13th National Gestalt Australia & New Zealand Conference
In Our Bodies,
Of The Field
Welcome to the 13th Gestalt Australia & New Zealand Conference, In Our Bodies, Of The Field, held on the lands of the Turrbal and Jagera people of Brisbane, and marking 30 years of Gestalt Australia & New Zealand.
Our theme invites us to turn our attention towards embodiment: to the ways we experience ourselves through our bodies, and how our bodies are shaped by the relationships, cultures, histories and social and political fields we inhabit.
And what becomes possible when we bring this awareness more fully into our therapeutic relationships and our understanding of the field?
What does it mean to practise Gestalt when we take seriously the diversity of bodies and lived experiences? How do race, gender, sexuality, disability, neurodivergence, illness, ageing, pleasure, pain and loss shape how we meet ourselves and one another?
We invite you to bring your whole self: your knowledge and questions, your curiosity and uncertainty, your creativity and your embodied experience. Together, let’s think, feel, experiment, connect and imagine the future of Gestalt.
Explore a dynamic three-day program featuring keynote presentations, clinical conversations, research discussions, experiential workshops, and somatic offerings that invite us to move, rest, play and reconnect with our bodies.
Extend your experience with a two-day pre-conference workshop, offering further space for embodied exploration and deeper learning.
- 3Days
- 30Years of GANZ
- 3Keynotes
- TBCWorkshops
Keynote Presenters
Our third keynote speaker will be announced in early 2027.
Michael Clemmens
Pittsburgh, USAMichael Clemmens is a psychologist and trainer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a faculty member of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and teaches at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Michael is the author of Getting Beyond Sobriety (1997), the editor of Embodied Relational Gestalt: Theory and Applications (2019) and numerous articles on Gestalt therapy, body process, and addiction. His main interest is the complex interaction of our bodies and the multi-layered field.
michaelclemmens.com →
Umaa Thampu
LONDON, UKUmaa is a BACP-accredited Gestalt practitioner and EMDR therapist based in London, who finds deep joy in meeting people at the contact boundary, where they come fully alive. She facilitates workshops on topics ranging from trauma and neurodiversity to AI, power, and the field, and hosts the Talking with Umaa podcast on YouTube. She contributed to Therapy in Colour (BAATN, 2023).
www.talkingwithumaa.com →To be announced
Keynote ThreeOur third keynote presenter will be announced soon.
Know someone who'd love to be there?
Share the conference with friends and colleagues.
Embodiment as Emergent Relational Process
Attending to the Field through Phenomenological Discipline and use of our Felt sense
Embodiment “the experience of our self/body in relation” (Clemmens, 2011) is an integral part of our human experience. In the practice of Gestalt, the relational process and our mutual experiences become emergent in our physicality, in the dance between in this present moment. Embodiment precedes our language and shapes the field we are immersed in. It is initially pre-personal (Merleau-Ponty, 1945), before concepts, identity or even names. As we progress through each moment, our mutual embodied physicality is the underlying support for contacting. Sometimes this embodiment is forefront or figural, yet more often our embodiment is nascent lurking in the atmosphere, knowable only through sensate attention.
In this two-day pre-conference workshop, we will explore how to work more phenomenologically,following the client and our own contacting/withdrawal process. An emphasis will be on using descriptive language, movement and embodied language to support following through with our client and our own bodies to “unpack” their experience.
The structure of this workshop will be body-scan awareness, didactic discussions, demonstrations and small practice groups. Over these two days, you will be encouraged to pay attention to attending to the smallest most do-able piece, “the gestalten”. We will be slowing down the process of quickly naming “body language” or labelling from our experience. Instead, our focus will be to practice experientially exploring our clients embodied meaning by noticing and developing our mutual sensate co-creation.
- Dates
Pre-Conference Workshop
Tuesday 22 + Wednesday 23 June 2027 - Facilitator
Michael Clemmens
- LOCATION
Gestalt Therapy Brisbane
431 Montague Road
West End QLD 4101
Join us in Brisbane June 2027
Registration opens in November 2026.
All GANZ members receive a $150 discount on conference tickets.
Join GANZ here (Full Membership $120, Students FREE).
GANZ Members Conference Only
FRIDAY 25-SUNDAY 27 JUNE 2027- Early Bird$485
- Full Registration$585
3-Day Conference, including catering and Saturday evening social event
Non Members - Conference Only
FRIDAY 25-SUNDAY 27 JUNE 2027- Early Bird$635
- Full Registration$735
3-Day Conference, including catering and Saturday evening social event
GANZ Members Conference + Workshop
WORKSHOP TUESDAY 22-WEDNESDAY 23 + CONFERENCE FRIDAY 25-SUNDAY 27 JUNE 2027- Early Bird$1085
- Full Registration$1185
3-day Conference + 2-day Pre-Conference Workshop
Catering and Saturday evening social event included
Find out more about the workshopNon Members - Conference + Workshop
WORKSHOP TUESDAY 22-WEDNESDAY 23 + CONFERENCE FRIDAY 25-SUNDAY 27 JUNE 2027- Early Bird$1235
- Full Registration$1335
3-day Conference + 2-day Pre-Conference Workshop
Catering and Saturday evening social event included
Find out more about the workshop
Scholarships
TO BE CONFIRMEDA number of Conference scholarships will be available.
Further details, including eligibility criteria and how to apply, will be available soon. Watch this space!
Make a submission.
For the 13th GANZ Conference, In Our Bodies, Of The Field, we are inviting contributions that explore embodiment and somatic Gestalt in ways that are thoughtful, experiential, provocative, clinically grounded and alive.
