Welcome to the Practice for Gestalt Therapy Amsterdam website!
This website contains information about the Gestalt Therapy practice of Joppie Bakker in Amsterdam.
You can contact me for individual Gestalt Therapy (in English or Dutch) and couples Gestalt Therapy for you and your partner, friend or colleague (in English or Dutch).
I am associated with the "Dutch-Flemish Association for Gestalt Therapy Gestalt Theory" NVAGT and ëfull member' of the "European Association for Gestalt Therapy" EAGT. In both organisations I am active as a member of the Ethics Committee.
Also, I am pleased to announce that I have been qualified as "Psychotherapist European RegisteredÆ", meaning that I have the European-wide acknowledged "European Certificate for Psychotherapy ECP". For more information about this qualification, see www.europsyche.org.
Please allow me to introduce myself...
Joppie Bakker (1948) began her work as a Gestalt Therapist in 1993 with the basic four year training at the Netherlands Gestalt Training Institute in Amsterdam, where she later followed an additional 2 year training course. She has also completed several supplemental courses and she regularly participates in supervision and intervision sessions and Gestalt Therapy workshops and congresses.
"To me, Gestalt Therapy is a beautiful way of working with my client to find out what his or her reality looks like and how it is experienced. To reach that goal I, as a Gestalt Therapist, concentrate mainly on two major tasks: clarifying and supporting. Clarifying: not simply to focus on issues, such as how to live your life, how you think others see you, whether what's happening is good or bad, and how you think you should please others. Instead, to focus on your awareness and your potential as your starting point. Supporting: cooperating in allowing your sadness, confusion, and anger to be there and come to the foreground. For approximately 9 years, I've studied Gestalt Therapy, and 11 years ago I initiated my own practice. Before that, I worked as a social worker and a teacher. I am also familiar with different psychotherapeutic approaches such as psychoanalysis and transactional analysis. I have gained experience in several professional fields, based on as many different viewpoints. One thought that has always guided me is this phrase: Investigate everything and keep what's valuable. I don't see Gestalt Therapy as the ultimate school of therapy, the one that answers all questions. But every day I do see how lively, straightforward and above all creative it is!"
Joppie Bakker