According to the training standards of the European Association for Gestalt Therapists (EAGT).
We invite you to join this unique program, starting for the first time!
Guided by the accredited EAGT supervisors
with many years of professional experience
04-09 December, 2024
Tbilisi
Caucasus Institute of Gestalt Therapy and Family Psychotherapy (CIGTFP)
Duration of the Program and Format
Period of study: 2024-2026.
The program consists of 6- and 5-6-day training blocks.
The first and sixth training blocks last 6 days each,
and the second, third, fourth and fifth educational training blocks last 5 days each.
The duration of one training block is 8 hours.
The training day starts at 10:00 and ends at 18:00.
Training format: Tbilisi
Languages of instruction:
English and Russian
Criteria for Participation in the Program
Education in Gestalt therapy according to EAGT training standards;
At least 8 years of private practice in Gestalt therapy according to EAGT training standards;
Preference is given to Gestalt therapists with EAGT accreditation
Trainers and hypervisors
Sofia Verulashvili (Georgia)
Frans Meulmeester (Holland)
Margareta Mesic (Croatia)
Friedhelm Matthias (Germany)
Michele Cannavo (Italy)
Valeria Rubino (Italy)
Peter Schulthess (Switzerland)
Diploma and Exam
Diploma
The Gestalt Therapy Supervisor Diploma is awarded to those who attend the full program and meet the revaluation criteria.
The training program complies with the EAGT Training Standards for Supervisors.
The diploma is issued on behalf of the Caucasus Institute of Gestalt Therapy and Family Psychotherapy in accordance with EAGT regulations.
Supervisor qualification is awarded only after completing the full program, meeting all requirements, submitting written work and passing an exam.
Exam:
Submission of written work
Conducting 30-minute supervision work in front of the commission and the group.
To successfully complete the program, students are required to submit a written work of academic format on cases of supervision or hypervision. A client case with at least 8-10 meetings is considered.
Trainers of the Program
 Sofia Verulashvili (Georgia)Sofia Verulashvili - psychologist, coach, EAGT accredited supervisor and psychotherapist. Vice-president of EAGT and president of the Association of Psychologists and Psychotherapists of Georgia. Head of the Caucasus Institute of Gestalt Therapy and Family Psychotherapy. Leads family therapy groups with world experts, over 26 years of private practice |  Frans Meulmeester (Holand)Has been working as a Gestalt trainer, therapist, supervisor and consultant for over 40 years. He worked at the MultidiMens Institute in Belgium, participates in the development of Gestalt institutes in Bulgaria, Georgia, Nepal and other European countries. He has practical experience working with clients in private practice and 25 years in a cancer support center. He is a member of EAGT and a certified psychotherapist of EAP. |  Margareta Mesic (Croatia)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), university specialist, clinical psychologist, certified Gestalt therapist, supervisor and teacher of the basic course of training in Gestalt therapy, member of the commission on psychotherapy and the supervisory board of the Croatian Psychological Chamber, member of the Council of the Association of Gestalt and Integrative Psychotherapists of Croatia (Društvo Gestalt i Integrativnih Psihoterapeuta Hrvatske), member of EAGT. |
|---|---|---|
 Friedhelm Matthies (Germany)More than 20 years of therapeutic work in the health department. Youth psychiatric service in Hamburg, including child and youth therapy, family therapy, couple therapy. Own practice of psychotherapy, couple therapy, supervision, coaching, consulting for organizations. Until 2022, he headed the Hamburg Gestalt Institute HIGW. |  Michele Cannavo (Italy)Michele Cannavo is an accredited EAGT supervisor, psychiatrist, PhD in neurovegetative medicine, Gestalt therapist. Trainer and supervisor of HCC Italy, expert in body processes and psychopathology, former secretary of EAGT, author of publications in psychiatry and psychotherapy. |  Valeria Rubino (Italy)Psychiatrist, Gestalt therapist, HCC Italy trainer. Conducts seminars on the Gestalt approach to psychopathology: panic attacks, mood disorders, post-traumatic and dissociative disorders, psychoses, OCD. Works in the psychiatric department of Avola Hospital, has been dealing with emergency psychiatric cases for over 15 years. Author of publications, speaker at conferences on psychopathology in the Gestalt context. |
 Peter Schulthess (Switzerland)Practicing EAGT Gestalt psychotherapist since 1976, private practice in Zurich (Switzerland) psychotherapist accredited by the European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP) member of the EAP board of directors; chairman of the EAP Science and Research Committee (SARC) studied pedagogy, psychology and philosophy at the University of Zurich; former President of EAGT and SVG; teaches Gestalt therapy in several countries around the world; editor of the journal "Psychotherapy-Science" |
The Purpose and Objectives of the Program
The current situation in the world requires a new understanding of familiar concepts and a different teaching methodology. The professional position of the supervisor today suggests an increased importance of the ability to sustain effort in order to create an atmosphere of collegiality that prevents affective reaction.
