Relational Gestalt Therapy in India

Vanaja Ammanath has been in private practice as a therapist for the last twenty years. She has been working as a visiting faculty for Christ University, Montfort College, various government organizations, and non-government organizations in Bangalore, India, for more than two decades. As part of her ongoing education, she attended the Pacific Gestalt Institute’s residential retreat in California for five years before the 2020 pandemic. As the founder of the Institute of Relational Therapy, India, she also facilitates training programs for counselors and psychotherapists in RGT. In addition to her private practice with individual clients, she has been conducting group therapy for teachers, religious groups, trainee therapists, and students for over fifteen years.

"What grace Vanaja displays as she intergrates her meaningful Indian Hindu culture with the ideas and clinical applications of Gestalt Therapy! Her beautiful, clear writing belies her sophisticated understanding of a complex theory. Add to that, her clinical touch is deft, sensitive and enticing. I can tell that I would benefit as a patient, and I am certainly enriched by her lovely explicaiton and application of Hindu, India- infused gestalt theory."Lynne Jacobs, PhD. Los Angeles, CA."Vanaja Ammanath's Relational Gestalt Therapy in India: A Guide to Group Practice is a dynamic synthesis of core concepts of Gestalt therapy embedded in the fabric of personal experience and insightful observations about contemporary Indian culture. The authentic narration is bound to draw beginner and experienced practitioners alike to reflect upon their practice through the lens of multicultural competence."Dr Nithya Poornima Murugappan, (Former) Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology. NIMHANS, India.

• Acknowledgements  Foreword  Introduction  1. Circle of Belongings  2. Relational Gestalt Therapy  3. Relationality and Indian Culture  4. Being and Becoming a Relational Therapist  5. Framework for facilitating groups  6. Phenomenology, Field Theory and Adjacent Possible  7. Dialogic Existentialism  8. Enduring Relational Themes  9. Experimentation  Conclusion  Index