Gestalt and Art Therapy for Self-Awareness and Well-being

Description

Working in highly demanding environments can lead to afflictions, trauma, and the psychological strain of absorbing others’ emotional burdens.

High levels of stress, chronic fatigue, and burnout severely influence well-being and the ability to maintain equilibrium in the workplace.

This course will introduce participants to the existential principles of Gestalt Therapy, an experiential approach that emphasizes awareness, personal responsibility, and living in the present moment.

It will incorporate Art Therapy techniques useful for expanding self-awareness, reliving a stressful experience, and cultivating emotional resilience in stressful environments, and utilizing empathy as an efficient tool in social interactions while avoiding emotional absorption from others.

Throughout the course, participants will explore a series of experiential embodiment, meditation, and art therapeutic activities within a safe environment. These activities are designed to deepen self-exploration, relieve psycho-physical knots, and enhance creativity and empathetic communication.

Participants will learn to recognize their unique emotional, behavioural, and somatic patterns of relating and responding to social and environmental demands.

These experiences aim to bring unconscious dynamics into conscious awareness, helping participants discover new, adaptable, and creative ways to act in both their personal and professional lives.

Participants will use various art materials to freely express emotions, explore internal conflicts, and improve relational dynamics, allowing for non-verbal processing and new insights.

By the end of the course, participants will gain a higher level of self-awareness, emotional and physical release, and enhanced capacities to manage interpersonal dynamics.

They will also make more conscious choices and decisions in interactions with others and the environment.

This course will foster more effective communication, cultivate healthier professional relationships, and improve overall well-being, leading to greater professional satisfaction and joy.

Concept by Alina Charnavusava

Learning outcomes

The course will help participants to:

• Apply principles of Gestalt and Art Therapy to enhance self-awareness and emotional resilience;
• Recognize and transform personal patterns of stress, behavior, and emotional response;
• Use creative and embodiment practices to process emotions and relieve psycho-physical tension;
• Cultivate empathy and improve interpersonal communication while maintaining emotional boundaries;
• Make more conscious, adaptive choices in both personal and professional interactions.

Tentative schedule

Day 1 – Introduction to the course

• Introduction to the course, the school, and the external week activities;
• Icebreaker activities;
• Presentations of the participants’ schools;
• Grounding and Self-awareness in the here and now;
• Introduction to Gestalt therapy principles: “Here and Now,” “Awareness,” and the “Phenomenological Approach”;
• Experiential exercises focusing on sensory awareness and grounding techniques (e.g., body scan meditation, intuitive drawing);
• Introduction to Art Therapy as a non-verbal language;
• Activity: “My Inner Landscape” – participants create a visual representation of their current internal state using various art materials (e.g., pastels, paints);
• Discussion on emerging “figures” and “grounds” in their creations.

Day 2 – Exploring the aware way of being in contact with others and emotional expression

• Dive into the main concept, “Cycle of Contact” of Gestalt Therapy;
• Identifying personal patterns of contact and common “interruptions” (e.g., introjection, projection, retroflection, confluence, deflexion) in professional interactions and the environment;
• Art Therapy activity: “Mapping My Emotional Journey” – using Metaphorical Associative Cards, different art materials, and intuitive drawing to represent a challenging professional experience, focusing on the emotions felt at different stages;
• Group sharing and processing, emphasizing the expression of “unexpressed emotions” and the “completion of unfinished business”.

Day 3 – Healthy boundaries and empowered empathy

• Understanding “Boundaries” in Gestalt therapy: how to establish, maintain, and respect personal and professional limits;
• Reclaiming “Aggression” as vital energy for self-assertion and healthy differentiation, rather than destructive force;
• Experiential exercise: Using imagination for exploring difficult professional relationships or internal conflicts related to boundaries;
• Art Therapy Activity: “My Protective Shield/Open Heart” – an embodiment awareness exercise in the group, exploring the surrounding space and their internal state to discover the tension between protection and openness.

Day 4 – Transformation of stressful experience

• Gestalt approach to stress and trauma: understanding how past stressful experiences manifest in the “here and now” (e.g., somatic symptoms, chronic fatigue);
• Techniques for “processing and integrating stressful experiences”;
• “Transforming Stress into Resource” – participants use abstract painting or movement to externalize stress and then actively transform it into a symbol of resilience or a personal resource;
• Group processing focused on finding new meanings and adaptive responses.

Day 5 – Integration of self-care strategies and practical application

• Review of key Gestalt concepts and their application in daily life and professional practice;
• Focus on “Self-Regulation” and developing personalized self-care plans;
• Art Therapy activity: “My Vision for Self-Awareness and Professional Practice” – creating in the group a final art piece that integrates insights from the week and outlines future intentions for applying Gestalt principles and self-care strategies in the group;
• Group celebration and closing ritual, emphasizing the “completion of the Gestalt” for the course experience.

Day 6 – Course closure and cultural activities

• Course evaluation: round up of acquired competences, feedback, and discussion;
• Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance;
• Excursion and other external cultural activities.

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