We are interested in creating a completely new supervisor training program.
The main task is to teach people to work effectively in today's situation and create their own supervisory practice.
This requires recognition of the new reality, refusal to fight reality and a certain courage, boldness, sincerity and directness in denoting what is.
What is Important to Consider?
What is important today is not the adaptation of therapists, but the support of their development. We understand supervision as professional support for therapists in situations of uncertainty. At the same time, everyone remains people with their own experiences in the field of changing reality.
The main question: What is professional support?
Supervision. Definition. Story. The essence and objectives of this process. The field dimension of supervision.
Understanding the essence of therapy. Relationship between therapy and supervision. Community problems. Collegiality as the basis of safety in the professional field.
Topics and Emphases of the Program
-
Topics and emphasis of the program.
-
Philosophical, existential, theoretical, methodological and ethical issues of supervision.
-
Field model of supervision - what is it?
-
Practical skills. Supervision training.
-
Who is a supervisor and why is he needed?
Client—therapist—supervisor—professional collegial interaction. Therapeutic relationships in supervision. -
Community as a large dynamic group in the common field of reality.
-
Pitfalls of supervision in general and in the modern situation. Requests from therapists for supervision and real topics and questions that actually concern therapists and supervisors.
-
Courage and risk in supervision.
Creativity and play in supervision. Collegiality and ethics. -
Everyday responsiveness and collegial interaction.
-
Belonging and involvement. Healthy individualism, respect and choosing the optimal distance during professional interaction in the community.
Types of supervision:
-
Individual supervision
-
Group supervision
-
Supervisory consulting
-
Existential Express Supervision Counseling
-
Dynamic supervision
-
Didactic supervision, therapeutic supervision, developmental supervision, practice supervision.
-
The difference between supervision and therapy.
-
Therapeutic aspects and effects of supervision.
-
Models of supervision and levels of immersion. Therapeutic and supervisory risks.
-
Process analysis in supervision.
-
Clinical aspects of supervision. Understanding the Clinic in modern times
-
Gestalt approach.
Organization of the supervisory process.
-
How to get supervision?
-
How to give supervision?
-
Supervisory and intervisory groups. Why are they?
-
Formation of therapist identity in supervisory and intervisory groups
-
Training participants to create, maintain and support supervisory groups
Supervisory practice is understood by us as the author’s project of forming a therapeutic community of therapists who find their identity in it. The personal role of a particular supervisor or pair of supervisors, or a small team of supervisors in creating a community of therapists and the spirit and atmosphere of that community.
What exactly should you pay attention to?
-
Resistance in supervision.
-
Therapist resistance.
-
Supervisor resistance.
-
The influence of past standard learning experiences in the modern situation as a blocking of professional development in the changed reality.
-
Connection with the personal philosophy of the supervisor. Ethical issues in the supervisory process.
-
Problems and resources of collegiality and the consequences of violation of collegiality for the development of the therapist, supervisor, and community.
-
And ultimately, the most important thing is to work with clients.
-
Liberation from habitual skills that do not work today.
-
Gaining freedom to observe development.
-
Unblocking consciousness.
-
Accepting the challenge is not to seem, but to be.
-
Do not support the illusion of imaginary commonality, but use the energy of discussing differences in views on the profession.
-
The problem of a new approach to supervision in the situation of a professional community. Multiple therapeutic communities around different specific supervisors. Will they interact? That's the question. No answer yet.
-
Dynamic and social problems in the development of collegiality. Consequences of its violation.
Learning Model
Training is carried out in the live work of a constantly rotating supervisory group, which, like any group, reflects the dynamics of the community and the main lines of force of the field situation. Of course, we will give short lectures. Inclusive supervision and hypervision. There will be a lot of theory in the comments under real processes.
