Congress
In the year 2014, Dr Lidija Pecotić, director of EAPTI-GPTIM, was inspired to pass on knowledge, experience and the love of Gestalt Psychotherapy, beyond the boundaries of higher education institutions and individual centres. Through this, she developed the idea of organizing regular Gestalt Psychotherapy Congresses that would bring together international and interdisciplinary participation. In collaboration with her colleagues, in different Gestalt Psychotherapy Centres, including: Serbia, Macedonia, Malta, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Germany, UK, and Italy such congresses became a reality with over 500 persons, from all over the world, attending and participating in each one.
The aim of these Congresses is to present the content and process of participants’ responses to a selected Congress theme, usually derived from previous Congress’, and to open a discussion platform, to research and discover new ways of responding to the challenges that contemporary society never cease to put in front of Gestalt Psychotherapy and psychotherapy in General.
Through the Congress experiences, we intend to enhance the ways phenomena related to psychotherapy, in contemporary society, are observed and approached, to inspire participants in further personal and professional growth, and to further develop our community of professionals, sharing common programs of education, in the process of becoming Gestalt Psychotherapists and in their journey as psychotherapy practitioners.
For this reason, the congress adds further to the experiential learning process of all students undergoing training programmes with EAPTI-GPTIM and EGN, and is offered as an additional mode of teaching. It enriches students, by giving them the opportunity to meet other members of the ever-growing gestalt psychotherapy community – students, teachers, lecturers, speakers, pioneers in the field of psychotherapy – coming from different teaching institutions and countries as well as from related fields of knowledge.
The Congresses usually consist of keynote lectures, lectures for smaller number of participants and workshops. These are all led by distinguished international lecturers and participants from different scientific and socio-cultural fields.
The Congresses are also significant because they celebrate individuals who have contributed significantly to the field of psychotherapy. As from the second Congress organized, a tradition began, in which two significant awards were given, as plaques, for the most successful achievements in the field of psychotherapy:
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The award “Josip Berger” is awarded for the most successful achievements in the field of education of psychotherapists.
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The award “Ken Evans” is awarded for the most successful achievements in the field of development of the profession of psychotherapy.
The Congresses are organised with the generous ongoing commitment of Dr Lidija Pecotić in collaboration with the following various centres:
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European Accredited Psychotherapy Training Institute Malta – GPTIM, Higher Education Institution (NCFHE 2014-FHI-020);
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European Accredited Psychotherapy Training Institute – Studio za edukaciju Beograd, Serbia;
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European Accredited Psychotherapy Training Institute – Gestalt Institute Skopje, Macedonia;
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Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Institute – Psiho-Integrum d.o.o. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina;
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European Accredited Psychotherapy Training Institute Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Institute – Psihika d.o.o. Zadar, Croatia;
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Intronaut NGO Zagreb, Croatia;
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Association of Gestalt Psychotherapy Montenegro.
EAPTI-GPTIM takes this opportunity to show its appreciation and to thank all persons involved in making this process a reality.
