GANZ Council

The new council for 2021 was sworn in at the Annual General Meeting of GANZ on the 22nd of November 2020.

The Council roles are detailed in these documents:

• Executive Roles
• Chairs
• Constitution

Annie Garrety

President & Research Co-Chair

Annie is a Gestalt Therapist in private practice in the Sunshine Coast Qld. She has a special interest in depression and is currently piloting a new study on the phenomenological and aesthetic dimensions of this creative adjustment in the field. Annie has studied Clinical Issues from a Relational Gestalt Perspective with Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb and others at the Italian Gestalt Institute. She has a passion for connecting globally with Gestalt Therapists and is in an ongoing training group with gestaltist from many parts of the world. Annie is also a music teacher with years of experience teaching improvisation to small children. Her special interest in writing on Gestalt and the Arts is in meeting the unexpected with the unimagined- the recovery of an improvised life.

Nathan Dick

Co-Vice President & Treasurer

I am a psychotherapist, group facilitator and counsellor with a private practice in Murwillumbah, Bundjalung Country, Nth NSW. I am a devoted parent, with three children aged between seven and 20. In my free time I enjoy surfing. I have a particular interest in neuroscience-informed psychotherapy, and its application to working with trauma, culture and families. I am passionate about anti-oppressive practice, inclusion and social justice. When possible I like to gently challenge societal norms and structures which privilege some and disadvantage others. I hope to influence the GANZ Council and wider field of Gestalt therapy in this area.

I am honoured to be elected as Co-Vice President for the GANZ Council. My intention is to do whatever I can to serve GANZ and Gestalt therapy in this region. I look forward to working with Julia. I do not feel fixed in these positions and am open to someone nominating themselves if they feel they’re a good fit to take over as VP or Treasurer at any time. I look forward to sharing more of myself in the future, and to assist in growing, consolidating and integrating Gestalt therapy in the coming years.

Julia Werner

Co-Vice President & Secretary

I am a Gestalt therapist working with individuals and couples in my private practice Gestalt Pathways. I have trained at Gestalt Therapy Australia in Melbourne and in Gestalt-informed couples therapy in Germany. I loved the training and increasingly developed a desire to work with people as a counsellor helping them in turning their sufferings into emotional growth. I completed the four-year course in 2013.

Gestalt theory first came into my life when I was lecturing in landscape architecture and environmental planning at Leibniz University Hanover in Germany. I have a Master of Science in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching and Learning.

Counselling has become my second career, while I remain to work part-time as a lecturer in landscape architecture at the university. For me the external and the internal worlds are related, and I am interested in the interactions between the two worlds. My knowledge of how complex systems (landscapes) work and relate to each other has given me an insight into how our ‘internal structures’ relate to each other and the effects they may have on our ‘whole’ when they are disconnected from one another.

I enjoy being a GANZ council member and working alongside a team so passionate and dedicated to Gestalt.

Eric Houghton

International and External Relationships

I am a therapist and counsellor in private practice in Wellington, New Zealand. I am fortunate to practice with colleagues I met through Gestalt training. Alongside seeing individual clients, I have spent a fair amount of time doing group work. I have facilitated groups and trained facilitators in adolescent resilience, parenting through separation and grief by suicide. In my role as a facilitator-trainer I have run trainings in many locations around New Zealand. I also have worked as a guidance counsellor at a local high school.

Prior to entering the therapeutic field, I worked in various roles in the fields of communications, broadcasting and feature film. My most prominent work was as an assistant director, which has more parallels to being a therapist than you might think.

My interest in psychotherapy began with me engaging in my own personal work. This opened my own awareness and I developed an interest in using what I was learning to assist others. I began by completing a degree in psychology at Victoria University of Wellington. On completion I was scheduled to do a Masters in Counselling Psychology, though in a serendipitous turn of events found Gestalt instead. Currently, I am in the final stages of a Masters in Gestalt Therapy with Gestalt Therapy Brisbane. This follows four years of training with the Gestalt Institute of New Zealand.

