Introduction to the Committee
Research in Gestalt Therapy is increasingly important in order to substantiate the place of Gestalt Therapy alongside other modalities and to keep pace with the requirements of governmental bodies and insurance companies for evidence of efficacy.
The EAGT Research Committee (RC) was founded in 2008 through the initiative of Peter Schulthess, who became our first chair. Peter was followed by Gianni Francesetti, Jan Roubal, Vincent Beja and currently Rosanna Biasi.
Scientific board
As research is becoming more established within Gestalt Therapy, the Research Committee has set up an informal committee, the Scientific Board (SB). This is a support for the RC and a pool of expertise for research related tasks. The RC remains the elected body in which the main and strategic decisions will be taken.
Our Aims
Our aims are to:
- Strengthen our understanding of our Gestalt practice and support qualitative professional competencies.
- Support Gestalt therapy to become more figural in the psychotherapy research field.
- Help Gestalt therapy to become a valid, recognised and well-established modality for the respective governments and administrations of our countries. A letter of support was signed by distinguished researchers in the field of psychotherapy research: https://gestaltresearch.org/letter-support-gestalt-therapy
We will do this by:
- Supporting the introducing of research into our Gestalt Therapy training institutes.
- Supporting research in Gestalt Therapy, both qualitative and quantitative through networking, collaborating in launching projects and through publishing.
- Strengthening our links with the academic world.
Ongoing Tasks & Projects
International Research Conferences. Our most recent conference was held in Hamburg in September 2022. Alongside colleagues from Germany and the IAAGT this was an important opportunity to reflect on and to bring some structure to the Gestalt international research community. Experiences of the conference and its outcomes can be found in our 2023 newsletter. Conference videos can be downloaded here: https://gestaltresearch.org/conferences
The Gestalt Therapy Research Network A world-wide community of Gestalt therapy researchers. Fellow researchers, research projects, discussion groups, research resources and peer support. https://gestaltresearchnetwork.org
The Gestalt Research Database is a searchable selection of articles on Gestalt and related psychotherapy research https://gestaltresearch.org. It aims to support people outside of our modality to understand the breadth of research in Gestalt, and to help Gestalt practitioners and students to access relevant articles.
Rigorous Case Studies: this methodology has been recognized by the APA (American Psychology Association) as being as valid as Random Controlled Trials in demonstrating the efficacy of a treatment. Such a methodology has the advantage that it does not require the development of standardizing criteria for what counts as Gestalt therapy practice. The RC is looking for opportunities to support the uptake of this methodology within the EAGT community.
Networking: There is further work to do towards embedding research within the Gestalt Therapy tradition. We hope to achieve this through working together with the Professional Competencies & Quality Standards committee and with the Training Standards committee to establish research standards and research competencies.
Supporting Training Institutes to introduce research: We have begun a series of webinars for trainers from Gestalt Training Institutes, giving information and training on the integration of research awareness and simple research methodologies into the training curriculum, Teaching Research in Gestalt Therapy Trainings: A European Project.
Videos and resources can be downloaded here: https://gestaltresearch.org/teaching-research-gestalt-therapy-trainings-european-project
EAGT Research Ethics Board: This is in development and will consist of 5 members from different countries. The Ethics Board will examine proposals for research projects, membership surveys, etc., to ensure that projects that the EAGT supports or promotes are ethically sound.
Get in Touch with us
You can add your name to the (publicly accessible) list of EAGT members interested in research by emailing our contact address info@eagt.org
If you are interested in any of our work and/or if we can support your research or efforts to embed research in Gestalt Training curricula etc. please contact us on the email above.
