Patterns of intimacy and distance

This 6-workshop series explores intimacy, conflict, and change through the lens of relational gestalt therapy. Each module focuses on a core theme found in the rhythms of human connection—how we move toward, away from, and with each other in the ongoing dance of relationship. You can attend individual workshops or the full series to deepen your understanding and practice.

This workshop:

• Patterns of intimacy and distance (Tony Jackson) | Fri 18 Sep 2026, 9.30am - 4.30pm

Other workshops in this series:

• Talking about sex and intimacy (Leanne O'Shea) | Fri 27 Feb 2026, 9.30am - 4.30pm
• Coercion and control in relationships (Nicole Van Os and Tom Trikojus) | Fri 20 Mar 2026, 9.30am - 4.30pm
• Disappointment and betrayal (Belinda Gibson) | Fri 24 Apr 2026, 9.30am - 4.30pm
• Queer love and lateral hate (Rochelle Oshlack) | Thur 28 May, 9.30am - 4.30pm
• Impasse and ending (Tom Trikojus and Nicole Van Os) | Fri 21 Aug 2026, 9.30am - 4.30pm

Location | Elie, Gestalt Centre Training Campus, 27 Royal Parade Parkville, VIC 3052

Fees | $350 per workshop (includes GST).

PACFA endorsement has been granted for workshops 1, 2, 3 and 4, and is pending for the rest of the series.

Relationships are central to human experience—dynamic, unpredictable, and alive with tension and tenderness.

Through this 6-part series, we’ll explore how gestalt therapy invites us to meet these relational moments with awareness, creativity, and compassion.

Each workshop integrates theory, practice, and embodied learning. You’ll engage in live demonstrations, small-group exercises, and creative experiments designed to bring the work to life.

A certificate of completion is available upon request. We recommend attending the full series for a comprehensive learning journey.

For detailed information on workshops and facilitator bios, .

• Explore patterns of closeness, fusion, withdrawal, and differentiation.
• Practise identifying repeating relational themes in clients’ stories.
• Experiment with embodied awareness to notice the subtle signals of pull–push dynamics.

• Learn how to open, support, and sustain conversations around sex, desire, and intimacy.
• Attend to shame, vulnerability, and cultural messaging.
• Work creatively with silence, humour, and direct expression to support authentic contact.

• Explore overt and covert control dynamics.
• Examine how coercion can support safety yet inhibit freedom.
• Use gestalt methods to support awareness, flexibility, and choice.

• Notice how betrayal and unmet expectations emerge in the relational field.
• Attend to polarities of hurt/anger, revenge/repair.
• Discover creative approaches to restoring agency, repair, and meaning.

• Discuss queer, poly, kink and gender diverse relating in detail.
• De-centre heteronormative assumptions.
• Embrace intersectionality, the vibrancy of complexity and the joy of consent.
• Explore gestalt perspectives on fluidity, power, and time in the field of diversity.

• Work with couples and individuals facing relational impasse.
• Explore the gestalt framing of creative adjustment and stuckness.
• Support grief, loss, and re-authoring after endings.

These experiential workshops are designed for therapists, counsellors, and anyone interested in deepening their relational awareness.

You’ll explore key gestalt principles—contact, awareness, dialogue, and creative adjustment—through direct practice and reflection.

By the end of the series, you’ll have a richer appreciation of how intimacy, conflict, and change emerge in relationship, and how to meet them with curiosity and compassion.

Ideal for counsellors, psychotherapists, social workers, psychologists, and students in helping professions who wish to:

• expand their relational skill set
• integrate gestalt concepts into their work
• explore their own relational patterns and growth edges

The workshops also welcome anyone curious about how gestalt practice can illuminate personal and professional relationships.

The Gestalt Centre is the heart of Melbourne’s Gestalt community. We offer a four-year psychotherapy training program through Gestalt Therapy Australia, staying true to the experiential roots of Gestalt while embracing cutting-edge developments in contemporary Gestalt thinking and practice worldwide.

We also operate ConnectGround, a community-based counselling and psychotherapy clinic. ConnectGround serves as both a training facility for psychotherapists and a provider of low-cost individual and group therapy for clients. The clinic emphasises the therapeutic relationship between client and therapist as a key support for building awareness and adaptability. Psychotherapy interns and volunteers gain valuable hands-on experience, enhancing their skills and professionalism through client work.

Refunds are available up to 7 days before the event.

In the unlikely event that this workshop is cancelled or postponed, registration fees will be fully refunded. Please note that the organisers are not responsible for any travel, accommodation, or other costs incurred by participants.

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Host or Publisher Gestalt Therapy Australia