Different genres, different depths of work, personal risk, complex cases, the possibility and basis for choosing forms of work for a particular supervisor, building a lively collegial discussion - how can all this be made an interesting process of awareness and the birth of new ideas? What questions will arise there that are still unclear and will be born of life itself? The answers to them are unknown in advance, but it will be impossible not to see them.
The basis of the project is a phenomenological study of the reality of professional interaction and the search for ways to build collegiality.
We create the opportunity to train both individual supervisors who are able to use and organize supervisory and intervisory spaces for development, as well as leading supervisory groups who are able to create and maintain collegiality. As you progress through the program, you will be required to attend elective supervisory groups regularly.
Structure of the Program
Minimum 75 hours
Theory and practice of supervision minimum of 50 hours in Gestalt Therapy, rest of the hours is possible in theory of other modality approaches
Minimum 120 hours
Practical/simulation training in supervision of psychotherapists
Minimum 50 hours
Hyper-vision (supervision on supervision) in individual or group settings
24 months
During which the trainees meet at least three times for training and hyper-vision
Minimum 1
Written, comprehensive work and a structured evaluation process that is known to the trainees.
Topics of the Training Modules and Schedule
Seminar N1
(6 days)
04-09 December 2024
Frans Meulmeester , Sofia Verulashvili
-
Basic concepts of Gestalt Therapy supervision.
-
The situation of Gestalt supervision: ethical issues and aesthetic relational knowledge of the field
-
Aims of Gestalt therapy supervision and hypervision
-
The aesthetic and field perspective on supervision
-
Ethical issues
-
The EAGT code of ethics
-
Ethical issues in Gestalt therapy: professional boundaries and relational creativity
-
A clinical data sheet based on Gestalt therapy principles for case presentation
-
Supervising different psychopathological situations
Seminar N2
(5 days)
May 28 – June 1, 2025
Margareta Mesic
-
Existential perspective in supervision;
-
Using countertransference in supervision;
-
Using creative techniques in supervision
Seminar N3
(5 days)
15–19 October 2025
Peter Schulthess
-
Supervising situations of depression, anxiety disturbances including panic attacks
-
Dimensions of depressive experiences
-
Different forms of anxious experiences (generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, social fobia, specific fobia, panic attacks)
-
Supervising situations of personality disturbances
-
Narcissistic, borderline, schizoid sufferings
Seminar N4
(5 days)
23-27 April 2026
Michele Cannavo, Valeria Rubinos
-
Supervising situations of serious disturbances
When the sense of self is lost: OCD, psychosis -
Description of cases and qualitative research in Gestalt therapy supervision
-
Phenomenology and mental health
-
How to support supervisees exploring their experience with clients
-
Supervising situations with alimentary disorders
Seminar N5
(5 days)
June 18–22, 2026
Friedhelm Matthias
-
Supervising traumatic situations;
Risk of re-traumatizing and support to resilience; -
Being supervisors between art and techné;
-
Supervising situations with developmental issues;
-
Supervising therapeutic situations with families and children;
-
Supervising therapeutic situations with adolescents.
Seminar N6
(6 days)
01-06 December 2026
Frans Meulmeester , Sofia Verulashvili
-
Professional Qualifications and Competencies of Gestalt Therapy according to EAGT;
-
Relationships with clients, supervisors, colleagues, communities, governments;
-
Human rights and social responsibilities;
-
Supervising various settings: work with groups, training programs, organizations;
-
Supervision cases from participants: the emergence of one’s own style of supervision.
Program Fee and Terms of Payment
5,000 euros
Program Fee
Before December 4, 2024 - 2500 euro
Before April 28, 2025 - 500 euro
Before October 15, 2025 – 500 euro
Before April 15, 2026 - 500 euro
Before June 18, 2026 - 500 euro
Before December 3, 2026 – 500 euro
Payment is possible in installments
.
List of documents required for registration
1. Copy of identity card;
2. A copy of diploma of higher education;
3. Copy of Gestalt therapist's certificate (certificate of Gestalt therapist supervisor if have);
4. A copy of the certificate of the membership of the professional association or associations;
5. Document of individual supervision issued by the supervisor;
6. CV - in English, Georgian, Russian.
.