Dear Gestalt colleagues,

We are on the verge of the next "XIV European Conference of Gestalt Therapy". It will be the first time that it will be held in Spain, and we are preparing it with all our enthusiasm, effort and commitment, so that the meeting will be fruitful for everyone.

We celebrate this year our 40th anniversary of the AETG, and the current board, in unanimity with our assembly, we thought it was a good opportunity to open up beyond the Pyrenees and create a meeting space with Europe and at the same time, be a bridge with the associations and Gestalt therapists from Latin America who would like to participate in this conference.

Gestalt Therapy in Spain is at a key moment for our future. On the one hand, we have experienced an important growth in the last four decades and our association is in very good health, with a good consolidated training programme and Gestalt schools all over the country. We are also facing an update regarding the validation by the Government of the research that supports our professional practice, and to maintain our place in the current psychotherapeutic treatments. So, we think it will be very interesting to share the different experiences and changes that were generated in other countries, and in other Gestalt associations, and to join our efforts in the same direction.

We want to take a close look at how Gestalt therapy, within the models that put the attention on the relationship between the patient and the therapist, leads to an effective therapeutic work, where our presence, our listening, and mindfulness, accompanied by knowledge, are able to generate a healthy change.

It is a great opportunity to meet after the forced restrictions generated by the pandemic, and to continue researching and advancing in the new challenges we face as gestalt therapists.

The slogan we have chosen is "Gestalt Therapy, an engine of change", because we think that one of the great values of Gestalt is the process of change that it generates in people, to continue building ourselves integrally, acting before the new challenges of psychotherapy and the different applications of Gestalt in other fields, such as social, health, education, environment, research and personal growth.

At the same time, we also want to focus this engine of change towards ourselves, where are we heading? What changes do we have to generate in order to continue growing with the basic pillars of Gestalt? In the here and now, the present moment we are living in, increasing our awareness ability and assuming our responsibility.

These and many other topics focused on the Gestalt engine of change will be present in our meetings, in the plenary sessions, workshops, conferences and in the different symposiums that we will hold and that we invite you to actively participate in their preparation.

Madrid, a city open to change, a meeting point for walkers and travellers, a cradle of artists and different cultures awaits us. We invite you to be protagonists of our history, wishing you a productive and profitable conference, making us cross the frontier of contact, and have a unique and transforming experience.

GESTALT THERAPY, AN ENGINE OF CHANGE. 21- 24 SEPTEMBER 2023. MADRID. SPAIN.

Ángel D. Saavedra Valdayo
President of the AETG