About IGI & Gestalt Therapy

About the Indianapolis Gestalt Institute

For almost 50 years, IGI has trained social workers, psychologists, pastoral counselors, and lay people in Gestalt theory and practice.  Our graduates have more than a technical understanding of psychological healing.  They believe that you can never help guide a person to a place that you yourself have never been.  Thus, our training develops therapists and lay people “from the inside – out.”  The Institute has a long tradition of helping a diverse range of professionals to integrate Gestalt principles into their own unique practices and vocations.

IGI adopted the tag line “from the inside-out” to summarize our belief that we must do our own internal work as part of a process for being able to be fully present to others.  It is with this conviction that we imagine an Institute that can bring people together and build a community whose members believe that we attend to our own inner “cleaning house” as we attend to each other.  We imagine an Institute that can:

  • provide a place for personal therapy, couples work, group work, workshops and Gestalt Training for all involved in  helping a world to heal;
  • support our unique contributions to the midwest through clinical work, artistic expression and avocation; and,
  • co-ordinate community events that have a  theme of connection between all things

We believe that it is truly within a relationship that can hold us safely and allow us to unfold and feel fully alive that we heal … whether that be one-on-one, in a small community or in a vibrant larger society.

About Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt therapy is a unique psychotherapy , dedicated to helping people unblock barriers to being fully alive in the present.  Gestalt therapy is a process psychotherapy of growth with the goal of improving our contact in community and our environment.  This goal is accomplished through aware, spontaneous, and authentic dialogue between client and therapist.

The overarching focus in Gestalt therapy is on raising awareness.  Emotional awareness and expression keeps “unfinished business” from accumulating.  Once we have learned to hide our needs from ourselves and others, and we learn this at a very early age, we begin to accrue unfinished situations that drain energy that we need for excitement and creativity in all realms of life.  The ongoing awareness of feelings in one’s self and others is a prerequisite for an exciting and enjoyable life.