From the author: The article was co-written by Mikhail Kireev, Gestalt therapist, supervisor, associated trainer of MGI and Yulia Talibova, Gestalt therapist, supervisor, group leader of the first stage of the MGI program. Some people gather in one place in one time. Some of them come as psychology students and strongly, with student enthusiasm, want to learn something about psychotherapy and methods of working with humanity... some just want to change their job and do something new (why not psychotherapy , they think to themselves)… someone to escape from family problems and expand their circle of contacts… someone, on the contrary, is tired of wandering around the world as a loafer, without family and intimacy, and decided to take a closer look at these cohabitants around the planet (suddenly, they are worth it, to try something together with them) someone suddenly became interested in themselves in personal therapy and believed that in a large group of people learning something about themselves could be even more interesting than in contact with one therapist... someone is already counseling others people, but he’s not sure what he’s doing, he feels like a charlatan or, on the contrary, great, but lonely, then others like him are needed... some are simply scared to live... some are in pain to live... some are ashamed to live... some... it’s boring... in general, everyone comes for something of their own. And such people gather in an event called “group”. This is how a new social system is formed. All the same laws of interaction work in it as for each of the group members in their own big world. There are only a couple of specially trained people (trainers) who slowly, corrosively and boringly help to notice, to RECOGNIZE exactly HOW each of the people does the same thing with the group, what he usually did with everyone in life, in order to remain dissatisfied, not to recognize their desires and not achieve their fulfillment, in general, do not be yourself and go hungry. And having discovered this, people, having somehow coped with the first shock, can decide: “oh well, so be it!” unpretentious or hysterical, but somehow I lived all these years - and I will live another hundred years!” and they will be right! but some are not satisfied with such a discovery and, you see, risk going into an EXPERIMENT, trying to build relationships in a new way. And then somehow everything starts to change. It’s not a fact that it’s for the better, really. Nobody knows what is best for someone. But everything is no longer as it was. And somehow in a new way, sometimes funny, sometimes not so much. And you have to CREATIVELY ADAPT to these changes (in yourself and in the environment). While all this main action takes place in the group, sometimes seasoned with lectures, sometimes exercises, sometimes individual sessions with a trainer, it happens that the process of AWARENESS among the people of the group becomes more and more conscious, SENSITIVITY to one's own and environmental needs and capabilities more and more sensitive, and the INTEGRITY of one's own psychological boundaries more and more holistic. And then such a whole (both in the sense of “whole” and in the sense of “surviving” in the process of all the group troubles) comrade suddenly discovers that he, it turns out, understands how this happens: psychotherapy. And, in general, he himself can try to do the same little by little with other people. To begin with, in the same group, in a training format, receiving immediate feedback and help from the “hall”, later – somehow your own clients, groups begin to appear and your own style and vision of your work with them emerges. This is what it is, training in the Gestalt program of the Moscow Gestalt Institute. Yes, European training in Gestalt therapy, by the way, is not much different. Somewhere in other countries, people also sit in circles and, sometimes painfully, sometimes enthusiastically, make their way step by step to the search for “who am I”, “is it really me” (in other words, to their own identity and authenticity), and as the play progresses they understand how it works. Therefore, the certificate at the end of the program is issued with the EAGT logo, which indicates the recognition of your professional education by the European Association of Gestalt Therapists. Well, who doesn't need it?=14254