Gestalt Art Therapy Centre

May 12, 2025

2025 What is the Empty Chair Technique?

What is the Empty Chair Technique?

The Empty Chair is a classic Gestalt therapy tool used to access internal dialogues, work through unfinished business, explore relational dynamics, and strengthen self-awareness.

In this 2-hour workshop, Yaro and Gemma will explore the Gestalt methodology of the Empty Chair. The workshop will also introduce creative methods to enhance the technique by incorporating art, allowing participants to explore emotions, dialogue, and resolution in a deeper, more expressive way.

This workshop is designed for counsellors, psychologists, Gestalt therapists, art therapists, and other professionals seeking to integrate both talk therapy and creative expression in their practice.

Key Concepts

Projection: Attributing internal material (feelings, thoughts) onto someone or something outside ourselves.
Dialogue: Creating space for two inner parts to express themselves.
Awareness: The goal is to become more aware of what is happening inside you in the here and now.

Workshop Objectives:

Understand the theoretical foundations of the Empty Chair technique within Gestalt Therapy.

Identify appropriate clinical applications of the Empty Chair technique for individual, couples, and group settings.

Facilitate an Empty Chair process integrating both verbal and non-verbal communication.

Use creative materials (e.g., drawing, painting, symbolic objects) to enrich and deepen the Empty Chair dialogue.

Develop greater awareness of polarities, unfinished business, and internal conflicts as they emerge in the therapeutic dialogue.

Experience the technique personally to increase empathy, presence, and understanding of the client’s journey.

Learn how to safely contain and process emotional responses that may arise during the activity.

Adapt the technique for use in both in-person and online therapy settings.

ONLINE Workshop information:

When: May 18th, 2025

Time: 5 pm to 7 pm (Brisbane- Australian time) AEST- Australian Eastern Standard Time. UTC/GMT +10 hours.

See the time converter https://24timezones.com/difference

Cost:

Gestalt Art Therapy Club members. Participation: $95Aud

Click here to pay by Credit card (Paypal)

General participants. Participation: $110Aud.

Click here to pay by Credit card (Paypal)

Any questions please contact us.

gestaltarttherapy@gmail.com

ONLINE Workshop REGISTRATION HERE

System and Materials you will need for the workshop participation:

System: Zoom (After your registration, you will receive the link so you can access the day of the event)

Materials that you will need to have available on the day of the workshop:

- Internet connection, a computer, tablet, or phone, with access to a webcam and microphone.

- Have the Zoom program or APP installed and be registered

- One A4 Paper to write and/or draw

- A pen, coloured markers, acrylics or crayons.

One extra chair

- Once the registration is paid, we will send you the Zoom link for the workshop connection.

Online Workshops

Please note that if, on the day of the workshop, we do not have a minimum number of participants, the live workshop will not proceed, and you will receive a recording.

Please note that PayPal payments and refunds will incur a 3% transaction fee, applied by PayPal.

Workshop Participation Guidelines and Emotional Wellbeing Information

Purpose and Scope of the Workshop

The objective of the workshop is to provide training and learning in tools and techniques from Gestalt Art Therapy. It is important to note that this workshop is not designed for personal therapeutic work.

Privacy and Recording:

The workshop will be recorded, providing current and future participants the opportunity to revisit the content and activities at their convenience. Participants will have online access to the recording for six months from the date of the workshop.

By participating in this event, you acknowledge and consent to the session being recorded. You understand that your image, voice, and contributions may be included in the recorded material, which may also be made available for sale. By joining, you also agree that no economic or other forms of compensation will be provided for your participation or contributions to the recording.

ART THERAPY - A GESTALT APPROACH

Hello! Welcome to our creative therapy centre!

Here you will find everything related to Art Therapy using the Gestalt approach.

What is Art ?:

Art is genarally known as what is done by a person whose purpose is to express a message through symbols.

These symbolic tools can be music, paintings, sculptures, theater and so on.

What is Gestalt Therapy ?:

Gestalt therapy is a methodology within psychology that grew out of the research and work of the psychiatrist Dr.Fritz Perls and his wife Dr.Laura Perls.

These two professionals were coming from the psychoanalytic perspective and felt that this method was not enough to work with clients. Today we are clearly aware that no one single method can resolve the issues that involve a range of human suffering and growth.

Gestalt is a German word roughly meaning "Shape" or "configuration".

