Welcome
Elina Stamou
Gestalt Centre CEO
EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
At the Gestalt Centre we value equity and inclusion and welcome diversity and difference in backgrounds, identities, cultures and voices. It is integral to who we are and how we work.
We recognise the existence and impact of racism, discrimination and oppressions in our society. Living and working within it, we continuously pay attention to our practice for self-awareness, awareness of intersectionality and strive for anti-discriminatory action, as people and as an organisation.
For us, equity and diversity go beyond inclusion. We know the more diverse we are, the better we can be as an organisation – better decisions, training and work grounded in collective experience and insight.
We strive to create a working and learning environment reflecting the diversity of our society, where colleagues, students and practitioners feel they belong, can be themselves and do their best work.
We strongly encourage suitably qualified and /or experienced applicants from a range of backgrounds, experiences and skills to apply and join us. We work hard to accommodate any particular needs of colleagues, students and practitioners working with us.
Our accessibility provisions include:
- Step-free access to the building, all key meeting rooms and bathrooms.
- Provision of hearing loops
- Accessibility dogs are welcome
- Papers and materials can be presented in different formats
- Accessibility support across recruitment, training and working with us
If you would like to attend a course with us or therapy at the centre and would like to discuss accessibility, please get in touch for a confidential chat on how we can best fulfil your needs.
Current vacancies
Executive Assistant and Projects Coordinator
JOB DESCRIPTION & PERSON SPECIFICATION
Job title: Executive Assistant and Projects Coordinator
Contract: Part Time/4 days per week. Can be full time if preferable. Flexibility regarding working pattern. Permanent contract.
Salary: Up to £25,584 (4 days per week) and £32,000 (full time) and depending on experience.
Responsible to: Gestalt Centre CEO
Location: Hybrid working, remotely and in-person at London Kings Cross.
We are the Gestalt Centre, an established not-for-profit therapy organisation, supporting the mental and psychological well-being of individuals, groups, and organisations.
We deliver and accommodate a range of therapy, personal and professional development courses, alongside therapeutic services that enhance mental and psychological wellbeing.
Gestalt is a relational, humanistic approach to life and therapy that helps people build meaningful relationships, navigate change, and lead fulfilling lives.
OUR VALUES
Diversity, equality, inclusion and anti-discrimination.
Kindness and respect for each other and the space we cohabit.
Working collaboratively together.
Awareness and personal responsibility for our behaviour, our community, and the spaces we work, study, and practise in.
Purpose and Offer
We are looking for a highly organised and people-oriented Executive Assistant and Projects Coordinator to support our CEO, the workstreams she leads, the Leadership Team, and the Board of Trustees. A varied and rewarding role, combining executive support with project coordination, governance and organisational development.
The role is key in the organisation, working closely with senior leaders and colleagues across teams in a welcoming, supportive environment with excellent opportunities to grow and develop.
✔ Join a welcoming and friendly team in a purpose-led, dynamic organisation with a strong collaborative, human-centred ways of working that continues to grow in innovative ways.
✔ Deliver a varied role, working closely with our CEO, Leadership Team and Board across a wide range of projects and activities.
✔ Access coaching, support and opportunities to grow and develop in the role.
✔ Join the Gestalt Centre – a beacon of excellence in the therapy world.
✔ Help improve people’s emotional and psychological wellbeing and create a world of meaningful relationships and positive change.
✔ Enjoy extensive flexibility and autonomy, hybrid working and an accessible central London office location.
Areas of Work and Responsibility
Executive support to the CEO
- Provide administrative support to the Gestalt Centre CEO, ensuring effective diary management, scheduling, and administration of commitments.
- As required, manage incoming correspondence on behalf of the CEO, draft responses where appropriate and ensure timely follow-up.
- Organise and coordinate meetings, including supporting the drafting of agendas, collating papers and ensuring all necessary information is available in advance.
Leadership and governance coordination and support
- Coordinate leadership support processes, including Leadership Team, Board and sub-committee meetings, ensuring smooth end-to-end administration.
- Prepare, collate, and circulate papers for Leadership Team and Board meetings, working with the CEO and other leadership team colleagues to ensure accuracy and timeliness.
- Maintain accurate records such as meeting minutes, action logs and decision tracking.
Workstreams and projects coordination
- Coordinate and support the projects and workstreams led by the CEO. This includes coordination and administrative support for projects such as the short courses programme, marketing campaigns, updating organisational policies, business development and fundraising activities.
- Support HR administration processes where required, including scheduling interviews, drafting contracts based on templates and maintaining records.
- Assist with general office and operational coordination tasks to ensure smooth day-to-day functioning of the organisation.
- Act as a central point of contact for cross-team activities and assist in the delivery of priority initiatives by coordinating meetings, actions, and follow-ups across teams.
- Liaise with the CEO and Leadership Team to maintain the organisational and workstream plans, tracking priority actions and progress.
Administration, systems and information management
- Maintain effective filing, record-keeping, and document management systems, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and confidentiality.
