Hans-Jürgen P. Walter
Honorary Chairman of the international
Society for Gestalt Theory and its Applications (GTA)
(Hans-Jürgen Walter adressing the 10th Scientific Conference of the GTA in Vienna, March 1997)
Hans-Jürgen Walter was born 1944 in Weidenhausen, Germany. 1965-1971 he studied psychology at the universities of Marburg and Frankfurt. In 1977 he received his doctor' degree based on his thesis "Gestalt theory as a scientific base for psychotherapy practice and its relation to contemporary approaches in psychotherapy".
1971-1973 he served as a psychotherapist and assistant director in a sanatorium for male addicts; since then he is privately practicing as a psychotherapist and supervisor. 1973-1979 he was the acting editor of the journal 'Gruppendynamik' (Group Dynamics) and reader for social psychology and psychotherapy for the Klett-Cotta publishing house.
Since 1977 full membership in the group dynamics section of the German Working Group for Group Psychotherapy and Group Dynamics (DAGG); co-founder, chairman (1991-1999) and - since 1999 - honorary chairman of the international 'Society for Gestalt Theory and its Applications' (GTA). Co-editor of the journal GESTALT THEORY. An International Multidisciplinary Journal.
Walter received psychotherapy training in client-centered psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, psychodrama, theme-centered interaction and a full Gestalt therapy training at the Fritz-Perls-Institute (F.P.I.) in Düsseldorf/Germany. He was on the teaching staff of various institutes for professional psychotherapy training: 1975-1979 as a psychotherapy trainer at the Fritz-Perls-Institute (F.P.I.) in Düsseldorf/Germany and for the Working Group for Social Psychology and Group Dynamics (ASG) in Vienna/Austria; 1976/77 as a visiting lecturer at the C.G. Jung Institute Stuttgart and 1978/1981 at the Alfred Adler Institute of the 'German Society for Individual Psychology'; 1986-1993 lecturer for Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy at the university of Vienna/Austria; 1979-2006 psychotherapy trainer for the psychotherapy section of the GTA (Austrian and German Working Party for Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy).
His main theoretical publication is Gestalttheorie und Psychotherapie ('Gestalt theory and psychotherapy'), first published in 1977 (2nd edition 1985, 3rd edition 1994). This book laid the foundations for the development of Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy. For more information about publications of Hans-Jürgen Walter: see books and articles. At present there are only two articles of Walter published in English: "Cognitive Behaviour Therapy And Gestalt-Theoretical Psychotherapy: A Comparison From the Aspect of 'Self-Dertermination' "(published in the E-journal Gestalt!), and his article "What do Gestalt Therapy and Gestalt Theory Have to Do with Each Other?" recently published in English in "The Gestalt Journal" (Spring 1999 issue, pp 45-68). A synopsis of H.-J. Walter's 12 characteristics of Gestalt oriented psychotherapeutical work has been published in Portuguese by M. Azevedo Fernades: Sobre a psicologia da forma e os 12 preceitos de H.-J. Walter (with a short comment in English by G. Stemberger).
For a bibliography of Hans-Juergen P. Walter click here!