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Low Cost Personal Growth & Development Group (10 consecutive weeks)

Collaboration between the Gestalt Centre, London and the Centre For Better Health, London

Location: The Centre for Better Health (CBH), 1A Darnley Road London E9, 6QH

Dates: Every Thursday 5:30pm - 7:30pm; Starts 15 May 2025 and Ends 17 July 2025 (10 weeks)

Full Cost: £130

Visit CBH website and click register for a course: www.centreforbetterhealth.org.uk/therapeutic-support-group

Funded places are available for City and Hackney Wellbeing Network members, contact your main Wellbeing Network contact to enrol

I’m an experienced qualified Gestalt counsellor in Íø±¬ÃÅ-accredited practice since 2013 with experience in both the voluntary sector and private practice. I teach counselling in a college in Brighton where I facilitate Personal Development Training Groups. I’ve been skilling up training as an individual and group psychotherapist on the UKCP accredited programme at the London Gestalt Centre which I’m now on the final stage after completing an MA in Gestalt Psychotherapy from London Metropolitan University. 

Group Facilitators

I’ll be co-facilitating this group as a senior trainee psychotherapist with another senior trainee colleague. We will be supervised by a senior member of the Gestalt Centre throughout the 10 weeks’ group. 

A Gestalt group typically consists of around 12 participants and offers its members the opportunity to explore personal issues with the support and participation of people also interested in understanding themselves and the vicissitudes of their lives.

About You

Do you sometimes feel forgotten or unseen? Do you struggle to communicate your feelings with others? Do you often find it hard to connect with others? Would you like to explore in a safe environment your social anxiety issues?

By participating in a Gestalt Personal Growth and Development group you may find opportunities to explore these issues and more in a supported space, such as: fostering your capacity to be imaginative; developing a greater awareness of how you relate to yourself and others; discovering patterns you have developed for dealing with your life and decide if these are working for you; working with what are sometimes experienced as 'difficult emotions' including fear, vulnerability, anxiousness, anger and sadness; learning ways of giving and receiving clear comments about yourself and others; developing your self-awareness by regularly meeting over 10 weeks with the same group of people.

Personal Growth and Development groups are a safe, supportive space which offer an opportunity for you to explore personal issues alongside other people who also want to understand themselves better.

During your first session, the co-facilitators introduce themselves and usually set some brief guidelines (e.g.: confidentiality, sharing the speaking time, etc.) to create the favourable conditions for an explorative environment. 

The co-facilitators also invite participants to introduce themselves. Participants are encouraged to be curious about their experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Listening to others can be a valuable and insightful experience.

What is Gestalt?

Gestalt theory is concerned with the whole person, encouraging a balance between body, feeling, intellect and imagination. It is a relational approach.

The gestalt approach in psychotherapy understands people as being inextricably linked with their environments, both affected by and affecting the context in which a person lives.

Here and now, experiments, creativity, imagination, fragmentation, and integration are concepts linked with the theory and practice of gestalt.

Gestalt sessions are typically lively, creative, interactive and experimental – and always focused on the Here and Now. 

I’m an experienced qualified Gestalt counsellor in Íø±¬ÃÅ-registered practice since 2013 and have reached their fully accredited registration as a highly competent, ethical and independent practitioner with experience in both the voluntary sector and private practice. My pronouns are she / her. I teach counselling in a college in Brighton where I facilitate Personal Development Training Groups. I’ve been skilling up training as an individual and group psychotherapist on the UKCP accredited programme at the London Gestalt Centre which I’m now on the final stage after completing an MA in Gestalt Psychotherapy from London Metropolitan University. 

I’m trained to work online as well as having specialist training in sexual violation and abuse. I can offer counselling in French and through a diverse mixed heritage I understand some Arabic. I have an interest working with Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs). 

I have worked with clients from the UK as well as from USA, Canada, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Brazil, Serbia, Romania, Check Republic, Hungary etc. I also welcome LGBTIQ+ clients.

When you come to have therapy with me, I'm interested in you, your situation, difficulties and life transitions. The most important thing I can offer you is my willingness to see, hear and accept you as you are, without preconception, expectation or judgement.

In this confidential environment, I aim to develop with you a collaborative alliance where you can explore issues which may be troubling you; a breathing space for you to explore, reflect, experiment and be playful. You won't have to talk about anything or do anything that you don't want to.

Gestalt approach is wholeness. In fact the word ‘Gestalt’ roughly translates from German as ‘an organised whole’. Therefore, I’m interested in and curious about you as a whole person (your body, emotions, thoughts, sensations, movements, perceptions and context) because you’re a unique individual in a particular life situation, someone who can only be fully understood in relation to your current situation as you experience it.

Taking a more holistic look at your situation may increase your awareness and enable you to see new possibilities more clearly. 

Your first meeting with me will last up to 50 minutes. This is a chance for me to find out what you'd like to get from counselling. It's also an opportunity for you to ask any questions and see if together we can make a suitable working alliance. There’s no obligation to continue.