I am very pleased to be involved with the GANZ council. I work in International Relations with a particular focus on New Zealand. My primary interests are to see our organisation strengthen as a collective and to help Gestalt therapy grow and flourish in the region.

Aicha Brogan

Community and Membership

I have worked as a therapist since 2001, providing therapy to a wide range of clients. I am a Clinical member of PACFA and a former member of PACFA’s Gestalt Leadership group. I currently work in private practice and for a non-for-profit, in Hawthorn and Warburton, Victoria.

In practicing through a gestalt lens, I found a therapeutic home and a deep love for Gestalt Therapy! I am passionate about supporting the growth and sustainability of gestalt locally and internationally and have joined Council to both promote GANZ and in order to support the coming together of other Gestalt practitioners who share the love of this framework.

Michelle Sier

Professional Development

I am a psychologist and psychotherapist working in private practice in Melbourne.  I have a deep love for and commitment to Gestalt Therapy and the ways in which it invites and allows us to become aware of our capacities for change, choice and to live a fulfilling life.

I am passionate about professional development and how it can bring us together as a community to resource and support our work and connections to each other.  I am interested in understanding the ways therapists with different backgrounds and professional training and experience can connect and learn from each other clinically and relationally.  My hope is to expand opportunities for contact and learning, and to help facilitate creativity, vitality and passion amongst our community through professional development events. 

Prior to therapeutic practice, I worked on a national children’s mental health initiative to develop mental health professional learning resources for early childhood educators, primary school teachers, and families in Australia.  I have also worked in mental health program management and policy development with the Australian Government Department of Health in Canberra. 

I am currently completing my 4^th year training as a Gestalt psychotherapist through Gestalt Therapy Australia in Melbourne. 

Larz Lauer

Student Representative

I am super keen to be a part of the GANZ council as the student rep. Education and equitable access to it is very important to me. I hope to contribute myself in service to the ongoing support and growth of Gestalt in Australia and New Zealand and its accessibility to a wider demographic of peoples.  

As a queeer and trans identified person I and those that I am close to have a lived experience of exclusion. I hope to represent myself as an advocate for change.

I have, of course a particular focus on working alongside trans and gender diverse persons and the development of a more rigorous Gestalt approach to support the increased capacity of Gestalt therapists in working with such populations.

I work as registered nurse as well as volunteer for Q-Life a nationwide peer support service for LGBTQI+ folks. I draw my ongoing capacity and strength from the natural world, meditation and lifting weights.

Amanda Guilfoyle

Registration Associations Representative

Amanda is a caring professionally-trained counsellor registered with the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation Australia and is about to enter her final year of study to complete a Masters of Gestalt therapy with Gestalt Therapy Brisbane.  

She is currently employed by a not-for-profit organisation and works with clients across the life span. Amanda is particularly passionate about working with children and young people and those who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. She is particularly interested in helping individuals love and accept themselves, by bringing awareness to the here and now. Amanda has a passion for allowing individuals to get to know themselves intimately and supports clients to increase their self-awareness and emotional wellbeing.  

Amanda enjoys the continual journey of getting to know herself and finds balance in her life through yoga practice, time in nature, creativity and spending time with people she loves.

Kat Barker

Registration Associations Representative

I am a psychotherapist, group facilitator, artist and mentor working in private practice. I have just completed my Masters in Gestalt therapy and have been running groups for the past 5 years teaching breathwork. I was inspired to be involved with GANZ as I am passionate about Gestalt principles which have influenced my work life, my creativity and enriched my personal life. 

I am passionate about diversity and inclusion and strive to contribute towards a more equitable world. I am particularly interested in field theory and relational approach and how living with these principles close to mind and heart, can support interconnected and interdependent communities inclusive of the earth, that enables us to live enriched and healthy lives. 

As a multi-disciplinary artist and singer, I incorporate gestalt principles into my creative practice being witnessed in the process of improvisation and experimentation. I look forward to the ongoing exploration and collaboration in these arenas.

Karolina Krysinska

Research Co-Chair