Gestalt Therapy in Action: The therapist as a political agent – Online Program Series 2024

Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb
Psychotherapist and researcher, international trainer, Director of the Istituto di Gestalt HCC Italy (Syracuse, Palermo and Milan). In her clinical work, she has hermeneutically developed the principles of Gestalt therapy into a field-oriented, phenomenological and aesthetic approach. Her book The Now-for-Next in Psychotherapy is available in 11 languages. With Pietro Cavaleri, she has recently edited the book Psychopathology of the Situation in Gestalt Therapy: A Field Oriented Approach, published by Routledge in the Gestalt Therapy Book Series. She received the Lifelong Achievement Award from the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy – AAGT (Toronto, Canada, August 2018).

Larysa Didkovska
PhD, Clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, trainer, supervisor of the Ukrainian Umbrella Association of Psychotherapy, member of the EAP, EAGT, OAMHP(Canada). Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine. She has worked as counselor and psychotherapist with refugees, soldiers and their families, as supervisor with psychologists and psychotherapists who work withanti-terrorist operators and displaced persons. She has authored writingson psychology and psychotherapy.

Joseph Khor
Contemplative Gestalt Therapist from Malaysia.He received Gestalt counselling training at Istituto di Gestalt HCC, Italy and obtained doctorate degree in psychology from Sophia University Institute, Italy. In his PhD study, Joseph did research on Contemplative Gestalt group therapy through the integration of Gestalt Therapy, Taoism, Heraclitus’s thoughts, Christianity and contemplative practice. This study also enabled Joseph to provide holistic (body-mind-spirit) counseling either individually or in group, and conducting workshops on Contemplative Gestalt Approach. He is particularly interested in providing group counseling and community to assist clients resisting oppressing voices from individuals, family, society and political authority.

Ruella Frank
PhD, is founder and director of the Center for Somatic Studies,  faculty at the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy, guest faculty at Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy, adjunct faculty at Gestalt Institute of Toronto, and teaches throughout the United States, Europe, Eurasia, Mexico, South America and Canada. She is author of articles and chapters in various publications, and the book Body of Awareness: A Somatic and Developmental Approach to Psychotherapy, (2001, GestaltPress, available in 5 languages), co-author of The First Year and the Rest of Your Life: Movement, Development and Psychotherapeutic Change (2010, Routledge Press, available in 3 languages), and author of The Bodily Roots of Experience in Psychotherapy (2022, Routledge Press, available in seven languages). Her video Introduction to Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy, is available in three languages. www.somaticstudies.com

Pietro A. Cavaleri
Graduated in Philosophy and Psychology. He recently retired after serving many years as lead clinical psychologist at the Caltanissetta health service unit. He is a member of the Sicilian Order of Psychologists and has worked as lay judge at the Caltanissetta juvenile court. From 2014 to 2016, he served as Municipal Councillor for Social Policies in Caltanissetta. He has authored several books, among which are La profondità della superficie (Franco Angeli, 2003) and Vivere con l’altro (Città Nuova, 2007). He is the curator of the book Psicoterapia della Gestalt e Neuroscienze (Franco Angeli, 2013) and co-author of the book Il dono nel tempo della crisi (Raffaello Cortina, 2015). He has also extensively written for the “Quaderni di Gestalt” journal and the “Studies in Gestalt Therapy” international journal.

Miriam Taylor
UKCP registered Gestalt psychotherapist (non-clinical), supervisor and trainer. Having retired from clinical practice in which she specialised in trauma for over twenty five years, Miriam now includes aspects of collective trauma, social justice issues and climate change in her thinking on trauma. Based in embodied practice, her interest is in the formation of the traumatised relational field, leading to an ecological perspective. She teaches in the UK and internationally, and is on the Leadership Team of Relational Change. Publications include  “Trauma Therapy and Clinical Practice” (2014); “Deepening Trauma Practice” (2021), and several peer reviewed and invited articles.

Peter Cole
LCSW, is a Certified Gestalt Therapist (Pacific Gestalt Institute).  He served as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry with the UC Davis School of Medicine for 30 years (now retired).  He is the co-director of the Sierra Institute for Contemporary Gestalt Therapy.  He serves as an Associate Editor for Gestalt Review and is on the Scientific Board for The Gestalt Therapy Book Series.  He is the co-author of New Directions in Gestalt Group Therapy and the editor of The Relational Heart of Gestalt Therapy.    Peter speaks and gives workshops worldwide.  He lives and practices psychotherapy in Northern California, USA.