30: VAGP Conference 2025

Date | Saturday 15 & Sunday 16 November, 2025

Time | 9.00 am to 5:00 pm

Location | Treacy Centre, 126 The Avenue, Parkville

Organiser | Victorian Association of Gestalt Practitioners (VAGP)

Cost:

One Day Pass: $300

Full Access: $450

Saturday Night Party: $25/$50 (purchase your ticket here)

VAGP members receive a 25% discount. Use the promo code VAGP upon checkout to access the discount. Click here for membership options and to join VAGP.

GTA students receive a 20% discount. Use the promo code STUDENT upon checkout to access the discount.

If you are a GTA student and a VAGP member, you receive a 35% discount. Use the promo code VAGPSTUDENT upon checkout to access the discount.

The ticket price includes morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday night dinner and drinks will be available separately at another venue (details to follow).

Kindly note that the conference & GTA birthday party is held from 7 to 10 pm at Brunswick Foodstore after the first day of the conference (15 Nov). You can purchase a ticket to the party .

The title of the conference reflects that 2025 is the 30th anniversary of the founding of Gestalt Therapy Australia (GTA), which is Melbourne’s gestalt therapy training institute. This conference will in part be a birthday celebration for GTA: a chance to reminisce, catch up with old friends and colleagues, and reflect on the ongoing place and relevance of the institute.

Like any good milestone celebration, this conference will offer the chance for reflection on the then, now, and next:

Then: Where have we, as a community of practitioners, come from? Looking back, we can recognise that we’ve been doing this for a while now, that we’re part of a rich and living tradition, and that there are elders among us. What can our past tell us about where we are now and where we might be headed?

Now: What does it mean to be practicing gestalt therapy here and now, in Australia in 2025? All traditions must evolve to meet the demands of the moment. Are we adequately meeting our moment?

Next: Together, can we imagine a future for gestalt therapy? What do we want this future to look like? As we step into the next moment, what should we hold onto, and what is asking to be left behind?

This conference will also be about more than GTA. We warmly welcome anyone interested in gestalt therapy. Some of the presenters and workshop facilitators will be from interstate and have no affiliation with GTA.

The conference will involve a mix of keynote presentations, presentations, workshops, and panels. Some of the presentations, workshops, and panels will be running concurrently, so participants will be able to choose topics of most interest to them.

Day 1

9 am - 10:30 am Welcome and Opening Keynote

10:30 am - 11 am Morning Tea

11 am - 1 pm Seminars/Workshops/Panels

1 pm - 2 pm Lunch

2 pm - 3:30 pm Seminars/Workshops/Panels

3:30 pm - 4 pm Afternoon Tea

4 pm - 5 pm Keynote

Evening: GTA birthday party - Tickets sold separately here.

Day 2

9 am - 10:30 am Keynote

10:30 am - 11 am Morning Tea

11 am - 1 pm Seminars/Workshops/Panels

1 pm - 2 pm Lunch

2 pm - 3 pm Keynote

3 pm - 4 pm Closing Session

Keynote Speakers include:

Saturday: Tony Jackson, Claire Taubert and Gabe Phillips

Sunday: Lynne Jacobs (via ZOOM) and Leanne O’Shea

Some of the Seminars/Workshops/Panel topics on offer:

Ethics at the edge: exploring the embodied, systemic and relational ground — Michelle Sier, Tegan Mumford

Clinical hospitality in a contemporary world — Claire Taubert

Why reading Perls, Hefferline and Goodman (1951) still matters: A didactic and experiential workshop - Perry Klepner (via ZOOM)

I’m all here: Gestalt in practice through wholeness in organisations — Kirsten Brumby

Listening and learning together: A cross-cultural yarning circle — Nicole van Os, Grady Walsh

Perspectives on leadership: Community, participation, and action — Tony Jackson, Ash Power and Tine Mueller

Robots are coming for our jobs! Reconsidering therapy in an age of AI chatbots — Rhys Price-Robertson

Expanding the field: Gestalt and psychedelic states of consciousness — Sean O’Carroll

Absolutely cooked: Treatment of people experiencing burnout — Marcel Koper

And more to come… full programming details to be released.

The VAGP is a member-based organisation for graduates, students and others interested in gestalt practice, including organisational consultants and coaches. It operates as a peer support and community of practice.

The VAGP is committed to supporting the development of the gestalt practitioner beyond their training and to provide new opportunities for leadership in the community. For the established practitioner, it offers connection, space for reflection and professional development. The association seeks to create a thriving space in which gestalt students, graduates and practitioners can explore and develop their practice and deepen their connections to the community of practice.

Gestalt Therapy Australia (GTA) was founded in 1995, and the training program we deliver has become nationally and internationally renowned. At GTA, students are immersed in an experiential learning process that is holistic, integrated and developmental. It is primarily designed to foster capacities essential for deep connection. In this way, it stands apart from other courses that can be more dryly academic or module-based.

Our program includes an internship with ConnectGround, our community-based clinic. The internship is an apprenticeship in gestalt psychotherapy that provides students with the opportunity to work with clients in a supportive and collegial learning environment.

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Host or Publisher VAGP -Vic Association of Gestalt Practitioners