My name is Julia Werner and I work as a counsellor and psychotherapist in private practice with individuals and couples. I trained as a gestalt therapist in Melbourne at Gestalt Therapy Australia. In Germany I completed a two-year training course in gestalt therapy based couple therapy, known as Paarsynthese (couple synthesis).

As a registered counsellor and psychotherapist, I have worked in community settings and now work in my private practice Gestalt Pathways.

MY BACKGROUND

I was born and raised in Germany and have regularly visited Australia since 1992. I moved to Melbourne in 2009 and now happily call Melbourne my home. It is the city where I became a mother.

Gestalt Therapy first came into my life when I was lecturing in landscape architecture and environmental planning at Leibniz University Hanover in Germany. (I have a Master of Science in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching and Learning and continue to lecture in landscape architectural design in Melbourne.)

I enjoy working with complex systems such as cities or the landscapes that we inhabit, developing creative design ideas for potential future developments and fostering the sustainable co-existence of people and nature. I have become just as interested in the inner world of people and believe that we have an essential 'inner psychological landscape'.

For me the external and the internal worlds are related and I am interested in the interactions between the two worlds. My knowledge of how complex systems work and relate to each other has given me an insight into how our ‘internal structures’ relate to each other and the effects they may have on our ‘whole’ when they are disconnected from one another.

The aim of Gestalt Pathways is to support you to integrate these parts into a healthier functioning whole.

MY QUALIFICATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS

• Advanced Diploma in Relational Gestalt Therapy (GTA)
• Accredited member (Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACfA)
• Member of Gestalt Australia and New Zealand (GANZ)
• Member of Society for Couple Synthesis and Integrative Couple Therapy, Germany (Gesellschaft für Paarsynthese and integrative Paartherapie (GIPP))

• BSc., MSc. in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning
• Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching and Learning