Armin Baier, L.C.S.W., J.D., has a private psychotherapy practice in Los Angeles specializing in relational gestalt therapy, addiction, and trauma. He provides clinical supervision at the Venice Family Clinic and the Southern Counseling Center, and he serves as an officer and director of the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Los Angeles, of which he was past president. Armin trained in gestalt therapy at the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy and the Pacific Gestalt Institute. His clinical experience, teaching and published writings include research, method and policy in the field of addiction treatment.

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• Bibliography
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Ren Barnebey, M.F.T., is a certified gestalt therapist and is in private practice in Burbank where he specializes in working with adults and couples. In addition to his training in gestalt, he has practiced Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, Imago Therapy and has more recently been incorporating Focusing which is an embodied enquiry process. Ren has also taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Human Sexuality, Couples Theory and Communication Skills.

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Christine Campbell, M.F.T., A.T.R., is the current faculty chair of Pacific Gestalt Institute. She began her training with the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Los Angeles (GTILA) in 1990, and is a certified gestalt therapist. After many years as an art therapist and as the clinical and administrative director of a number of partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient mental health programs, Christine is currently in private practice in Burbank where she works with individuals, couples, and groups using a Relational Gestalt Therapy approach. Christine is a clinical supervisor at the Southern California Counseling Center, and a past-president of GTILA. She specializes in grief and traumatic loss, and has a particular interest in grief as a creative process in therapy.

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• Consultation and Study Groups
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Lynne Jacobs, Ph.D., has long been interested in the relational dimension of psychotherapy, and in integrating humanistic theories with contemporary psychoanalytic theories. Both a gestalt therapist and a psychoanalyst, she is a co-founder of PGI. She is also a training and supervising analyst of the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP) in Los Angeles. She teaches at ICP, and teaches gestalt therapists locally, nationally, and internationally. She has published numerous articles in both realms, and her most recent work is Relational Approaches in Gestalt Therapy (co-edited with Rich Hycner).

She has a private practice in West Los Angeles.

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• Bibliography
• Email Lynne

Michelle Seely, M.F.T., has a private practice in Burbank where she works with teens, adults, and couples. Michelle is on the core faculty of the Pacific Gestalt Institute, she supervises interns at the Southern California Counseling Center, and she teaches classes on Mindful Self-Compassion and shame resilience. Michelle is a past-president of the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Los Angeles (GTILA) and currently serves on the GTILA board. Michelle’s professional interests include the overlaps between Buddhist Psychology and Relational Gestalt, shame resilience, and how the use of story and metaphor support therapeutic change.

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Ann Bartelstein, MFT and certified gestalt therapist, first became interested in gestalt theory and therapy in the ‘70s. After a 20+ year detour into the world of business she began her return to the world of psychotherapy and gestalt theory and therapy in the ‘90s. Ann teaches at Antioch University, is a past officer of the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Los Angeles (GTILA), supervises at the Southern California Counseling Center and has a private practice in West Los Angeles. Ann served as a core faculty member from 2010 until 2019, when she retired.

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Friedemann Schulz, M.F.T., is a former faculty chair for the Pacific Gestalt Institute, and he is a past-president of the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Los Angeles (GTILA). He has been a long time supervisor of mental health professionals. Friedemann maintains a private practice in West Los Angeles, and he recently published the article “Roots and Shoots of Gestalt Therapy Field Theory.” Friedemann has earned the rank of a senior instructor of Shintaido, a Japanese body discipline, and he has conducted workshops in the US, Mexico and Germany that draw from eastern philosophies and gestalt therapy principles. Friedemann served as core faculty for eighteen years, until his retirement in 2021.

Additional Info:

• Gestalt Couples Therapy
• Bibliography
• Consultation & Study Groups
• Email Friedemann

In Memoriam

Lillian Norton, M.D., M.F.T., was intensely involved with gestalt therapy since 1993 until her death on June 30, 2018. She was certified as a gestalt therapist by the Gestalt Institute of the Pacific (now PGI), which is leading the field in developing the relational dimension of gestalt practice.

She ‘retired’ from her work as the Director of Behavioral Services of a large, non profit agency in Las Vegas, Nevada and entered private practice and continued to train and supervise interns from various mental health disciplines. She also completed the academic and clinical requirements in psychoanalysis at ICP and found an exciting correspondence between gestalt theory and psychoanalytic writings.

In Memoriam

Jan Ruckert, Ed.D., was a core faculty member of the Pacific Gestalt Institute from its beginning in 1995 until her death on February 24, 2017. She was a founding member and past-president of the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Los Angeles (GTILA) and served as Chair of the Faculty Training Program for ten years, as a faculty member for 25 years, and on the Board for 24 more. She trained and supervised psychotherapists in the United States and Europe since 1970.

Jan’s private practice extended over 50 years. She supervised at the Southern California Counseling Center for twenty. Jan was a major scholarship fundraiser for the first four international conferences for the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Theory. In addition to being one of our most creative therapists and trainers, Jan studied watercolor at Venice Art Studios and wrote poetry with Jack Grapes’ UCLA class for decades. She published numerous poems and books (including The Four-Footed Therapist). As an artist, author and poet, she used the gestalt approach to encourage writing and art expression. Her special interests included supervision, training and couple therapy.

Additional Info:

• Bibliography