Gestalt therapy dialogue network

16/04/2026

🦋🙏🏻🧡

Most people try to regulate their nervous system with their mind. 'Just calm down. Think positive.'

But your nervous system doesn't respond to your thoughts. It responds to what it is actually experiencing. It listens to your body. You're trying to fix something your body is telling you. And its not working.

Mapping Framework: Map where you are RIGHT NOW.

Ask yourself:
→ How fast is my breath?
→ What's my chest doing?
→ Do I feel open or guarded?

identify what state you're in:
→ Anxious/activated = Your system is in fight or flight
→ Numb/disconnected = Your system has shut down
→ Calm/present = Your system feels safe

Use these 5 steps:
1. Stop listening to your mind, go to your body
2. Map your physical state (breath, chest, gut, shoulders)
3. Identify your state (Sympathetic/Dorsal/Ventral)
4. Recognize where you are (creates distance from state)
5. Gently help your body move back

It's about reading your body and gently helping it find its way home.

None of these states is bad. Each has a purpose. The problem isn't being in them. It's being stuck.

Save this post for future reference.

16/04/2026

In Cape town!!!

Do you know that I’ll be co-teaching a course on applied Polyvagal theory and embodiment in psychotherapy while in Cape Town next month?
My colleague, Dr. Ilene Naomi Rusk and I are offering this course and if you are in the area I hope you’ll join us.

Course Objectives Include:

• Apply polyvagal theory within therapy
• Assess Neuroception of safety and threat
• Discuss the tiered response to threat and hybrid nervous system states
• Recognize the benefits of co-regulation and the social engagement system
• Learn about Heart Rate Variability (HRV) as related to stress management
• Demonstrate how to enhance health through natural vagus nerve stimulation
• Understand how to remediate the impact of stress and trauma on physical and cognitive health through the six pillars of brain health
• Apply tools to help clients expand their window of tolerance through principles somatic psychology interventions
• Learn vagal toning practices that can be incorporated as resources and interweaves within the 8 phases of EMDR therapy.

Who this workshop is for:
Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Registered Counsellors, Social Workers

Date: Monday, 4 May 2026
Time: 08h00 - 17h00
Venue: Southern Sun, (Cape Sun)

Contact person: Tracy
Whatsapp: 069 537 5287
info@tracymcintyre.co.za
Cape Town CBD

Cost:
Non-refundable deposit of R1200 to secure spot
R4000 Full Price, payable from 21/03/2026

We still have space available 🪷

15/04/2026

Healing isn't always comfortable, but that doesn't mean you're doing it 'wrong' or going backwards.

15/04/2026

Glimmers are everywhere🌸🌞☮️🌈🧡

Everyone talks about triggers.
Not enough people talk about glimmers.

Glimmers are the opposite of a trigger.
They’re small moments that help your nervous system feel a little safer.
A little calmer.

It might be quiet.
Fresh air.
Music you love.
A person you feel safe around.

Nothing big. Nothing complicated.
Just small things your nervous system recognizes as “okay.”

They’re easy to miss.
When you’re in survival mode, your brain is wired to focus on what feels wrong or unsafe.

But once you start noticing glimmers, you realize they’re there more often than you thought.

And paying attention to them can help you understand what your system needs to come back to calm.

That’s not everything.
But it’s a step.

03/04/2026

We have only a couple of spaces for this programme!!!!

✨ Step Into Advanced Supervision. Train at the Highest Level. ✨
🌍 Begins May 2026
📍 Teach Bhríde, Co. Carlow + Online
🎓 Eligible for accreditation with IACP & IAHIP
If you are already practising and know you’re capable of more, more depth, more authority, more embodied presence in the supervisory field, this programme is designed for you.
The Certificate in Gestalt Clinical Supervision is not a skills add-on. It is an 18-month, immersive training shaped by internationally recognised Gestalt leaders and grounded in rigorous, relational practice.
You will train within a small, carefully selected cohort of 16 practitioners. This is intentional. Depth requires containment. Excellence requires challenge.
You will learn from globally respected Gestalt thinkers whose work continues to influence contemporary supervision internationally, alongside a deeply experienced local faculty committed to relational integrity and embodied learning.
This is supervision training that is:
• Experiential and field-sensitive
• Grounded in embodiment, not abstraction
• Responsive to power, diversity, and organisational complexity
• Creatively alive and clinically rigorous
You Will Develop
🌿 Embodied supervisory skills
🤝 Capacity to navigate complex relational and organisational dynamics
🌱 Field-centred awareness informed by context and personal autonomy
🎨 Creative confidence with difficult supervisory moments
💬 Depth dialogue, challenge, and transformative feedback
📆 First Residential: 22–24 May 2026
💶 Investment: €3,950 (instalments available)
As with all of our programmes places are limited to ensure the highest quality.
If you are serious about advancing your supervisory practice, now is the time to act.
👉 Review the full programme and secure your place:
https://gestaltinstitute.ie/gestalt-supervision
📩 Request your application form: admin@gestaltinstitute.ie
Applications require two references and an online interview.