This concept is understood, in gneral terms, that all individual experiences are shaped by a figure and a background. As time goes on, and our needs change, the figure can become the background and vice versa. So in the client's experience, the figure is changing at all times from becoming a background and as the needs arise, the figure emerges seeking completion.

When we block or prevent this process, we become unaware and suffer. That is a part of the theoretical foundations of Gestalt therapy.

Gestalt therapy, therefore, is a "philosophy", a way of being in the world in the "here and now" and taking "response-aibility" without pushing the river. Thus life is a flow ..

What is GESTALT Art Therapy?

It is the sum of the two previous concepts, Gestal therapy and the use of tools we learn to use in art therapy.

Using the artistic tools and adding the gestalt language between client and psychotherapist we work jointly to decode the messages hidden in the intrinsic symbols representing the client's situation. The Psychotherapist accompanies the client in the process of "discovering" what is helpful and not analysing or interpreting, but suggesting and asking the client what it is he or she knows are the answers and supports client's need to discover the ncessary solutions.

WE ARE SURE THAT YOU WILL BE ATTRACTED by this new way of working with emotions, whether or not you are a professional psychologist or therapist, since many of the exercises can be used personally for your own growth.

Our work is done in Australia & Spain and other countries. We have given workshops and participated in conferences throughout the world. We are located in our offices at the Gestalt Art Therapy Centre in Brisbane -Australia.

BE HAPPY HERE AND NOW..... AND BE CREATIVE !

Yaro Starak - Gestalt Psychoterapist
Gemma Garcia- Gestalt Therapist- Ericksonian Hypnosis

SEE LABELS ON THE RIGHT SIDE

1-TRAINING MODULES FOR SALE: Gestalt art therapy

1.1-FOR PSYCHOLOGY & THERAPY PROFESSIONALS:

Here you will find and carry out therapeutic work with tools that combine art and gestalt method.

You can learn new ways of providing therapeutic treatment depending on the particular situation and client needs.

1.2-ART AS PERSONAL GROWTH

These modules can be practical exercises for your "realize" how do you do in your life.

There are specific modules that you can play with your partner and / or family.

SKYPE - ON LINE THERAPY

We offer brief therapy sessions via Skype. You may request a no-obligation appointment with us, the first session is free.

This is a way of doing personal therapy we call "Emergency work" used in very special cases and situations. For us, the therapy session should be mainly for the benefit of the client needing immediate help.

BOOKS FOR SALE:

GESTALT THERAPY theory and practice - some books written by Yaro Starak

A GESTALT TEST: you can acquire to discover your potentials.

VIDEOS & DVD focussing on gestalt work and art therapy work.

ARTICLES: Written by varoius therapists from Australia, NZ and overseas.

Yaro Starak

He graduated in Psychology from the University of Manitoba and in Social Work from the University of British Columbia, Canada. He continued his doctoral studies at the University of Toronto, specializing in group psychotherapy and Adult Education. He trained in Gestalt Therapy with Jorge Rosner at the Gestalt Institute of Toronto and after graduation, he was a faculty member for four years. He worked as a professor at the University of Queensland, Australia and is the founder of the Gestalt Center in Brisbane and Terrigal near Sydney in this country. Yaro conducts gestalt training workshops in Spain, Mexico, Denmark, Germany, and Canada. He also gives workshops for groups of men using indigenous rituals. Yaro is Gestalt Art Therapist CAT®. Co-Director of the Gestalt ART Therapy center (Australia). Co-Director of the Arteterapia Gestalt (Gestalt Art Therapy training in the Spanish language)
Yaro has an interesting range of Books related to the Gestalt works, Couples & Groups work.

Gemma Garcia

Gestalt Art Therapist CAT® Gestalt Art Therapy. Gestalt Therapist Master diploma from the Gestalt Institute Valencia (Spain). Art Therapist using the Gestalt approach CAT. Master in Ericksonian Psychology at the University of Valencia (Spain). Communications Operator at the Provincial Emergency Coordination center and Fire Consortium (Castellon, Spain) Naval radiotelephone operator. Group work and individual psychological intervention in crisis and emotional impact on collective emergencies with firefighters, policemen, paramedics using Gestalt art therapy techniques. Aurasoma Therapist Level 2. Dip. of Visual Arts. Curator. Coordinator-Art Group exhibitions. Co-Director of the Gestalt ArtbTherapy center (Australia). Co-Director of the Arteterapia Gestalt (Gestalt Art Therapy training in the Spanish language)