How to work with depressed and anxious clients

Workshop overview

Date | Monday 23 & Tuesday 24 September 2024, 9.30am–5.00pm

Fee | $660 includes GST.

Venue | Elie, Gestalt Centre Training Campus, 27 Royal Parade, Parkville

Facilitator | Noel Haarburger, BBSc, BEd(Counselling), AdvDipGestaltTherapy, ClinMGANZ, MAPS

Depression and anxiety are common in therapy and mental health settings, often presenting together and posing unique challenges for practitioners. This two-day workshop offers a gestalt-informed approach to working with these conditions, emphasising somatic awareness, relational dynamics, and holistic understanding.

Through a blend of experiential exercises, group discussions, and didactic teachings, we'll explore the phenomenology of depression and anxiety from a gestalt perspective. You'll gain insights into the somatic expressions of these states, learn to differentiate their various manifestations, and develop confidence in meeting clients with compassion and presence.

Who should attend?

This workshop is ideal for mental health professionals seeking to deepen their understanding of depression and anxiety through a gestalt lens. Whether you're a therapist, counsellor, or allied health practitioner, you'll find valuable tools to enhance your work with clients experiencing these challenges.

Key explorations

• Understanding depression's phenomenology, somatic expressions, and psychological functions
• Exploring depression as a communication about imbalance and unmet needs
• Examining the relationship between depression, emotional regulation, and shame dynamics
• Integrating insights from polyvagal theory and neuroscience into gestalt practice
• Developing techniques to help clients work with depressive thought patterns and cultivate self-compassion

Gestalt principles in practice

We'll apply core gestalt concepts throughout our explorations, including:

• Paradoxical theory of change and holistic approaches
• Experimental techniques and phenomenological inquiry
• Here-and-now immediacy in the therapeutic relationship
• Relational and field theory perspectives on depression
• Self-compassion within a gestalt framework

Learning outcomes

By the end of this workshop, you will gain:

• A nuanced understanding of depression's phenomenology and varied presentations
• Tools for working with the somatic expressions and underlying dynamics of depression
• Strategies for addressing shame, core beliefs, and the inner critic from a gestalt perspective
• Practical applications of neuroscience and polyvagal theory in depression work
• A toolkit of bio-psycho-social principles to support client recovery, grounded in gestalt philosophy

Join us for this immersive experience as we explore how gestalt therapy can offer a fresh, holistic approach to working with depression and anxiety. Together, we'll cultivate skills to meet these challenging presentations with confidence, creativity, and compassion.

About your facilitator

Noel Haarburger BBSc, BEd(Counselling), AdvDipGestaltTherapy, ClinMGANZ, MAPS

Noel has been a faculty member at Gestalt Therapy Australia since 2001. He now works in private practice as a Psychologist and Psychotherapist, working with individuals and couples, as well as offering supervision to allied health professionals. He also practices and trains Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Nature Assisted eco-therapy at the equine psychotherapy institute in Daylesford.

Noel has worked extensively in a wide variety of counselling and psychological services since 1995, including family counselling, drug and alcohol, sexual assault, problematic gambling, and men’s behavioural change programs.

Noel has a special interest in trauma and body work, as well as integrating developmental and attachment perspectives, Buddhist psychology, and non-dual spiritual approaches into his work. He is a certified ‘Somatic Experiencing’ practitioner, which utilises highly effective and safe body awareness methods for negotiating and releasing trauma, developed by Peter Levine. He has also completed training in NA touch. Noel is also an ongoing student of the ‘Diamond Heart approach’, a Western psycho-spiritual school that integrates Western depth psychology, Sufism and Buddhist approaches to personal and spiritual development.

We look forward to seeing you at the workshop!