We welcome submissions from students, emerging practitioners, researchers and experienced clinicians alike. We value lived experience, clinical wisdom, embodied knowledge, creativity and community knowledge alongside academic and theoretical expertise.
- 01
Experiential Workshops
- 02
Clinical Conversations
- 03
Local Keynote Proposals
The conference will be an in-person event, but if you're overseas and interested in presenting virtually, we'd love to work with you to make an online contribution possible.
- Submissions close
Friday 11th December 2026
- Send your submission tocontact@ganz.org.au
Full submission guidelines, including information about each contribution format and what to include in your proposal.
Finding us on campus.
The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus, Brisbane
280-284 Sir Fred Schonell Dr, St Lucia QLD 4067
Bus (M2)
To reach UQ St Lucia from Brisbane City, take the Brisbane Metro M2. The M2 terminates at UQ Lakes Station, a short walk to the conference venues. The M2 runs every 5 mins between 6am and 6pm, and every 10 - 15 mins after 6pm. Current fares are only 50 cents one way.
Ferry (CityCat)
Enjoy the sites of Brisbane via the Brisbane River and take a ferry (CityCat) to the UQ St Lucia Ferry Terminal. From the ferry terminal, the conference venues can be reached on foot in approximately 5-15 minutes. Current fares are 50 cents one way.
Where to stay
Stay tuned for a selection of accommodation options accessible to The University of Queensland St Lucia campus, across a range of price points. Details will be published here.
Details to be confirmed
Supporting thirty years of Gestalt practice.
Sponsorship opportunities are open. To discuss partnering with the 13th GANZ Conference, contact the committee at contact@ganz.org.au
- Logo
- Logo
Held by many hands.
Michelle Sier
GANZ President & Conference ConvenorMichelle is the GANZ President and International Chair. She is a Psychologist and Gestalt Psychotherapist with over 15 years of clinical experience and training in psychology, Gestalt therapy and Somatic Intersubjective Self-Psychology (SISP). Based in Naarm (Melbourne), her approach is grounded in feminist principles, trauma-sensitive care and an appreciation of the ways our lives are shaped by relational, cultural and systemic contexts.
Tegan Mumford
Conference Operations & Finance LeadTegan is the GANZ Treasurer and Ethics and Social Justice Chair. She is a Mental Health Social Worker and Gestalt Psychotherapist who lives and works in private practice in Naarm (Melbourne), where she offers psychotherapy, supervision and training to both individuals and groups.
She is passionate about social justice and creating more space for the broader social and relational context of therapy as it happens in the room, seeing the individual, relational and societal as inseparable.
Zoë Webber
Presenter & Facilitator Liaison LeadZoë is the GANZ Secretary and Professional Development Chair. She is a Gestalt Psychotherapist with a private practice situated on the Mid-North Coast of NSW, on Gumbaynggirr Country. Zoë has a particular passion for welcoming individuals who may feel overlooked and uncelebrated amid life’s challenges and milestones. Fostering a sense of belonging is an important value that resonates throughout her personal and professional life.
Michael Pitt
PROGRAM SUBCOMMITTEEMore than 20 years in IT helped cultivate even further my thinking, reasoning, lonely mind. A familiar yet uneasy norm that Gestalt (the practice, the people, the situations) gracefully interrupted to make room for, and welcome in, more heart, more body, more soul, more aliveness, less boundary, and more mystery. More than 20 years since my initial training and I can now savour more fully Mary Oliver’s words when she writes “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves”. And my body has loved being a part of Gestalt Therapy Brisbane since 2010.
Gina Denholm
Program SubcommitteeBio coming soon.
Sean Tonnet
ENTERTAINMENT & SOCIAL LEADI am a Gestalt psychotherapist, Clinical Director of Thrive Clinic in Mullumbimby, and a PACFA Clinical Member and Accredited Supervisor. Over 20 years, my work has been deeply embedded in relationships — in their vast beauty, and destructive forces. Alongside my therapeutic, training and supervision work, I have a lifelong passion for music performance and production. The theme In Our Bodies, Of the Field offers a rich opportunity to explore sound, dance, movement and connection. I hope to bring these elements alive in meaningful and embodied ways throughout the weekend. I'm delighted to be working with GANZ and the Conference Organising Committee for the 2027 Brisbane Conference. Look forward to seeing you there.
Britta Wigginton
EVALUATION & LEGACY LEADBritta lives and works on unceded Jinibara Country. She works as a researcher, consultant and counsellor integrating Gestalt into her practice and ways of being. Britta is passionate about working in service of First Nations communities and health equity.
TBC
Equity, Accessibility & Inclusion LeadBio coming soon.
Craig Powell
VENUE & LOGISTICS LEADBio coming soon.
Betty Buckrich
VOLUNTEER CO-ORDINATORBio coming soon.
Lukas Starling
DELEGATE EXPERIENCE LEADBio coming soon.
Ben McEwing
MASTER OF CEREMONIES (MC)Bio coming soon.
Questions,
answered.
Further questions? Write to us at contact@ganz.org.au
Registration for the Conference and the Pre-Conference Workshop will open in November 2026.
At the University of Queensland's St Lucia Campus, 280-284 Sir Fred Schonell Dr, St Lucia QLD 4067
Yes. Trainees and students are warmly welcome.
Yes - alongside keynotes and clinical conversations, the program includes experiential workshops and somatic offerings that invite movement, rest and play.
We welcome your submission. Please see the above Submission Guidelines and closing date (11th December 2026).