There are different ways I may go to present myself as a professional psychotherapist.
I might present a chronological list of the educational and supervision programs I went through or of workshops I presented at different conferences in Europe.
I could also tell you a story of growing understanding of the power which the therapeutic relationship has in Gestalt therapy.
Or I might begin a description of my endless journey through the world of therapeutic methods, various attitudes toward psychotherapy in general, and clients' expectations.
I studied Gestalt therapy in Moscow (Russia) in 1995-1997. After receiving a Certificate of a Gestalt-therapist and a Gestalt-consultant I developed an extensive private therapeutic practise in the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk. Membership in the Ukrainian Union of Psychotherapists allowed me to communicate with the colleagues from many European countries(UUP - which is an umbrella member of the European Association of Psychotherapy, EAP) . These connections, together with a supervision 5-year program provided by EAP, enriched my initial training. I gained my professional confidence, and started my trainer activity in the educational programs UUK provided.
In 2007, for personal and social reasons of the time, my family and I left Ukraine. It was good to reveal how many tools I had to overcome during that period of culture shock: my in-depth understanding of the human nature, my inclination to be attentive to my own feelings, the huge experience of helping other people when they need a therapeutic support, my general curiosity, and a passionate desire to integrate myself into Toronto's social, cultural, and professional life.
Today I am a Gestalt-therapist in Toronto . Thanks to my contact with the Toronto Gestalt Institute I may say that all Gestalt-therapists all over the world speak the same language. Due to my current therapeutic experience I have made one more very valuable discovery: there are certain cultural differences between clients in different countries, but these differences are only the surface layer; the fears, the pain from traumas, the need to be healthy and joyful are both сommon and individual for all of us on the planet.
The Gestalt method I use gives us the access to your the core problem. Also it gives us the means to overcome the problem at its base. What do we do? Most obviously, we are talking. We try to avoid any kinds of the excuse or explanation (because it is very easy to come up with an explanation), and we are focused on your feelings and attitudes (because that is what is our human life - admiration and disillusionment, joy and sadness, trust and misgiving, curiosity and apprehension, respect and contempt, as well as love, indifference, irritation, anticipation, and all of our other complicated emotions)
The cycle of the Gestalt therapy may be brief or prolonged. We start with 10 sessions - as intensive as is possible for the client. Very often this short-term course is enough, and the results may be discussed. In other often cases - brief therapy gives only partial results, and then we may reconsider the agreement and plan prolonged therapy.
One session lasts 50 (+/-) min. The first visit needs to be longer (this additional time is not paid) - to make a psycho-therapeutic agreement and familiarize the client with principles of confidentiality the therapist follows. Additional time may be used also for the questions the client has before going far to the therapeutic process
