Sunday 26^th April 2009 St. Patrick’s School, Donegall St., Belfast  Tosini was delighted when member Nuala Murray arranged for the World renowned Gestalt Therapist & founder of the Gestalt Institute in New York, Susan Gregory. to come and give us a workshop specifically designed for singers and teachers.   I was personally very interested to learn more about gestalt therapy and how it would inform my teaching, as indeed were the other 9 participants in the group. Susan Gregory was a  gentle, soft-spoken woman with a warm, reassuring voice that inspired and invited openness within the group. She encouraged us to suggest topics that we might explore – these included issues such as addressing our own emotional well-being, so essential to us singing teachers, who need to give so much professionally to our students.  Other topics discussed included dealing with difficult parents, maintaining a professional approach with students, handling overwhelming emotions that arise when singing, both from a singer’s perspective and a teacher’s perspective and exploring tools to help un-lock a students imagination and creativity. Susan led us through the morning, getting us to move away from lighter, pleasant social interaction to encouraging us to think about how we felt about the topics discussed.  Working like this meant that we all managed to open up and be honest about how we felt about music/teaching/performing/singing etc., and this led to a sense of bonding within the group. I think this workshop was a wonderful departure from our usual type of course/workshop offered by Tosini and I felt was something that fed out souls.  I would really love to see something similar offered on a regular basis to singers/teachers as a way of sharing experiences and providing support to each other.Thank you Nuala – I look forward to liaising with you on future workshops. Marie O’Sullivan