The Gestalt Foundation Psychotherapy & Training Center founded in 1998 represents the vision of its founders (Yianna Yiamarelou, Antonia Konstantinidou, Despina Balliou and Katia Hatzilakou) to introduce and spread the philosophy they believed, experienced and loved the approach and the philosophy of Gestalt, to mental health professionals.
They managed to do so with the founding and establishing of a complete and well-organized professional specialization in Gestalt psychotherapy program, which constantly meets the needs of society, psychotherapy and especially Gestalt therapy.
The overwhelmingly positive response and support of those who choose to work with the Gestalt Foundation all these years justified this initiative. More and more students, mental health and humanities professionals visit the center and enquire about the approach and its activities.
The exchange of trainers and the close observation of the current bibliography on Gestalt approach, led the Center to dare a series of innovative initiatives in the “tradition” of Gestalt therapy, such us the combination of phenomenological diagnosis with DSM, the breaking of the program into two courses, the second of which focuses on clinical practice and supervision, the shifting of attention from the experiential process, the methodology on the fine processes of contact and dialogue, the opening up to collaboration with other sectors also led to the creation of a complete network of psychosocial support.
Today, the Gestalt Foundation has expanded the services it provides beyond its program, expanding in experiential workshops, thematic workshops, lectures, group therapy, etc. and has managed to establish itself as a key training provider of professional specialization in psychotherapy and especially in the Gestalt psychotherapy approach for psychotherapists, mental health counselors and consultants in business and organizations.
The Center also offers constant updates through its own publishing activities (the writing and publishing, in Greek, of a Handbook titled Introduction to Gestalt Psychotherapy, the biannual newsletter providing news of the center’s activities, lectures etc. as well as the publication of current foreign Bibliography in Greek), the introduction to the digital era with the creation of its own YouTube channel were people can follow the Gestalt Foundation lectures took place in the IANOS cultural chain in both Athens and Thessalonica.
Furthermore, the Gestalt Foundation, as a Psychotherapy and Training center of the Phenomenological, Holistic Gestalt approach, has been added since July 2023 to the editorial and publishing team of the magazine Epoché.
This particular magazine is the fruit of a collaboration between three companies, "gignesthai" (Hellenic Association for Existential Psychology), the Hellenic Focusing Center (Person-Centered and Focusing-Experiential Counseling and Psychotherapy) and the Hellenic Society of Phenomenological-Existential Analysis and Psychotherapy (Hellenic Society of Daseinsanalysis) and from its new issue the Gestalt Foundation Psychotherapy and Training center.
The magazine is biannual and is published by the publishing house "Eurasia" every June and December.