Context and Contact

A Values-Informed & Trauma-Responsive Introduction to Relational Gestalt Therapy

For the past 17 years, our training program has been intensely competitive, admitting only a small handful of applicants each year.  We are thrilled to be able to offer a version of our cutting-edge training to a larger audience.

This series provides an overview of TRC’s Relational Gestalt Therapy in an affordable, accessible package perfect for licensed clinicians and Associate counselors. It is also an outstanding review for our TRC Alumni who want a refresher for themselves or introductory training for their associates.

Continuing Education Units are available for licensed practitioners.  

Dates: February 9, March 9 , April 6, May 4 2025┃Time: 9:30a to 12:30p┃Location: Online

This training is for

  • Community & Movement Workers

    If you work in the heart of your community—whether as a counselor, advocate, or organizer—this training is for you. Grounded in the ethos of community mental health and activism, our approach weaves together relational Gestalt principles with the spirit of civic engagement.

  • Mental Health Professionals

    This is an accessible, more affordable way to explore Relational Gestalt through a lens of community care. Whether you’re new to Gestalt or looking to refine your skills, this series is designed to enrich your clinical work and help you build stronger, more connected therapeutic relationships.

  • Private Practices & Their Associates

    Support your team’s growth and spruce up practice’s clinical skills with tools that go beyond traditional training. This program is an excellent resource for clinicians looking to introduce their associates to Relational Gestalt Therapy or revisit these principles themselves.

By the end of the four weekends, you will learn to:

Understand the core pillars of Relational Gestalt Therapy, including field theory, phenomenology, and dialogue.

Recognize how therapy can be a political act, integrating cultural humility and an awareness of power and privilege into your clinical work.

Identify patterns of creative adjustment that shape well-being and adaptive functioning in yourself and your clients.

Apply embodied relational practices to enhance presence, resonance, and trauma responsiveness in therapy.

Differentiate between bottom-up and top-down processing, and integrate these approaches into your therapeutic techniques.

Cultivate meaningful inquiry and collaboration, using shared experiences and goals to deepen the therapeutic relationship.

Engage with interruptions to contact, disowned parts, and internalized patterns using relational practices.

Navigate experiences of shame, impact, and relational dynamics with greater skill and empathy.

Enhance your ability to track and respond to your client’s unfolding process while staying connected to your own embodied experience.

Week by Week Overview

Weekend 1: Therapy as a Political Act | Introduction to Model and Values 

Intro to Pillars of Relational Gestalt Theory: 

  • Field theory 

  • Phenomenology 

  • Dialogue 

  • Paradoxical Theory of Change (PTOC)

Field Theory: Context 

Pathology and Wellness: Creative Adjustment 

Cultural Humility 

Power & Privilege in the Therapeutic Alliance 

Weekend 2: Embodied Relational Psychotherapy

Our Embodied Selves: Sensing, Resonating, and The Phenomenological Method 

Bottom Up vs. Top-Down Processing 

Trauma Responsiveness in Relational Therapy 

Weekend 3: Dialogic Practices  

Meaning Making: Inquiry and Tracking 

Collaboration: Our Shared Experience, Our Shared Goals 

Being Open to Impact in the Therapeutic Relationship 

Weekend 4: Relational Practices | Context & Contact

The Relational Self 

Working with Shame & Disowned Parts

Paradoxical Theory of Change (PTOC): Introjects and Interruptions to Contact 

✺ FAQs ✺

  • We will meet on Sundays once a month — February 9, March 9, April 6, and May 4.

    Each training day is 3 hours.

    Daily Schedule:
    9:30- 9:50 Agenda/Frame and Check-Ins 
    9:50-11:20: Theory Presentation and Group Discussion 
    11:20-11:30: Break 
    11:30-12:15: Experiential Practice 
    12:15-12:30: Finishing 

  • This training is $449 per person | $249 for TRC Alumni & Associates of Alumni (please email engage@relationalcenter.org for the alum rate)

  • This training is for associate or licensed therapists. If you are a student, we encourage you to apply for our year-long training.

  • Yes, this training offers 12 CEUs for LMFTs, LCSWs, and LPCCs. Please confirm with your licensing board to ensure that you will be able to count the training toward your CEU hours.

  • This workshop is an introduction to our values-based approach to Gestalt, packed into four days of training material.

  • Yes. There will be a recording link sent to participants who cannot make it, viewable for one month post-workshop.

Please reach out to engage@relationalcenter.org for any other questions about this workshop.