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Where we come from

In 2013 two psychotherapists with twenty years of shared practice went to a presentation of a method they did not know yet. It was given by Jon Frederickson at Laboratory of Psychoeducation in Warsaw. They decided to specialise in it.

They completed one of the first Core Training programmes run in Poland and learned from Josette ten Have-de Labije, Jon Frederickson, Robert Neborsky, Kees Cornelissen and Tobias Nordqvist. After receiving their IEDTA certificates they were among the first certified ISTDP psychotherapists in Poland.

In June 2016 Renata Gehrke and Agnieszka Kaminska founded the Institute to keep spreading the method in Poland.

What we are here for

We create opportunities for psychotherapists and other mental health professionals to gain three things.

  • Knowledge and tools for a better understanding of what happens in the patient and in the psychotherapist during ISTDP.
  • Professional competence within the ISTDP approach.
  • Inspiration to grow, professionally and personally.

The method we teach

ISTDP grew out of psychoanalytic theory and John Bowlby’s work on attachment. Habib Davanloo began developing it in the 1960s, and practitioners in the United States and Europe have kept it moving since. Its name says what it does.

Read what the three words mean, where the method comes from and who developed it

The Institute in numbers

Since June 2016.

  • 500+

    Hours of training delivered

  • 100+

    Events organised

  • 1500+

    Participants

The founders

Renata Gehrke

Renata Gehrke

Certified psychotherapist and psychologist

A certified psychotherapist and psychologist. She completed one of the first Polish editions of Core Training - a comprehensive advanced training programme in ISTDP psychotherapy - earning the IEDTA certificate of completion, which qualifies her to practise psychotherapy independently in this modality.

Founder of the DIALOG Centre for Therapy and Development in Wejherowo and of the Polish Institute of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy SENTIO. She created istdp-psychoterapia.pl, the platform bringing Polish ISTDP psychotherapists together, and edits its ISTDP blog. For well over a decade she has supported people in personal growth and in building good relationships.

„Meet yourself and lead yourself to success”

Agnieszka Kamińska

Agnieszka Kamińska

Certified psychotherapist and psychologist

A certified psychotherapist and psychologist. She completed one of the first Polish editions of Core Training - a comprehensive advanced training programme in ISTDP psychotherapy - earning the IEDTA certificate of completion, which qualifies her to practise psychotherapy independently in this modality.

She originated and co-founded the Polish Institute of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy SENTIO. She is an ambassador for ISTDP in Poland, an approach to personal development and psychotherapy still new to the country. Since 2001 she has been inspiring and helping people to grow personally and to keep their emotional balance in life.

„Dare and act”

The team

The people who keep the Institute running.

Jakub Dzięgielewski

Jakub Dzięgielewski

Technology and technical support

With the Institute since 2021

With the Institute since 2021, the longest of anyone on the team. He looks after the websites, their architecture and everything that happens underneath - the place where most of us stop understanding and he is only getting started. Business and entrepreneurship are his own interest, so he thinks about solutions strategically, not only technically.

„Tomorrow is a hope, never a promise.”

Zuzanna Kochanowicz

Zuzanna Kochanowicz

Coordination and administration

With the Institute since 2023

A psychologist with a master's degree, and one of those people whose presence is not obvious at first glance but whose absence everyone would notice immediately. With the Institute since 2023. She keeps the deadlines and coordinates the thing that is hardest to coordinate: people and their needs in a crowded calendar.

Monika Cieślakowska

Monika Cieślakowska

Marketing and communication strategy

With the Institute since 2024

For the Polish Institute of ISTDP Sentio she builds communication that reaches mental health professionals. She is a bridge between the world of clinical precision and the person looking for help. She holds a master's degree in management and marketing, and works as a coach and an entrepreneur. For over five years she has worked where the mission of psychotherapists meets the realities of running a business. With the Institute since 2024.

„Do not fear change, fear a life that wounds you.”

Filip Jędrysiak

Filip Jędrysiak

Video editing and production

With the Institute since 2024

If the voice in the animation caught your ear, that is him. He creates and produces the Institute's psychoeducational films, and edits the webinars, the training videos and the promotional material. He photographs, records and catches the moments others miss, turning them into material that keeps its value long after the event has ended. Within psychology he is drawn to clinical psychology and psychotherapy, and particularly to the comparison of psychotherapeutic models and the role of personality factors in psychotherapy research.

Dawid Makiełła

Translator

With the Institute since 2022

He is the reason knowledge does not stop at the language barrier. He translates trainings from Polish into English and from English into Polish. ISTDP terminology is precise and demanding, and Dawid moves through it easily in both languages. When the Institute hosts guests from abroad, he is there as a live interpreter, in real time.

What we do

Training videos

Recorded clinical trainings on our e-learning platform, available without a time limit.

Browse the catalogue

Webinars

Online meetings with ISTDP teachers from Poland and abroad, recorded and kept in one place.

See the webinars

Conferences and live events

Clinical psychotherapy conferences and live meetings with teachers.

See what is coming

Get in touch

Write to the Institute

sentio@polskiinstytutistdp.pl