great Britain, France, Germany, Central and South America, Tibet, China as well as Canada and the US. The GIT is part of a growing international family committed to the leading edge in humanistic psychotherapy training based in neuroscience and quality based research, dedicated to the movement from behavioural and cognitive focus to experiential, relational, embodied and field approach.

Our students come from backgrounds as varied as the arts and information technology, education, occupational therapy, social work, bodywork and yoga. Some have always known that they flourished in the experiential approach or they seek to balance their academic strengths with embodied knowledge. The Gestalt psychotherapist brings their whole self into a variety of settings, in private practice as well as institutional settings working with a range of human suffering including psychopathology and addictions, anxiety and trauma.

WHY CHOOSE THE GIT

Proven track record
The Gestalt Institute was established in 1973 as a charitable educational institute with a Board of Directors and an experienced faculty.

The Gestalt Institute of Toronto has been recognized by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario as meeting all entry to practice requirements and competencies. Students apply for RP (Qualifying) status in Year Five of the Training Program.

Experiential Learning
This is the lively engagement in present centered activities in which past associations and present feelings come together in meaningful connection with others. Our Program is not only sound academically but taught in an experiential and experimental format. Evidence based research shows that experiential knowing through embodied relational learning produces lasting change.

In this way the entire five years focuses on living creatively and artistically within the living co-created present. This is the backbone of Gestalt psychotherapy. Our goal is to train people in the art of being human so that they can guide others with compassion, humility and respect. Since our inception, our first two years have also provided support for students seeking to discover their own unique paths.

The Training Group
This is where it all happens. It is a space, in the words of Gordon Wheeler, “specifically devoted to experiencing new relational meanings.” Your group is “home base” – a community of shared purpose to return to when the rigors of life need to be integrated and shared. Your group is also an experimental laboratory for personal work, interpersonal challenge and support, a creative space where the imagination of what could happen is finally risked out in the world.

Graduates
Our graduates work in a variety of clinical settings. Not only do they form successful careers as psychotherapists but they also specialize in family work, work with children, combine art, movement and drama backgrounds with Gestalt, and work in corporate settings. Recent evidence-based research cites Contemporary Gestalt therapy “from the ground up” approach as highly effective in working with trauma sufferers and victims of violence.

Principles of Training
Life is a challenge through which we continually grow.
Experience is learning.
Humans are inherently relational and the most powerful experiment is to know who we are through our undefended response to one another.

Schedule
Part-Time Training allows continuation in current work and time for integration Scheduling the training on evenings and weekends is intended to support family and work schedules while providing intensive and practical training.

Personal Growth
Students enter the program with expectations to meet personal challenges that can enhance their confidence and flexibility in their lives. Change becomes possible only when there is support, and the co-creation of individual support within the group is a focus throughout the training. From the Gestalt perspective it is not possible for me to grow until we meet.

International Community
Our students come not only from Canada but from countries in Europe and Asia where Gestalt therapy training is growing. This offers an expanded international community of support and students are encouraged to participate in international organizations, conferences and webinars. In being a home for Contemporary Gestalt, the Gestalt Institute of Toronto has become part of an exciting field of philosophical and action oriented possibilities in Europe and the United States.

The Gestalt Institute of Toronto was registered in 1973 as a private educational institute and a registered charitable organization. Currently it has a Board of Directors that works with the Faculty to establish policy and direct planning. All tuition fees and donations are deductible for income tax purposes as permitted under the Canadian Federal Income Tax Act.