The lectures are available here!
we – the German Association for Gestalt Therapy (DVG) e.V. – are pleased to welcome you in Hamburg.
In cooperation with the European Association for Gestalttherapy (EAGT) and International Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy (IAAGT), we are organising the 5th International Research Conference for you. It is entitled “Gestalt for Future – Creating a network for research”.
The DVG and the EAGT are connected by a long common history and from the beginning the network idea was in the foreground.
“Once upon a time in 1984 there was in Germany a conference for Gestalt therapy, in German language, but with some international European participants. Initiator was Hilarion Petzold, who tried to reach out from a national to a European wide Gestalt community. Of course Germany and a conference in German is not yet really European, but it was a start to an international network. Several colleagues from other countries participated – spreading the idea for an European wide Gestalt therapy organization further to other colleagues and countries – and so the initiator could invite one year later for a founding assembly in Hückeswagen, Germany, on May 5th, 1985, at the “Fritz Perls Academy”. The aim of this association was to connect gestalt therapists and to organize conferences to contribute to the professional exchange of various gestalt-styles and developments in different countries… EAGT later counted this German conference as the 1st EAGT-conference.” (European Association for Gestalt Therapy from Different Skills and Developments to Lost in Transformation, Preface, Peter Schulthess, 2010)
The DVG e.V. was founded on 09 June 1986 as an umbrella organisation. At that time, committed Gestalt therapists met in Frankfurt/Main to bundle their energy and that of Gestalt therapy.
From the memories of Victor Chu, First Chairman of the DVG founding board: “It was Heik Portele (he was an instructor at the IGW) and Jerry Kogan (he was head of GENI) who had the idea to unite the Gestalt Institutes under one roof. Until then there had been a large number of unorganized Gestalt Institutes in Germany, but each one was muddling along. …. At this time the pychological associations were pressing for their training to be recognised by the associations of statutory health insurance physicians. It was slowly time for the Gestalt institutes to organise themselves to make our procedure heard. So Heik and Jerry invited some Gestalt institutes to exploratory meetings in Frankfurt. … At the second meeting it was decided to form a new umbrella organisation.”
The DVG currently has about 1000 members. In addition there are 9 training institutes for Gestalt therapy. This makes us the largest German network for Gestalt therapists, consultants and supervisors in Germany.
The joint 2016 conference in Sicily was a cooperative project between EAGT and IAAGT. 2014 was a milestone in Gestalt history for research conferences. In Cape Cod a group of colleagues engaged in Research on Gestalttherapy invited to a first conference with the exclusive topic of research. It was a success and it was decided to organize 2015 a follow up conference under the title “The Challenge of Establishing a Research Tradition for Gestalt therapy, part two” again in Cape Cod. The third conference was held in Paris 2017, the fourth in Santiago de Chile 2019. This research movement has attracted meanwhile hundreds of Gestalt Researchers from all over the world.
With this 5th research conference, we continue the worldwide cooperation of Gestalt Researchers:
“Gestalt for Future – Creating a network for research”.
We cordially invite all colleagues* to participate in this network and look forward to many participants and their potential and creative energy.
With collegial greetings, (Board of Directors, GF, Orga-Team)