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Gestalt Wellness Institute

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Who We Are

Gestalt Wellness Institute (GWI) is a center for mental health and a Gestalt therapy institute that provides holistic and interdisciplinary wellbeing and mental health services to the community.

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About

Our Story

GWI began with a belief our founder already carried: that Filipinos deserved mental health care that was accessible, human, and genuinely built around them. That belief was shaped, in part, by his mentor, Dr. Simon Maurice “Bud” Feder — conversations that pointed toward something neither had quite seen built yet. GWI was founded March 16, 2012, and by that August, the vision had become clear: not just a clinic, but a holistic, multidisciplinary institute — a team built to meet people of every condition, culture, and background exactly where they were. Dr. Feder passed in 2018, but the conversation that helped shape GWI has never stopped shaping it.

Before that, though, our founder was a young person who couldn’t find the words for what he was carrying — who went to bed some nights certain no one would understand, and woke up angry that the world kept moving without him. It took years, and it took people willing to sit with him in it, before he could sit with anyone else in theirs. That’s the root GWI still grows from.

Incorporated as Gestalt Wellness Institute Southeast Asia, Inc. in 2013, GWI grew from individual counseling and psychotherapy into a full multidisciplinary team — psychiatry, psychology, occupational therapy, assessment, special-needs intervention, and more, working together around each person’s needs.

That commitment to showing up in crisis started early. In 2012, GWI provided aid to survivors of Typhoon Yolanda, made possible in part by individual members of AAGT who gave directly to support the response — a reminder that even a young institution can show up when it matters, if enough people care enough to help it.

That same instinct carried GWI forward. In 2018, our volunteers responded to the Naga City landslide that September, and that same year, the drive to reach people before crisis finds them took shape as the iCare Mental Health Expo — co-founded with Rennyvonne Fae Ledesma. Bringing together the DOH, the Wellbeing Cluster, DSWD, other clinics, rehabilitation facilities, and wellness workers, iCare has run since 2018 — in person, online during the pandemic, and back again in 2023 — always with the same goal: making mental health something people can actually talk about, before they’re in crisis, not just after.

More than fourteen years later, the purpose hasn’t changed: a safe place where people can be heard, understood, and helped find their way forward.

Shared by Kirk Patrick S. Castro, RPm, RGC · Chief of Clinics and Founder

Our Approach

At GWI, we believe that mental wellness is a unique narrative. Every person has their own story to tell — all of it valid, regardless of who they are. As such, our approach is personalized, collaborative, evidence-based, and quality-oriented.

Whether you’re navigating stress, emotional struggles, relationship challenges, or trauma, we walk with you at your own pace—no judgment, just professional care.

Our Vision & Mission


GWI envisions to be a globally recognized and competent mental health institution that promotes self-development and wellness.

GWI aims to provide quality multidisciplinary services as a collaborative, efficient, and sustainable mental health institution committed to self-discovery and expansion.

Our Core Values

Client-Centered Approach. Long before GWI had a name, it had a question: what does real support actually look like, for the person in front of you? Every service we offer still starts there.

Evidence-Based Practice. What began as one person’s counseling practice grew into a full multidisciplinary team — psychiatry, psychology, occupational therapy, and more — because real care draws on real training, working together.

Professionalism and Ethical Practice. GWI was built inside a regulated profession from the start, and we’ve stayed there — every practitioner licensed, every service held to the standard our clients deserve.

Compassion. Our founder once needed someone willing to sit with him before he could sit with anyone else. That’s still how GWI works — with people, not around them.

Respect for Diversity. GWI was built for people of every condition, culture, and background — from Cebu to the Visayas and Mindanao, for Filipinos abroad, and for anyone who’s ever felt like they didn’t quite fit anywhere else.