Gestalt Walk & Talk

Dialogic Relating Outdoors

A one-day experiential workshop with Rod London and Kate Kennedy for counsellors, therapists, and mental health practitioners.

Following previous versions of this popular workshop, we will present a Gestalt approach to working outdoors with opportunities to develop existing practice. The workshop will include ways to attune, dialogically, to the needs of the client both indoors and outdoors and allow time for experimenting with and planning your own practice.

What is it?

The workshop will focus on the Gestalt concepts of dialogic relating and phenomenological inquiry in healing

and growth; incorporating the outdoors into therapy practice; and gaining support and nourishment from human and other-than-human contact. See further details below.

When is the workshop?

The day will run from 9.30am to 4.30pm on:

Monday 30th June 2025

Who is it for?

The workshop will be of interest to practitioners who:

 Already work outdoors or would like to develop this way of working.

 Wish to explore a Gestalt approach applied to working outdoors.

 Work in either long-term or time-limited settings.

 Work in a context in which they may be susceptible to vicarious trauma.

 Work with relational trauma and experience the more distant effects of global conflict and climate emergency in their client work.

 Are interested in the philosophical and psychological role the natural environment plays in general wellbeing and maintenance of mental health.

 Attended previous outdoor workshops in Birmingham.

Where will it take place?

The workshop will take place at Birmingham Botanical Gardens: https://birminghambotanicalgardens.org.uk/

• with its comfortable indoor space and beautiful grounds and glasshouses. The day includes full access to the Gardens, all refreshments and a buffet lunch.

Further Details

Continuing Professional Development Programme

The workshop will include theory and experiential exercises, utilising all the available senses plus imagination, working individually and in pairs/small groups. The facilities at the Botanical Gardens will support a fluid use of both indoor and outdoor space – reflecting zones of awareness, and the relational qualities of the contact boundary between Self and Other.

The workshop will be responsive to the experience and needs of participants and include:

 Dialogic relating and phenomenological inquiring into the situation of Self/Environment

 Walking and movement as an embodiment of the client’s relational field – leading to experiments into different ways of being-in-the-world

 New ideas for working outdoors – and bringing the outdoors indoors

 Practical aspects of outdoor work – planning/reviewing opportunities for beginning and developing outdoor work

 Working inclusively with difference and diversity

 Developing the support and ‘ground’ necessary for practitioners working with trauma and in demanding, often time-limited, settings

All materials, and a certificate of attendance for 7 hours CPD, will be provided.

Hot drinks will be available during the day, and a buffet lunch provided which can be eaten indoors or in the Garden.

To ensure the best opportunities for individual and small group work, the workshop will be limited to 15 places.

Cost of workshop

Trainee, and Early Bird until 31 st March: £125

Full fee after 31 st March: £150

Please contact us if these rates would prohibit you from booking.

For further information and/or booking a place on the workshop, please email: rod@gestaltbirmingham.co.uk with ‘Outdoor Workshop’ in the subject.

Kate Kennedy

Diploma in Counselling

Kate has recently retired from therapeutic practice in which she worked extensively in schools and the NHS where she established and managed counselling services, and in private practice. She has frequently worked with clients outdoors and has a special interest in how this supports working with trauma.

Rod London

UKCP & BACP Accredited

MSc (Gestalt Psychotherapy), Dip Supervision

Rod works in private practice as a psychotherapist and supervisor and has many years teaching experience including counselling/psychotherapy training and has also managed counselling/mental health services in schools, NHS, and HE settings. He teaches on the supervision programme at CSTD Bath and is the current Chair of the Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Institute.