Depression as an invitation to wholeness

Key details

Date | Thursday 1 May, 2025

Time | 6.30pm - 8:30pm

Where | Elie, 27 Royal Parade, Parkville.

Cost | $40 VAGP members. $50 non-members.

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About this event

Mainstream mental health discourse typically presents depression as meaningless, an aberration, or, worse still, evidence of some kind of flaw in the one who suffers. Most gestalt therapists rightly resist such discourse. Depression is often a sign that deep needs are being ignored, that fixed gestalts have become untenable, and that unrealised expressions of life are rebelling against dormancy. When we desperately rush toward the light, treating depression as a problem that must be resolved as quickly as possible and by any available means, we miss opportunities that only become visible once eyes have accustomed to the dark. In this seminar we will explore ways of working psychotherapeutically that recognise depression as an opportunity and an invitation – a fierce and sometimes risky invitation – to greater depth, connection, and wholeness.

About your facilitator

Dr Rhys Price-Robertson

Rhys Price-Robertson is a gestalt therapist in private practice, a teaching faculty member at Gestalt Therapy Australia, and the Deputy Chair of the Victorian Association of Gestalt Practitioners. He can be contacted at rhys@hereandnowcounselling.com.au.

About the Gestalt Centre

The Gestalt Centre is the heart of Melbourne’s Gestalt community. We offer a four-year psychotherapy training program through Gestalt Therapy Australia, staying true to the experiential roots of Gestalt while embracing cutting-edge developments in contemporary Gestalt thinking and practice worldwide.

We also operate ConnectGround, a community-based counselling and psychotherapy clinic. ConnectGround serves as both a training facility for psychotherapists and a provider of low-cost individual and group therapy for clients. The clinic emphasises the therapeutic relationship between client and therapist as a key support for building awareness and adaptability. Psychotherapy interns and volunteers gain valuable hands-on experience, enhancing their skills and professionalism through client work.