- Support the use and upkeep of organisational databases and digital systems.
- Produce and format documents, presentations, and reports as required.
- Ensure all information handling complies with data protection and organisational policies.
Communication and stakeholder support
- Support internal and external communications on behalf of the CEO, ensuring tone, clarity, and accuracy.
- Build and maintain effective working relationships across the organisation and with external stakeholders.
- Provide a professional and responsive point of contact for queries directed to the CEO’s office.
- Support coordination of internal briefings, events, and key organisational communications where required.
- Carry out responsibilities with due regard to the Gestalt Centre values, policies and procedures.
Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, and responsibilities may evolve in line with organisational needs.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Education, Knowledge, Skills and Experience
- Educated to degree level or equivalent, with good numeracy and literacy skills.
- Experience providing executive and organisational support to senior leaders, with the ability to manage priorities, coordinate activities, and enable effective decision-making – in a dynamic busy environments.
- Experience coordinating projects, workstreams or organisational initiatives, with the ability to track actions, manage timelines and support delivery.
- Experience working with leadership and/or governance structures (e.g. Leadership Teams, Boards, committees or equivalent senior reporting environments).
- Strong organisational and planning skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities, anticipate needs, plan ahead, meet deadlines and work effectively in a busy environment.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to adapt style and tone for different audiences and work confidently with senior professionals.
- Strong interpersonal skills and confidence in taking initiative and building effective working relationships across all levels of an organisation.
- Experience handling confidential information with discretion, and an understanding of data protection, professional boundaries and appropriate conduct within a friendly and therapeutic environment.
- Excellent attention to detail, confidently using databases, digital systems and information management processes, and handling accurate records.
- Able to work collaboratively and independently on own initiative.
- Commitment to Equal Opportunities and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
- Preferably experience working in a not-for-profit, charity, educational or therapy setting.
Personal and professional attributes
- Flexibility and proactive timely problem-solving, working with kindness and respect.
- Calm, confident and adaptable with an ability to work in a dynamic and busy environment.
- Able to anticipate needs and solve problems with tact, diplomacy, discretion and integrity.
- Comfortable working remotely, and happy to be in the office once or twice a week.
- Thrives both as a team player and when working independently with minimal supervision.
- Reliable and resilient, with a proactive approach and the ability to identify opportunities, solutions and take initiative.
- Fully committed to the Gestalt Centre values.
To apply, please send your CV and a supporting statement of no more than two pages to Archie Rotap at assistant.admin@gestaltcentre.org.uk, outlining how you meet the requirements of the role and the value you would bring.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Tutor, Certificate in Humanistic Counselling
Course: Tutor for Certificate in Humanistic Counselling – Wednesday format
Reports to/supported by: Director of Counselling
Contract: Part-time permanent. Weekly, Wednesday evenings during term time and some weekends. Payment is around £10,000 based on 15 students, which is the norm. Please see below for more information.
About The Gestalt Centre and the Humanistic Counselling Certificate
The Gestalt Centre is an established organisation in delivering, professional training in counselling, psychotherapy, and organisational development programmes.
The centre is also a vibrant hub for a range of therapeutic practices that enhance mental and psychological wellbeing and a welcoming space for professionals and organisations to meet, learn and work.
Our purpose is to promote the mental and psychological well-being of individuals, groups and organisations through Gestalt education, training, and practice.
Our vision is a world where meaningful and fulfilling relationships lead to wellbeing and positive change in people’s lives.
We draw inspiration and energy from Gestalt practice and our valuing awareness of ourselves and other, collaborative working and openness to diversity of voices, and the view that we are all connected and therefore together responsible for our communities and organisation.
Gestalt Therapy Theory is a field theory, proposing process and events, instead of fixed things or properties. It argues for emergence rather than proclamation. It places contact, relationship, as prior to content. There is an inescapable and challenging tension between key tenets of Gestalt Therapy Theory and predetermined external requirements as well as the need for structure, often inherently hierarchical, in organisations.
As an organisation, we work with this challenging tension, within the context of externally determined conditions including UKCP, University and BACP requirements for training and legal requirements as determined by the Charity Commission, HMRC and employment law. As the ‘whole’, the Gestalt Centre determines the intrinsic nature and relationships of the ‘parts’: each one of us in our roles, the teams, faculties, and Executive – with each other.
At the Gestalt Centre, we see our structure as an organisational shape that we use to organise ourselves. What matters for us is how we work together. We prioritise collaboration and ‘horizontal’ consultative decision making with individual and collective responsibility and accountability.
Join our team!
✔ Join the Gestalt Centre, a beacon of excellence in Gestalt training and practice
✔ Be the lead tutor for one of our core training courses
✔ Be part of the Gestalt Centre Large Group event that offers a unique opportunity for counselling and psychotherapy tutors to come together with their students over 4 days, engaging in advanced and in-depth learning on individual and group dynamics, enhancing awareness and effectiveness in personal and professional roles.
