April/May/June 2015 Spring Quarterly Newsletter V (5) A message from Tilda TEACHER Last summer my husband and I had our first-ever riding lesson. The horses were lovely: gentle, responsive, and extremely well-trained. The idea, the teacher explained, was to feel the horse s energy as well as to let the horse feel your energy and intention. He said balancing on the saddle, which had no hand-hold, would flow from maintaining our center. And by golly, it worked. Soon we were riding around the ring, feeling more and more confident. Easy. Wonderful. Then the teacher suggested we try a little trotting. And I froze. Is he out of his mind? We re rookies at this, we re both in our mid- seventies, and we already have enough aches without risking a fall. But, well, there we were, and he was the teacher. So I agreed to try. It was awful. Terrible. So bumpy I thought my teeth would fall out and my spine would jangle to pieces. I m never going to do this again! I told the teacher. The teacher s response was not an apology, not an explanation, not a pep talk. He said, I m so glad you felt free to say that you don t like trotting. With that, I was home. I tried it, I didn t like it, I said no. End of story? Actually, not. Because my objection was accepted I left the riding stable eager to return. Oddly, predictably, a tiny door opened to the scary, crazy possibility of asking the horse to trot next time. In GPC no one is ever cajoled or persuaded or pressured. Suggestions for experiments are offered, but when someone says no, we find a way to support and honor that refusal. Resistance is a word we don t use because it implies that there is something wrong or lazy about refusing to go along with what is suggested. Instead we want to empower the one who is working to take charge of her or his own process, saying
2 say no, yes or maybe to anything we suggest. And we want to encourage each one s interior awareness of God s hovering grace that shapes each person s growth from the inside, inviting the next step, and the one after that. by Dave Janvier, MA, LPC, CST Last year, many of us gathered at the Kern s Spirituality Center in Pittsburgh to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of GPC. It appeared all who attended were deeply impacted in significant ways. Creative energy abounded and new levels of awareness were being discovered during the length of the conference. An obvious awareness, that I believe everyone noticed, is that most of the attendees were female. The conference afforded the men to connect and discuss a uniquely male experience of GPC. During this process, the idea of having an all Men s GPC Retreat was birthed. A number of the GPC men gathered at a retreat center in Western, PA in March 2015 to hold the first GPC Men s Retreat. The men who gathered took turns working and guiding. As a Therapist, I have led many therapeutic weekends over the years through a variation of the GPC model with groups of men in the past and have learned that there is a unique dynamic that takes place when men gather as the church operating in the healing ministry of Jesus. While we all cherished our training and work in prior GPC settings, we all agreed that there was only certain parts of self that could feel free enough to be processed and affirmed in the company of other men. God s presence was evident and men were able to expose those parts and receive healing on many levels-including body work. In reflection of this Men s weekend and the expansion of GPC, it is exciting to ponder the possibilities of reaching and bringing healing to more men. I believe a critical piece would be having men who model the process well to other men. Let s seek the Lord together in prayer as to how this ministry can bring healing to more men. Prayerfully, Dave
UPCOMING EVENTS 3 Opening to Grace Retreats May 28-30, 2015: Opening to Grace Retreat led by Rev. Betty Voigt; Holy Ground Hermitage, Greene County, PA. For more information and registration, contact Betty Voight at 724-852-4233. May 28-30, 2015: Opening to Grace Retreat led by Tilda Norberg; Dingman's Ferry, PA. For more information and registration, contact Tilda Norberg at tildanorberg@yahoo.com. June 18-20, 2015: Opening to Grace Retreat led by Tilda Norberg; Dingman's Ferry, PA. For more information and registration, contact Tilda Norberg at tildanorberg@yahoo.com. October 1-3, 2015: Opening to Grace Retreat led by Tilda Norberg; Dingman's Ferry, PA. For more information and registration, contact Tilda Norberg at tildanorberg@yahoo.com. Foundational Course Rev. Betty Voight and Rev. Clarejean Haury will be teaching a 2015-2016 Foundational Course in Sycamore, PA. Class Sessions will be held on Friday at 10:00 am to Sunday at 4:30 pm. October 9-10, 2015 November 13-14, 2015 December 4-5, 2015 January 15-16, 2016 February 19-20, 2016 April 1-2, 2016 April 29-30, 2016 Closing Retreat will be Thursday, May 10, 2016 at 1:00 pm to Sunday, May 22, 2016 at 1:00 pm. Cost is $3000.00, which includes overnight accommodations and meals. A $300 registration fee is due by July 1, 2015. This fee reserves a place in the class, and will be applied toward the tuition. Payment plans are possible; some scholarship money is available if needed, and may be arranged with Betty Voigt. For more information, please call Betty Voigt at 724-852-4233. You may also download the brochure at:http://www.gestaltpastoralcare.org/foundational.html
