Year Three
Embodied Relational Practice

In Year Three, students learn to experiment with the safe and effective use of themselves in deep phenomenologically based dialogue with one another, as well as supervised therapy practice in their own group and with students in Years One & Two. Intensive practice on short pieces of therapy build comfort in the therapist’s chair.

Year Three students are introduced to the primary ethic of Gestalt practice, called SOS which refers to Self, Other and the Situation that arises when the two meet. Much of the work of the year brings attention and awareness to their own embodiment in a variety of experiences, to the felt impact of the other’s embodied presence, and to the sensing of the atmosphere created in the space between. In this way, students begin to understand their body’s feeling sense as a relational knowing about the other as the support for beginning therapy practice.

This is also a leadership year when students dedicate an extra two months of their schedule to assist alongside faculty with Years One and Two and learn to follow the principles of group process while adding their own creativity into the flow. Therapy practice, co-leadership opportunities within the year, and the formation of study groups for peer support, prepare the students for Year Four when they will be seeing clients through their practicum.

Learning Outcomes in Year Three include:

• • Refine & discover a language for the embodied experience with others that will become an effective bridge to change

  • Awareness of self in relation to professional role

  • Develop safe & effective use of self in a therapeutic relationship with peers and students in Years One & Two

  • Learn to bracket assumptions and become aware of biases to assume non-judgmental stance

  • Maintain appropriate professional boundaries with Year One and Two students and peer co-leaders

  • Adapt the therapist’s approach within a diverse group

  • Demonstrate awareness of the impact of context and the presence of the therapist and the co-leader on process

  • Demonstrate effective skills of awareness of self, the client, the co-created field and the process of contact — “the dance”

  • Develop an experimental attitude and approach

  • Employ empathy, respect and curiosity

  • Maintenance of self-care and level of health necessary for responsible therapy and group membership.

    Students are expected to complete:

• • Oral and written assignments

  • 160 hours of experiential and didactic teaching

  • 50 additional hours of supervised leadership

  • Brief live therapy demonstrations

  • Total of fifty hours of personal therapy with Gestalt psychotherapists by the end of Year Three.

Progression from Year Three to Year Four is determined by faculty assessment following the May weeklong training after guidance and review throughout the year.

Tuition Fee

• • $4900 plus residential fee
  • Five-Day May Residential fee of $840 includes accommodation and all meals.

*Travel arrangements are the responsibility of the individual