Serhii Haidai

Lead trainer at KIGiP

Professional activity:

• Trainer of the level two and level three programmes at the Kyiv Institute of Gestalt and Psychodrama.

• Leader of supervision groups for KIGiP students and graduates; supervisor.

• Practising psychotherapist.

Practice and professional experience: Serhii began his professional career as an intern doctor at the Cherkasy psychoneurological clinic and at the Pavlov psychiatric hospital in Kyiv. In 1999 he first encountered gestalt at the Crimean international training and practice seminar in psychotherapy, organised by the Crimean Republican Association of Psychiatrists, Psychotherapists and Psychologists together with the Crimean Centre for Gestalt Therapy.

At the same event he met Nifont Dolhopolov, and afterwards began studying gestalt therapy at MIGIP.

From Serhii Haidai’s recollections: «Many specialists working in the gestalt approach spoke at that conference, but Nifont stood out by his charm. With him you could not only learn craft and gain knowledge, but also live through strong feelings and go deep into your own experience. The very atmosphere in which all this happened was charming. There was a sense of fullness, of something good, of a pleasant aftertaste. As if you had been bathed in love. And all of it came from Nifont’s acceptance, his human participation and his interest in another person’s process. I was seeing that for the first time!»

Qualifications:

• Basic education — medical

• In 2001 Serhii graduated from the Dnipropetrovsk State Medical Academy with a degree in General Medicine

• 2002 — Certificate of a specialist doctor in psychiatry

• 2002–2004 — Clinical residency in psychiatry

• 2005 — Certificate of a specialist doctor in psychotherapy

• 2000–2001 — Level two of gestalt therapy training at MIGIP

• 2006–2008 — Certificate of the professional training programme «Advanced theory and practice of gestalt therapy» (level three, GATLA)

• 2009 — Certificate «Theory and practice of gestalt therapy. The velvet intensive»

Serhii about himself: «Why did I choose gestalt?

Because to my mind it is the most coherent and clear theoretical foundation — one that lets you both understand complex psychological processes and work with them therapeutically.

What matters most to me in gestalt is that attention is paid to a person’s soul and feelings; they are not treated mechanically, like a robot that must or must not do something.

Coming to your true self, to harmony, to awareness is an important task for me. It helps you live your life. Besides, I like the changes that therapy can bring — that visibly keeps me wanting to carry on with this work.»