Foundational Course 4 Rev. Tilda Norberg will be teaching a 2015-2016 Foundational Course in Dingmans Ferry, PA. Class Sessions will be held at noon on Wednesday and end on to Saturday. October 14-17, 2015 November 8-21, 2015 March 23-26, 2016 January 15-16, 2016 May 18-21, 2016 September 14-17, 2016 For more information, contact Tilda at tildanorberg@yahoo.com. (C) Rhoda Glick Fritz Perls said that dreams are a way of getting around the head and into the heart. What Perls didn t say - because as a declared atheist he couldn t - was that not only do dreams get into the heart but they also connect with the Spirit of Christ within the human being. While this is specifically true of dreams and dream work, the same truth can be said of Gestalt Pastoral Care work in general. When a guide sits with another to work in a GPC session the guide is acknowledging, making space for and inviting the other to become aware of the SPirit of Christ within. In order to do that, the guide s greatest challenge is to attend to her own healing work, thereby acknowledging and reclaiming the divine Spirit within. She has to actively be living in the reality of her own divinity. In this way she is energetically, gently, and yet powerfully making possible the same in the other, in the person with whom she is sitting in session. While specific skill training in GPC is necessary and important, there comes a point when all the formal training has to be put aside in the guide s thinking. She is invited to sit with the other in her own spiritual poverty and nakedness; she is invited to maintain an awareness of the Presence of the Holy within herself as well as within the other. This awareness in and of itself serves as an invitation to the other. The Psalmist seemd to be aware of this when he said: Deep calls unto deep. (Ps 42:7)
5 In Living from the Center: Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism, Jay McDaniels refers to prayer as inner availability to God as Mystery. In GPC we make ourselves available to hear the (other) into listening, into moments of experience, and the soul - a series of experiential moments - is 1 contacted, nurtured and restored. And in this prayerful place of Mystery that transcends but includes us, healing happens. 1 Jay McDaniel, Living from the Center: Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2000), p. 153 A new relationship for Gestalt Pastoral Care is forming; Dinah Buchanan, co-director with her husband Barry of the Terrigal Gestalt Institute near Sydney, Australia, will be in New York May 23-June 8. She and Barry learned of Gestalt Pastoral Care by reading Consenting to Grace, loved the approach and have since been in touch with both Tilda and the GPC Visioning Committee to explore Dinah and Barry's request to become part of the GPC family and to offer GPC training at TGI. According to Tilda, Dinah and Barry have held a long-standing dream of offering training in Christian gestalt, and of [TGI] becoming a Christian gestalt center. From the TGI website: Terrigal Gestalt Institute was originally founded in 2005 in response to an initial group of very passionate and enthusiastic students... who, after having been introduced to the Gestalt model, wanted to continue to train as Gestalt Counsellors and Psychotherapists.... The vision held for the Terrigal Gestalt Institute is to continue expanding and to become a centre of excellence for the Gestalt approach: with a heart for community and connection. The Visioning Committee decided to pursue this exciting possibility of an Australian GPC Affiliate, and Dinah's visit will be the beginning of a pilot program of introducing GPC to Dinah and the students of TGI. Dinah will attend an Opening to Grace retreat, led by Tilda, and will also meet with several members of the Visioning Committee. Please pray for God's continued leading as this relationship with GPC, TGI and Dinah and Barry and the community of practitioners in Australia GPC Australia evolves over the coming months.
6 Your Contribution Matters. You are invited to like us on Facebook, follow us in your newsfeed, and share our status updates with others. Here s how: Go to www.facebook.com. If you don t have an account, follow the easy steps to sign up. Look for the top white line that says, Search for people, places, and things. Type in the box Gestalt Pastoral Care and hit the enter/ return key. Like us by clicking the Like button. This adds you to our online community. Follow us by clicking the box with the +Follow button. It will then change to a box that says Following. This helps ensure you will get updated statuses from us in your newsfeed. If you see something from us in your newsfeed that you like, click the Like button. If you want others to see it, click the Share button. The more shares we get, the more chances other people can see our posts. This helps spread the ministry of GPC. Please consider making a gift of prayers, submitting quotes of how GPC has helped you, and/ or contributing a financial gift to support our scholarship fund, which makes GPC available to those who could otherwise not participate. Yes! I d like to contribute! My name is. I d like to support GPC through offering my gift of prayers, testimony quotes, and/or a financial contribution to the scholarship fund in the amount of $500 $250 $100 $50 $25 other (please specify $.) My phone number is. My address is. My email is. Please make checks payable to GPC Associates. GPC is a 501(c)3 tax deductible organization. Please send checks or testimony quotes to: Gestalt Pastoral Care 76 Clinton Ave Staten Island, NY 10301
If you have a contribution or suggestion for the next quarterly newsletter, please contact Alice Ward at afward79@gmail.com Gestalt Pastoral Care 76 Clinton Ave Staten Island, NY 10301 Cherished Beloved Street Address Anytown, State ZIP