About Us
NYIGT Now
As we were then, so are we now: a teaching/learning community where we explore ever-evolving Gestalt therapy theory/practice.
As we are now, we draw forward into our present the history and innovations represented by almost 75 years of exploring, developing, creating, and inventing gestalt therapy.
As we where then, we are dedicated to developing Gestalt therapy theory/practice — and extending ourselves, challenging ourselves, re-forming ourselves to maintain the vitality and creativity of our founders and those who came after. We have challenged ourselves to stay at the edges that separate the familiar from the novel.
What began as informal gatherings in the New York City apartment of Fritz and Laura Perls on the Upper West Side of Manhattan continues now with in person, online, and hybrid meetings. We are and will always be the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy. The zero point of the NYIGT remains in New York; our membership extends across the globre — from Canada, Central and South America to Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Each month from September to June, we hold our monthly meetings to which everyone is invited. There is no charge. These meetings are either online or in a hybrid format.
Our meetings include planned presentations relevant to contemporary gestalt therapy theory/practice as it reflects who we are, all of us, in the world. Our meetings have a dual focus: on the one hand, we attend to the content presented and on the other, we attend to the experience of the group members themselves.
As we were then, as we are now, we are committed to Gestalt therapy in word, in deed, and in its full embodiment.
To see the full schedule, please click here.
We hope you will join us for any of these that draws your interest.
We welcome you to become a member.
Members have access to the members section of this website where recordings of our presentations are available. That section also contains documents, papers, and various other items not viewable by the visitors to the website. Other benefits to membership are being developed.
For more information, please contact us.
We welcome you,
Dan Bloom
President, NYIGT
Burt Lazarin
Vice President, NYIGT
THE NYIGT TODAY
Over the years, the Institute has evolved into a world-wide membership organization with members from 7 continents addressing the needs of the Gestalt therapy community. Its structure continues to develop according to the needs of individuals and of the group-as-a-whole. As our membership continues to grow globally — and as the Covid crisis demanded new ways for us to engage with one another — more and more of our meetings have been occurring online. We are creatively-exploring the possibilities and potentials for online contacting.
Each month from the relative isolation of psychotherapy practices, supervision, seminars, practicums, and study groups, people come together as a larger community to socialize, learn from one another, and contactfully challenge themselves in the on-going group processes of our monthly meetings as well as in other meetings that emerge from the imperatives of the world situation.
Each of us meets as a peer — regardless of our background or experience, whether student, teacher, fellow, full or associate member.
We at the New York Institute for Gestalt T therapy think of ourselves as serving a special function in the larger Gestalt therapy community. The New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy is not a training institute. Rather than offer formal structured programs to “train” Gestalt therapists, our primary function is the ongoing teaching and learning of Gestalt therapy itself. We believe teaching and learning Gestalt therapy are aspects of a single contact-boundary phenomena. An experienced teacher learns through the process of teaching; a student teaches through the process of learning. All of us continue to discover, invent, learn, and create the theory of Gestalt therapy.
Learning thus does not emanate from the top down in a fixed hierarchy, but emerges as figures of interest in a field of excitement and support.
We invite all interested people to join our teaching/learning community to continue the study and development of Gestalt therapy. We believe this non-hierarchical and emergent process leads to awareness and growth in a way that most effectively embodies the values and spirit of Gestalt therapy.
HISTORY
The New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy, founded in 1952, is the original Gestalt therapy institute. In the late 1940’s Frederick (Fritz) and Laura Perls emigrated to the United States and settled in New York City. Here they continued their work begun in South Africa , developing a novel theory and method of psychotherapy.
In 1951, the Gestalt therapy was named and presented to the world in the seminal book, Gestalt Therapy,Excitement and Growth by Frederick Perls, Ralph Hefferline, and Paul Goodman. In the year following its publication, 40 people arrived for study at the Perls’s apartment; Fritz and Laura each led a group of 20 of them. The NYIGT, the first Gestalt therapy institute in the world, was born and soon thrived from by the excitement of this group. Fritz’s enthusiasm sparked the fire of the NYIGT and for many years Laura’s forceful patience sustained it.
The original circle soon grew to include Isadore From, Paul Goodman, Richard Kitzler, Elliot Shapiro, Paul Weiss, and others. Over the years, these people spread the seeds of Gestalt therapy from which grew many national and international Gestalt therapy institutes. The continuing liveliness of and commitment by its member to the Institute’s core values has kept it vital for nearly 75 years.
The NYIGT will always be as old as Gestalt therapy, the institute founded at its birth.
Click here to find a therapist or supervisor.
The New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy in the 21st Century
An Anthology of Published Writings since 2000
This is a collection of writings by members of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy previously published from 2000 to 2014. Here you will find essays with much in common and with important differences. These papers reflect the authors’ relationship to the institute and offer what they believe is representative of their work. This collection exemplifies the institute: our membership, our mission our sense of history—and marks our place in contemporary gestalt therapy.
Edited by Dan Bloom and Brian O’Neill
470 pages
Published: April 8, 2014
JOIN US!
Open to all persons interested in Gestalt Therapy Theory, this would include well-established Gestalt Therapists, non-Gestalt Therapists, students and persons in related fields. Again, this is open to anyone who would like to join us and to be part of our institute in any way moving forward.
PAST OFFICERS
| Past Presidents | Past Vice Presidents | Tenure |
| Michael Vincent Miller | Susan Gregory | 2022-2023 |
| Frank Bosco | Michael Vincent Miller | 2020-2021 |
| Adam Weitz | Gayla Feinstein | 2017-2019 |
| Ken Meyer | Elinor Greenberg | 2015-2017 |
| Lee Zevy | Burt Lazarin | 2013-2015 |
| Susan Jurkowski | Frank Bosco | 2011-2013 |
| Bud Feder | Gail Feinstein | 2009-2011 |
| Susan Gregory | Bud Feder | 2007-2009 |
| Burt Lazarin | Susan Gregory | 2005-2007 |
| Dan Bloom | Gail Feinstein/Susan Gregory | 2003-2005 |
| Dan Bloom | Burt Lazarin | 2001-2003 |
| Lee Zevy | Burt Lazarin | 1999-2001 |
| Gail Feinstein | Dan Bloom | 1997-1999 |
| Joe Lay | Gail Feinstein | 1995-1997 |
| Perry Klepner | Ruth Wolfert | 1993-1995 |
| Carl Hodges | Karen Humphrey | 1991-1993 |
| Laura Perls | 1972-1991 |