The coaching team of the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Study is composed of experienced international professionals – training practitioners – who have been working with children and adolescents on a daily basis for more than 20 years.
Coaching team
Silvia Tosi (Italy)
Gestalt psychologist and psychotherapist. She is a trainer at the Instituto di Gestalt HCC in Italy. Supervisor (accredited by EAGT). Since 1998, she has worked as a clinical psychologist and Gestalt psychotherapist in private practice and public health care with children, adolescents and families. She has been a presenter at several congresses and has published several articles on Gestalt psychotherapy in the developmental age. She is a member of the editorial board of the journal Quaderni di Gestalt and the Gestalt Therapy Book Series. She was a member and chair of the EAGT Training Standards Committee.
Natalie Zhivolkovskaya (Belarus/Lithuania)
Clinical psychologist, Gestalt psychotherapist, supervisor, trainer, co-leader of the specialization program “Gestalt Therapy with Children and Adolescents” (2017-2020), member of EAGT. She works with children, adolescents and their families on a daily basis (for more than 20 years), and spent 10 years working as a psychiatrist in a clinical setting (“Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Mental Health” / Minsk). Since 2020, Natalie has lived in Lithuania and continues her daily practice with children and young people.
Bronagh Starrs (Ireland)
Bronagh Starrs is a psychological consultant, clinical supervisor, writer, presenter and trainer based in Omagh, Northern Ireland. Additionally, she works as a consultant on Parenting for a number of families, schools and agencies. As a recognized expert in the field of adolescent psychotherapy, Bronagh lectures and presents throughout Ireland and internationally on the developmental phenomena and therapeutic dynamics of contemporary adolescents. Her approach to therapeutic intervention with adolescents is both innovative and deeply relational. Her main interests related to the field of adolescents currently include the phenomenon of anxiety, the growing trend toward diagnosis, and the experience of sexual development.
Jon Blend (UK)
Adult, child and adolescent psychotherapist registered with UKCP and ECP. He has 40 years of experience working with emotionally distressed people, including 15 years of clinical experience working with children and adolescents in the NHS Family Consultation Service. He currently works in private practice in West London, offering psychotherapy to adults, children and adolescents. He also meets with families and offers parenting support. He works face-to-face and online as a coach (in the UK and abroad) and offers clinical supervision. He is also a Lifemusic practitioner, a London Playback Theatre musician and a faculty member (Wellbeing Diploma) at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE) in London.
Krzysztof Kościółek (Poland)
He is a supervisor, certified Gestalt psychotherapist, sexologist, group trainer, and teacher of the psychotherapy profession. He is the founder of the Spaces Psychotherapy Center. He is certified by the European Association for Gestalt Therapy. He prepares future psychotherapists for the profession at the Lodz Gestalt School and the Gestalt Institute in Krakow.
He specializes in working with LGBTQ+/GSRD people, both those who have just discovered their identity (sexual, gender, relational or kinetic) and are having difficulty accepting it. As well as those who are experiencing problems in relationships or the sexual sphere. He works with transgender and non-binary people experiencing rejection from family and friends or facing other problems requiring psychotherapy.
The person coordinating the program is Karolina Slifirska:
Karolina Ślifirska (Poland)
Psychologist, director of the Lodz Gestalt School. On a daily basis, she works at the Day Therapeutic Unit for Adolescents at the Central Clinical Hospital in Lodz and at a private practice.