Training in both gestalt psychotherapy and music therapy has afforded me a wonderful opportunity to be more present with the people I work with. In retrospective, the past 18 months has been an opening as well as a time of great learning. There has been growth, large personal changes, fear and opportunities.
If successful, this presentation would explore some basic gestalt psychotherapy themes in the context of music therapy. This would draw from personal experiences of the past 18 months which I have entered into, experienced and left a highly abusive relationship, all while continually working as an RMT.
When exploring these themes in context, there of course are many ethical and clinical questions, relating to boundaries, counter-transference and professionalism. This ‘snapshot’ of time gives us a qualitative data point to put under the microscope and explore the ramifications.
We will explore the themes of:
• Cycles of experience
o How we dynamically interact with the environment, focussing on nascent visceral awareness
• Field Theory
o Prevalent also in the work of music therapist Caroline Kenny, this is the patterns of interaction between people, what arises.
• Phenomenology
o Things arising
• Dialogue
• Experimentation

Through these lenses, I hope to go on a journey with participants where we explore my work in mental health, my own mental health, and fundamentally how our work brings us all closer together – if we let it. This, by nature is a creative journey.
This presentation is intended to be a small opening onto a creative therapy process but the intention is to offer tools that might be useful in participant interactions as well as across one’s whole life. These ideas are not peculiar to music therapy or gestalt practice and they can be seen in indigenous cultures throughout the world. We will not have scope to explore this in detail however it is always present in the work.a
While I would never speak to participants with this level of intimacy, lest it make therapy unsafe for them – having personal challenges is part of life and ‘bodying forth’ enables us to be better at our work. We encourage participants to bring themselves fully to the experience of therapy – we should do the same – what this offers is beautiful work.