Continuous Professional Development

CPD Program 2025 – 2027 Living and Working on the Margins: a personal and professional community of practice

CPD Program 2025 – 2027

 

Living and Working on the Margins:

A personal and professional community of practice

 

The purpose of a Continuing Professional Programme (CPD) is to continue our commitment to a core aim of our organisation, which is to deliver educational and development programmes for pre-accredited and accredited psychotherapists and supervisors. As we re-visited the history of the organisation and our founders, we felt a deep resonance with their commitment to justice seeking and justice making that informed their work. Whilst this has been a part of the organisations ‘DNA’ its expression has been more background.

 

Now, is a time on the island of Ireland, a time that has been forming for many decades where practitioners are participating in a society that is pluralistic with an intersectionality of identifies. Many of our clients appearing in our psychotherapy rooms have experienced a sense of marginalisation whether implicit or indeed explicit. We as the Gestalt Institute of Ireland, with our commitment to forms of equity, horizontalism, embodied resonance and field-relational perspectives are well placed to offer a comprehensive programme to support therapists and supervisors to deepen their exploration of marginalisation experiences as forms of justice seeking and making in different suffering fields. Some of our core faculty and recent graduates have a deep interest in these areas with lived experience, research, publications and passion. 

 

We intend to create a CPD programme that is distinctive and differentiated from the plethora of offers now available on-line or in-person which have an orientation towards information provision. Our philosophical focus as witnessed in our embodied, phenomenological field centred approach of our core programmes are focused on lived experiences that are co-emerging of relationships and of a wider complex and interconnected field. Thus, our CPD programme will maintain this focus and also offer accompanying materials for digestion.

 

 

Gestalt Relational Path to Healing Trauma and Addiction

 

Healing Through Connection: A Gestalt Relational Path to Healing Trauma and Addiction

 

Date and time:  Sat, 26 Jul 2025 14:00 – 18:00 BST

Location:  Online

 

 

 

 

About this event

This workshop explores the transformative power of connection within the therapeutic relationship, grounded in the principles of Gestalt psychotherapy. The workshop is presented by Rafael Cortina.

Participants will learn how to co-create a safe, empathic, and present therapeutic space that fosters awareness, emotional validation, and authentic connection. Offering a comprehensive approach to understanding addiction as functional creative adjustment.

Rather than focusing solely on “treatment,” this approach emphasizes creating the conditions for deep, transformative healing by honouring the body’s wisdom, the resilience of the nervous system, and the importance of relational attunement.

The workshop delves into the dynamic interplay of trauma, addiction, and relational healing through experiential exercises and case examples. Attendees will gain practical tools to deepen empathy and embody authenticity.

This workshop is part of a CPD series ‘Living and Working on the Margins’ exploring current sociocultural and justice issues through a Gestalt lens. From its origins, Gestalt therapy has been deeply influenced by social justice principles, with founders like Paul Goodman advocating for social change, personal agency, and collective responsibility. This series will address key themes relevant to therapists today—including trauma, addiction, systemic oppression, and identity —offering an experiential space to engage with the broader social and political contexts impacting us and our clients. Through dialogue, embodied exploration, and practical tools, these workshops will support therapists in deepening their awareness and capacity to work effectively with the pressing issues of our time.

Register:

 

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/gestalt-relational-path-to-healing-trauma-and-addiction-registration-1252045494779?aff=oddtdtcreator