Working with Children and Young People: The Violet Oaklander Gestalt Approach with Jon Blend MA Psych, Dip Child, ECP, CQSW.
This training -intensive introduces the arts - based approach of internationally renowned psychotherapist and author Dr. Violet Oaklander which puts the relationship between therapist and young person at the heart of the therapeutic process.
Children, adolescents and young adults use their sensory contact skills as relational tools; troubled young people often struggle to make good contact (connection) ; others suffer from low self-esteem or a mixture of both difficulties. The Oaklander approach facilitates exploration of emotional blockages and ‘unfinished business’. Incorporating the arts in a respectful relational dialogue enables children and young people to reconnect with awareness of their emotions, body, intellect and imagination. In this way they may (re)discover their ability to express themselves and make richer choices in their lives.
This introductory workshop caters for counsellors, psychotherapists and other professionals working directly with children, young people and their families in a therapeutic or pastoral capacity. It will particularly interest practitioners familiar with process therapies, also those simply wishing to explore their own relationship with creativity and play.
Course content is as follows:
Day 1
Consultation: How young people enter therapy
Developmental factors
Assessment
Safe Place
Rosebush
Day 2
Family consultation
Contracting
Working with clay
Exploring anger and grief
Anger expression and containment
Day 3
Instant poetry-writing
‘Cut ups’ / lyric writing
Next steps
Course aims:
To weave arts methods into an experiential framework enabling exploration of images, metaphor and play
Understand how the relational self emerges and develops uniquely in childhood and adolescence
Discover how to engage young people in phenomenological exploration of troublesome thoughts and feelings using expressive arts
To demonstrate safe, practical skills suited to therapy with young people (including young adults)
ABOUT LIDER:
Jon Blend MA Psych, Dip Child , ECP, CQSW is an adult and child Gestalt psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and trainer. He works in London in private practice offering consultation and psychotherapy to adults, children and families together with Coco, his canine co-therapist. Jon specialises in projective - arts therapies, transcultural matters and improvisational music -making. He has presented workshops and trainings at a variety of Gestalt conferences and Institutes internationally , including the (2025) ‘Who Am I Really?’ child and adolescent therapies conference in Warsaw.
Jon’s background includes forty years working in the fields of adult and child mental health, disability, performing arts and social work. He is an advisor to the Violet Solomon Oaklander Foundation and an Approved Trainer in the Oaklander Gestalt method of Play Therapy. Jon is a Faculty member of IATE, a leading London child and adolescent training centre and a visiting tutor at several Gestalt Institutes. He is also Director of Gazebo Arts Training School. For publications see: www.gacp.co.uk also www.Biblioteka Gestalt.pl
Correspondence: E: jon.blend335@gmail.com/
FORMAL INFORMATION
VENUE: Kraków, ul. J.I. Kraszewskiego 10/8 or CDR ul. Meiselsa 1
THE WORKSHOP IS DEDICATED TO PEOPLE FROM 1 YEAR PSYCHOTHERAPY SCHOOL/ COUNSELLING TRAINING.
TRANSLATION: The workshop will be held in English with translation into Polish 🇬🇧 🔛 🇵🇱
DATES: 13-15 November 2026
HOURS:
Friday: 10 am.- 7 p.m.
Saturday: 10 am.- 7 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m
On Friday and Saturday will be 2h break for lunch
COSTS : 470 EUR
1st installment - 170 EUR - needs to be paid within 7 days from the moment of receiving confirmed registration email.
2nd repayment – 300 EUR needs to be paid till 01 November 2026.
Additionally one has to fill in the registration form (link below).
Please pay above amount to the account:
Szkolenia Gestalt sp. z o.o.
Bank: Pekao S.A.
Address: 123 Lea Street
30-133 Krakow, Poland
Kod SWIFT/BIC Bank Pekao: PKOPPLPW
PL69 1240 4432 1978 0011 0328 6180
INFORMATION: kontakt@szkoleniagestalt.pl
REGISTRATION ONLY THROUGH THE APPLICATION FORM: