Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy emphasises the moving, feeling, sensing body as the foundation for all experience. The training explores how subtle movement interactions reveal relational and existential themes. Participants learn to recognize and work with movement patterns that develop early in life – within relational, social, and cultural contexts – and that continue to shape how we meet others and make meaning today.
Grounded in bodily experience, the training offers a comprehensive framework for diagnosis, formulation, and intervention, integrating phenomenological, dialogic, developmental and field-sensitive perspectives. Experiential learning lies at the heart of the program: theory is explored and integrated through movement experiments that help participants deepen awareness of their own bodily experience and attend to the movements of the field – the relational dynamics unfolding between therapist and client.
Created by Ruella Frank, Ph.D., this approach draws inspiration from clinical phenomenology, developmental psychology, movement theory, and somatic education, and is centred within contemporary Gestalt therapy. Psychotherapists from all training modalities are welcome to discover how this approach can be integrated into clinical practice.
ABOUT LIDER:
Helena Kallner, PhD., is a UKCP and EAGT accredited Gestalt psychotherapist, and a senior teacher and supervisor of Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy™. She teaches workshops and training programs internationally and maintains a private practice in Stockholm. Helena is a full member of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy, the founding institute of Gestalt therapy. Drawing on findings from her doctoral research, which explores psychotherapists’ practical and bodily knowing, this training invites a re-discovery of the body as a vital source of ethical and creative knowing.
The program consists of five modules (197h). Additionally participants will meet in smaller peer study groups in-between modules.
FORMAL INFORMATION:
VENUE: Beera Meiselsa 1 (Centrum Doradztwa Rolniczego)
TRANSLATION - English and Polish speaking participants are welcome. The workshop will be held in English with translation into Polish
Times and dates:
The group meets: Thursday – Saturday: 9:30-18:00, Sunday 9:30 – 13:30
Module 1: October 1-4th, 2026
Module 2: February 4th – 7th, 2027
Module 3: May 20th-23rd, 2027
Module 4: October 7th-10th, 2027
Module 5: February 10-13th, 2028
On Thursday – Saturday, there will be a two-hour lunch break.
Course outline
Module 1-2
These modules highlight the importance of bodily awareness and introduce key principles of DSP-theory, focusing on kinesthetic resonance and the six fundamental movements. We explore yielding-with (being-with), pushing-against, and reaching-for and their related psychological functions, emphasising how nonverbal transactions shape lived experience.
Bodily knowing: Exploring Gestalt therapy as an aesthetic and phenomenological approach
Kinesthetic Awareness: Qualitative dynamics of moving
The Sequence of Six Fundamental Movements and their psychological functions: Yielding-with (Being-with)-Pushing-against-Reaching-for
Kinesthetic Resonance: The Basis of Sociability
Module 3-4
Participants deepen their understanding of the bodily roots of psychological development as expressed through movement and affect patterns within both the infant–caregiver and client–therapist dyads.
Module 3 focuses on postural dynamics and the meanings co-created through grasping-onto, pulling-toward, and releasing-from.
Module 4 explores the reflexive, co-created nature of contacting, agency formation, and the influence of personal, social, and cultural contexts. It introduces an aesthetic–phenomenological perspective on psychopathology and the concept of kinesthetic remembering – a somatic and developmental exploration of experienced time.
The Sequence of Six Fundamental Movements and their psychological functions: Grasping-onto-Pulling-toward-Releasing-from
Postural Dynamic: Bodily dimensions and their implicit co-created meanings.
Kinesthetic Remembering: A somatic developmental exploration of experiential time
The reflexive and co-created nature of Contacting: Moving “I”/Feeling “Me”
Psychopathology: Analysis of the emerging situation through movement
Module 5
The final module integrates previous insights, applying DSP-theory to the bodily origins of developmental wounding, trauma, and bi-directional attachment patterns. We examine how these dynamics appear in both infant–caregiver and client–therapist relationships and address the potential re-traumatising experiences that may arise for both therapists and clients.
Bodily origins of developmental trauma: A new paradigm in understanding and working with patterns of developmental traumas as they emerge in the infant-parent and patient-therapist relationship.
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: maximum 28 people
TOTAL COSTS of DSP training : 3050 EUR; paid in instalments of 610 EUR per each module
1st advance payment - 400 EUR - needs to be paid within 7 days from the moment of receiving confirmed registration email.
2nd payment – 210 EUR needs to be paid till 15th September 2026, then all next payments are required 3 weeks before each subsequent module.
Please pay above amount to the account:
Szkolenia Gestalt Sp. z o.o.
Bank: Pekao S.A.
Address: ul. Kraszewskiego 10/8
30-133 Krakow, Poland
Kod SWIFT/BIC Bank Pekao: PKOPPLPW
PL69 1240 4432 1978 0011 0328 6180
CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION:
completion of comprehensive training in Gestalt psychotherapy (including counselling) no later than the date of the first meeting of the cycle DSP
minimum 2 years of experience in psychotherapeutic practice under supervision
admission to the programme is based on a completed application form.
The final condition for admission to the DSP programme is the signing of a contract and payment of a deposit within 7 days of receiving a confirmation email.
INFORMATION: kontakt@szkoleniagestalt.pl
REGISTRATION ONLY THROUGH THE APPLICATION FORM: