NYIGT Bylaws

1. Membership

All members have equal status within the institute, including access to the members-only section of the website and the online members listserv, with these exceptions:

  1. Associate members are not eligible to receive therapy referrals from the institute.
  2. The offices of president and vice president may only be held by full members or fellows.
  3. Annual dues are different for each category.
  4. Full members and fellows are expected to make their affiliation with the institute known in all their professional activities.
  5. Full members and fellows’ names as well as their offerings (such as workshops, webinars, and trainings) will be listed as resources on the NYIGT website.

2. Associates and Full Members

The institute is a teaching/learning community in which all of its members have mutual roles in furthering, promoting, developing, creating, and understanding Gestalt therapy theory and practice. Within this membership, we recognize specific categories of membership solely for the purpose of differentiating and encouraging our individual members in developing their capacities within our community.

  1. An associate member is any person who joins the organization by paying and remaining current in its annual dues. A student, trainee, or interested member is an associate member for whom reduced dues are an option.
  2. A full member is an associate member who meets the following qualifications, as determined by consensus of the members present at a business meeting:
    1. A person known to the fellows, full members, and associate members of the institute and who is also personally sponsored by fellows or full members with direct knowledge of this person’s qualifications as a person deemed to be thoroughly trained and experienced as a Gestalt therapist and who
      1. demonstrates skill and facility in Gestalt therapy theory and practice;
      2. is currently in clinical supervision, peer supervision, consultation, or similar processes;
      3. is actively engaged with Gestalt therapy theory and practice in such ways that shall include but are not limited to participating in activities such as New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy meetings, presenting at and attending Gestalt therapy workshops, conferences, advanced trainings, and so on. This shall include presenting during at least one New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy monthly meeting;
      4. is a person who has shown commitment to and involvement with the NYIGT community in such ways as to have contributed to the ongoing culture, values, process, and substance of the NYIGT’s teaching/learning community;
      5. e) is a person whose background, experience, commitment, and ongoing activities in Gestalt therapy theory and practice and the NYIGT are such that they substantially meet all the criteria referenced above;
      6. f) is a person to whom others would and could send referrals with the confidence that the therapist could responsibly

(1) provide effective Gestalt therapy psychotherapy for  that referral or

(2) refer the person on to someone who would be a more suitable psychotherapist; and

      1. commits to remaining an active member of the NYIGT.

3. Full Membership as a Process

A person asking to become a full member is to have no fewer than 2 full members or fellows of the institute, including at least one current officer, to be his or her consultants in this process.

  1. These consultants shall be responsible for discussing this process with the person and assuring that this process is consistent with the values of the institute as a teaching/learning community, which includes openness, respect, candor, and support. This includes assuring that this process is fair, respectful, and welcoming of differences.
  2. These consultants shall encourage this person to seek as wide a discussion of this matter as possible with members of the institute.

4. Procedure for Full Membership

  1. A person who wishes to become a full member shall initiate this request no later than 6 months prior to the business meeting in which this topic shall be considered by informing the president and secretary that he or she so wishes and is choosing or has chosen said consultants.
  2. The institute shall announce this in the next monthly minutes mailed or emailed to the membership. This announcement is to include these bylaws so that the membership is aware of the process and the criteria of full membership.
  3. A person who initiates this process described can suspend the process without prejudice and resume it at any other time.
  4. Every member of the institute is encouraged to join this process by helping, supporting, encouraging, and advising the candidate for full membership to assure that this process furthers the teaching/learning values of the institute.
  5. Nothing in these bylaws shall be construed to be in conflict with any state law governing the credentialing of mental health professionals.

    5. Fellows

    1. a) A fellow is a distinguished member who, by being senior, skilled, published, and demonstrably expert, is a repository of the institute’s traditions, history, and values. A fellow is: a person who has been actively involved in pursuing our values as a teaching/learning community with an inclusive process of fluid hierarchies of knowledge, experience, and innovation; also, a person who is conveying his or her expertise in Gestalt therapy to others.
    2. The word hierarchy is to be understood as a notion reflecting the developing culture and norms of the group as reflected in the Compendium.
    3. A full member wishing to become a fellow shall express such a wish no later than 1 year prior to the first business meeting in which such a wish shall be considered. A person will become a fellow after a consensus of 2 regular business meetings that he or she meets these requirements.