✔ Work with experienced and supportive colleagues and grow professionally
✔ Access tutor discount on Gestalt Centre Courses on range of themes and subjects
✔ Join a friendly collaborative team in a dynamic participatory organisation that is growing and changing in innovative ways
✔ Work with us to promote the mental and psychological well-being of individuals, groups and organisations and create a world where meaningful relationships lead to wellbeing and positive change
Certificate in Humanistic Counselling Skills
The Counselling training programme includes a one-year Certificate in Humanistic Counselling and a BACP accredited two-year Diploma in Gestalt Counselling.
The Certificate in Humanistic Counselling is a stand-alone course and foundation for the BACP accredited diploma. Its aim is to develop a foundation in key counselling skills and awareness through direct experience, building self-confidence, learning creatively to navigate change and developing the necessary resources, skills and strengths for counselling.
There are three components to the course:
Foundation
This component provides will be an introduction to person-centred counselling and to Gestalt theory and practice and how it supports the use of counselling skills. Students learn about the various counselling skills and techniques needed to support people in personal exploration and during times of difficulty. Students are expected to look closely at themselves and relationships with others. They are invited to consider their attitudes to race, gender, sexuality and other differences.
Gestalt In Action
This component enables students to deepen their understanding of Gestalt theory and practice using words, art, writing, sound, movement and other creative means. They explore how we make and interrupt contact with ourselves in order to meet our needs, others and the environment and how this affects our life. As a central theme in Gestalt therapy theory, they’ll also look at the issue of responsibility and at the consequences of disowning it.
Endings (Including Loss)
In this last part of the training, students learn about loss theory and how to work with endings, including the end of the client/counsellor relationship as well as the end of the group they have studied with and the course.
Course Format:
The course is part-time and it is delivered on dates that will be confirmed in your offer letter, and would be discussed at interview.
The time commitment is 114 hours of teaching, and 15 hours for faculty meetings. This is known as the Core Commitment. There is also a further variable commitment of 69.5 hours for individual student interviews and a group interview, tutorials and marking. This is based on the course having 15 students, which is the norm. If student numbers vary then the time commitment will change.
The salary is based on 15 students and is around £10,000. The vast majority of the salary it is the core guaranteed monthly payment. The rest is the variable payment that depends on student numbers, resubmission, number of interviews etc.
You will be one of four core tutors that deliver four Certificates in Humanistic Counselling, curriculum level 3-4 (indicative) to a cohort of up to 15 students each.
As the Course Tutor you will be responsible for preparing, facilitating and delivering the Certificate in Humanistic Counselling Skills. You will be responsible for the smooth running of all aspects of the course.
In particular, you will:
- Teach a seminar programme covering humanistic counselling using didactic and experiential methods.
- Plan and prepare all training sessions, based on the course framework/curriculum.
- Teach relevant counselling skills and observe, assess and provide feedback.
- Monitor trainees’ development and provide them with feedback in tutorials or when appropriate.
- Mark trainees’ assignments, providing written feedback both as first and second marker.
- Facilitate personal development group.
- Attend Counselling faculty, joint faculty and other key organisational meetings.
- Maintain and up-date the syllabus including handbook and additional material.
- Liaise with the admin team to arrange interviews and interview candidates soon after application.
- Prepare and update course material (as appropriate), including session plans and handouts.
- Ensure that all course material and session plans are stored on the Gestalt Centre harePoint for ease of access.
- Maintain compliance with all Gestalt Centre policies and procedures.
The above is not an exhaustive list of duties. You may be expected to perform different tasks as necessitated by Gestalt Centre to accommodate potential changes to the overall educational objectives.
Education, Experience and Qualities
Essential Education and Experience
The programme includes gestalt theory and practice, developmental theory, ethical and professional standards, research and other psychotherapeutic models with reference to working with difference and diversity.
- Be an accredited BACP member with minimum 3 year post-accredited experience or UKCP accredited member with minimum 3 years post-registration.
- Have 2 years’ minimum teaching experience in delivering adult educational programmes.
- Possess excellent verbal and written communication skills including ability to effectively communicate gestalt therapy theory and key principles.
- Be able to work well under pressure and meet course deadlines, maintaining a positive attitude and therapeutic boundaries.
- Must have direct experience of facilitating groups.
- Educated to a degree level or above would be preferred.
- A minimum qualification requirement would be Diploma in Gestalt Counselling with the relevant teaching experience.
- Computer skills (MS Office – Word, Excel and Outlook and SharePoint)
- Be confident with delivering online and distance learning (including Zoom and MS Teams).
- Have ability to work collaboratively and on their own initiative.
Desirable qualities
- Teaching qualification/adult education (Cert Ed/PGCE)
- Qualification in supervision
- CPD in Group Theory
- CPD in Difference and Diversity
For more information or to apply please contact:
📧 assistant.admin@gestaltcentre.org.uk
📳 0207 383 5610
To apply, please forward your CV and a cover letter outlining how you meet the requirements for the role and the added value you’ll bring to it to assistant.admin@gestaltcentre.org.uk
We look forward to receiving your application!