“In terms of my work, people often ask me how I do it, listening to people’s problems all day long. I tell them that I don’t hear problems. I hear people wanting to change, wanting to be better human beings, wanting to create happier families. I have been privileged to work with people from every continent and from all walks of life. Over and over again I hear people wanting to love and be loved more effectively. I hear people wanting to remove the barriers in their life and provide more for their loved ones on every level. I hear people looking for ways to contribute and improve their contact skills in the world.
This is a privileged position that I have, sharing so many heartwarming moments of laughter and tears with people working toward healing.”
Mariah Fenton Gladis – Founder and Clinical Director
Welcome to the Pennsylvania Gestalt Center for Psychotherapy and Training. The Center, founded in 1973, by Mariah Fenton Gladis, MSS, QCSW, is the first center in the Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania to offer Gestalt psychotherapy and training. With the addition of Dr. Dori Middleman, and Dr. Mark Putnam, the Center has built a reputation for its unusually creative and supportive approach, which emphasizes appreciation and enhancement of each individual client and student. Our mission is the same as it was from the beginning, to offer a safe and supportive environment for growth and change.
Here at the Center, we emphasize the development of keen self-awareness and healthy contact with others, with your environment, and most importantly, with yourself. These interactions on all levels—emotional, physical, intellectual and spiritual—are fundamental to your life as a healthy functioning person. Our unique approach offers you the opportunity to rediscover and integrate lost aspects of yourself and clearly express the truth of who you really are. It is a challenging and deeply rewarding journey into wholeness.
The Pennsylvania Gestalt Center is also a comprehensive community resource that provides caring, professional psychotherapy, education and counseling to individuals, couples, families and groups. While addressing a diversity of personal and emotional concerns, our therapists are dedicated and experienced mental health professionals who work with people of every age and every stage of life.
We invite you to look over our site and call or e-mail us here at the office and let us know what you need and how we can help you.
Upcoming Events
Gestalt Center Open Evening
May 1, 2012
CEUs Available. At a recent workshop, we recorded some of the ways people said they use to avoid contact in the world. They include: Negative self-talk. Taking care of others. Getting busy. Analyzing. Disconnecting. Fearing risk. Judging. Getting angry. Self-censoring. Using humor. Isolating. Intellectualizing. Becoming peacemaker. Prioritizing others. Withdrawing. ARE YOU IN THERE SOMEWHERE? more
Becoming Able-Hearted: A Six-Evening Series to Study and Practice the Skills of Loving
May 15, May 22, May 29, June 5, June 19, June 26
CEUs Available
There is perhaps no more important work you can do than to expand your capacity for creating fulfilled and sustainable relationships. This workshop is for individuals or couples who want to develop their capacity to create intimate connections with a present or future partner, family or friends. more
Arrive Already Loved™: Creating Sacred Attachment With Yourself
June 8-10, 2012, Cape May, NJ
The only way to have a fair shot at developing a healthy relationship with another human being is to arrive already loved—to first love yourself. That means the inner life taking place in your body is a comfortable, loving, compassionate, and enjoyable place to be. Remember, you cannot expect more from someone else than you are able to give to yourself. more
Mariah at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.
Main Line Today Selects Dr. Dori Middleman as Top Doc
The magazine, Main Line Today, has just announced Dr. Dori Middleman, our staff psychiatrist, workshop leader and gestalt trainer, has been voted one of the Philadelphia Main Line area’s Top Doctors of 2011, as voted by thousands of her peers in Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. more
A Special Note From Mariah:
I Hear You And I Care
The numbers are staggering. On average, sexual abusers harm 100 children before they are caught and children must tell seven adults before someone takes action. Lost in the background of the serial sexual abuse that our society seems to tolerate are these victims. Given the numbers, it takes a great deal of courage for a young sexual abuse victim to report his or her abuse to anyone, even those closest to them, much less go public. So, let us not forget the Penn State nine kids who have been willing to shed light on this travesty. What do they need? more
