Gestalt

Michael Running (he/him)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC, MS, NCC

I have been in Gestalt Therapy training groups since 2018, including the integration of Buddhist Psychology and Gestalt Therapy, and find Gestalt to be a natural theoretical home for me. Gestalt therapy values the exploration of your present experience and curiosity around what gets in the way of engaging fully with the world.

Kendra Smith (she/her)

Professional Counselor Associate

MA

I am naturally a curious person who likes to observe the world around me. Gestalt Therapy is a counseling approach that looks at the way people interact with their environment, which includes relationships with others. People creatively adjust to survive, and as we develop, not all strategies are effective for us. It promotes curiosity and gives clients room to experiment with ways they might shift their responses to the world around them to better represent themselves and get their needs met.

Gabriel Boyer (he/him)

Professional Counselor Associate

MA, MEd

Relational Gestalt Therapy is a process orientated, experiential approach, centered on your lived experience. It is a practical and optimistic approach. The central question is how do you connect to yourself, to others, to your environment? What strategies did you create to adjust to the life you've had? By creating a safe space to deepen into your experience, awareness expands, core issues clarify and can close. Space emerges for a new response, a new way to move and connect with life.

Carol-Joy Brendlinger

Qualified Mental Health Professional

I have 20 years of experience working with clients as a spiritual director and bringing contemplative practices and mindfulness into sessions. Gestalt therapy is an effective theory that I work with to help clients come into the present moment and connect with movement and their bodies.

Annie Vail (she/her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Certified Hakomi Therapist (CHT)

Mary Bruce-Owenby (she/her)

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

LGBTQIA-affirmative couples therapist

I have trained in Gestalt therapy, a strengths-based, non-pathologizing approach, for the past eight years with the Gestalt Therapy Training Center Northwest (GTTCNW). Gestalt's emphasis on the importance of being present in the moment and paying attention to here-and-now experience of each member of the couple sets up the necessary conditions for the co-regulation and interactive regulation of two nervous systems, a process that helps partners stay attuned connected to one another.

Julie Osburne (she/they)

Professional Counselor Associate

M.A.

Gestalt therapy is a dynamic approach that posits that all of our traumas and histories can be found in the present moment. To access and process these experiences, we direct our attention to what we notice moment by moment in our minds, bodies, and emotions. This approach involves somatic experiencing, mindfulness, and authentic relating between the therapist and client. My graduate program focused on Gestalt therapy and I have taken a year of experiential coursework and training in Gestalt.

Jennifer Rocks, MA, MS, PsyD (she/her)

Clinical Psychologist

MA, MS, PsyD

Conceptualizing from a contemporary Gestalt orientation means that I think about an individual as self-regulating and intrinsically moving toward health. Sometimes we get stuck in this process and develop ways of being that aren't helpful. My job is to help you gain awareness and understanding of obstacles to your goals and find more satisfying ways of connecting with yourself and others.

Jonathan Joebgen

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

LCSW

Gestalt Therapy is a holistic and relational process in which change occurs through increased awareness of thoughts, feelings, and experiences as they occur. For example, I may help you notice when you talk softer while telling of a time you couldn't express yourself to a parent. This may be followed up with an experiment where you practice a new way of responding while maintaining your volume.

Ofelio Resendiz (He/Him/Él)

Licensed Professional Counselor

MA

I have been in Gestalt supervision, consultation, and training in Portland since 2018. I am also in post-graduate advanced clinical training at the Pacific Gestalt Institute in Los Angeles, California.

Henry Cameron (He/Him)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC

I have studied for over 5 years with the Gestalt Therapy Training Center NW in Portland.

Lucius Wheeler (He/him/his)

Licensed Professional Counselor

Gestalt is not only a type of therapy, but also a way of understanding human experience and the process of change. As a Gestalt therapist, my goal is to help you become aware of your needs, interests, and habitual patterns, and to support you to make choices that are meaningful and satisfying for you. I receive ongoing Gestalt training and supervision from multiple organizations and trainers.

Eric Nielson

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

One of my primary influences is Gestalt Therapy and Gestalt Awareness Practice (a practice based in the Gestalt Therapy developed by Fritz Perls, and evolved by Richard and Christine Price). A primary tenet of Gestalt therapy is that, as we are able to come to greater awareness and acceptance of our experience in this moment, we allow the possibility of real and lasting growth and change.

Sarah Voruz (she/her)

Clinical Psychologist

PsyD

Gestalt Therapy is focused on the present moment, understanding our place in the wider context of the world, and the quality of relationship between the therapist and client. I trained for 7 years with the Gestalt Therapy Training Center - NW, was on the planning committee for The State of the Art of Gestalt Therapy Conference (Portland, October 2015), and organize meetings for the Portland Gestalt Community. I've always thought of Gestalt not just as an orientation but a way of life.

Neil Panchmatia (he/they)

Licensed Professional Counselor

MS, NCC, Licensed Professional Counselor

I have extensive training in Gestalt therapy as a therapeutic modality that has an existential-humanistic leaning.