Volunteer Faculty
Dr. George Bermudez, Psychologist-Psychoanalyst
Training & Supervising Psychoanalyst at The Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis Los Angeles, and 2020-21 Visiting Scholar at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC) has developed pioneering scholarship and practice –an expansion toward a social psychoanalysis–exploring the “social unconscious” through “social dreaming”. The author of “The Social Dreaming Matrix as a Container for the Processing of Implicit Racial Bias and Collective Racial Trauma” (International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 2018) and “Community Psychoanalysis: A Contribution to an Emerging Paradigm” (Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 2019), he has focused on numerous contemporary socio-political concerns: American Xenophobia; Whiteness and Psychoanalysis; Black Reparations; The LGBTQ Unconscious in the Trumpian Era; and The Global Unconscious in the Time of Pandemic. Dr. Bermudez’ most recent work focuses on the applications of social dreaming to the discovery of potential solutions to our climate crisis and the development of “deliberative democracy”.
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Patricia Tollison
Ph.D. CGP
Patricia is an American psychologist and writer with more than forty years of clinical experience. Dr. Tollison is currently a clinical consultant and educator in the areas of group psychotherapy and trauma-informed intervention. With experience teaching at the preschool through university levels, she is a member of the Affiliate Faculty, Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Dell Medical School, at the University of Texas in Austin. Dr. Tollison was a founding member, Board Member, and Past President of an affiliate society with the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA). A lead author of two books written for the mental health community working with children, she works globally as a co-developer, group leader, and clinical supervisor of The Portable Calm, an online trauma prevention and intervention training program, and of Calming Minds, a field manual for those working with children in wounded communities.
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Robert D. Stolorow
Ph.D.
Robert is a Founding Faculty Member at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles, and at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York City. He is the author of World, Affectivity, Trauma: Heidegger and Post-Cartesian Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2011) and Trauma and Human Existence: Autobiographical, Psychoanalytic, and Philosophical Reflections (Routledge, 2007), and coauthor of nine other books, including The Power of Phenomenology: Psychoanalytic and Philosophical Perspectives (Routledge, 2018). He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University in 1970, his Certificate in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy from the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health, New York City, in 1974, and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of California at Riverside in 2007.
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Mary Sussillo
LCSW, CGP, Fellow, AGPA
Mary is Alumna of the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIPTI); Supervisor, City College, Psychology Department; Consultant, Manhattan Institute for Psychotherapies Trauma Studies Program; Faculty, Center for Group Studies; Faculty, Eastern Group Psychotherapy Training Program; Coeditor Emeritus, Psychoanalytic Perspectives. Mary is a psychoanalyst with a practice of individuals, groups and couples. She has a bereavement and loss specialty. Mary has authored, “Beyond the Grave—“Letting Go” and “Holding On”: Adult Treatment of Adolescent Parental Loss”, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 2005. She has conducted bereavement workshops internationally for professional groups.
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Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, PhD
Rabbi Firestone is an author, a psychotherapist, and a renowned Jewish scholar and teacher. Widely known for her groundbreaking work on Kabbalah, depth psychology, intergenerational trauma healing, and the re-integration of the feminine wisdom tradition within Judaism, Rabbi Tirzah lectures and teaches globally about spiritual and ancient wisdom practices that are honed to assist us at this critical time in world history.
Rabbi Firestone’s publications include With Roots in Heaven: One Woman’s Passionate Journey into the Heart of Her Faith (Plume,1999) and The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish Women’s Wisdom (Harper San Francisco, 2003). Her latest work, combining research in depth psychology, neuroscience, and the field of collective traumatology, is highlighted in the award-winning book, Wounds Into Wisdom: Healing intergenerational Jewish Trauma (Monkfish, 2019). In it, Rabbi Firestone shares the remarkable life stories of people around the world who have healed from profound tragedy and trauma. The book provides directives for the transformation of all of our injuries—both personal and inherited— into moral wisdom, courage, and compassion. She lives with her husband David in the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. tirzahfirestone.com | @tirzahfire
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Gil Spielberg
Ph.D., ABPP (Diplomate, Group), Fellow (AGPA)
Dr. Gil Spielberg is a psychologist and psychoanalyst who works in West Los Angeles, California. He has over 35 years of experience as an individual and group clinical psychologist. Gil has a doctorate in Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego. He underwent his post graduate training at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity in New York, and his group psychoanalytic training was from the Centre for Advanced Group Studies, New York. While Gil specializes in Group Therapy, he also works with select individuals and couples. As well as a practitioner, Dr Spielberg is a teacher, mentor and also a supervisor at Beit T’Shuvah, an addiction rehab centre in Culver City.
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Galit Atlas
Ph.D.
Galit is a psychoanalyst and clinical supervisor in private practice in Manhattan. She is a clinical assistant professor on the faculty of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis and faculty at the National Training Program (NTP) and the Four-Year Adult training program at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP) in New York City.
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Russell Carr, M.D.
Russ is a psychiatrist in private practice in Maryland. He retired from the Navy in 2019 after twenty years of service, including three years as the Chief of Psychiatry at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He is a graduate of the psychoanalytic training at the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis in Washington, DC.
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Naomi Richman, MFT
Naomi is a psychotherapist specializing in adult and adolescent psychotherapy, as well as homeopathic treatment of emotional disorders for children and adults. With five decades of experience as a clinician, she consults and supervises other therapists in private practice, supervises at The Psychotherapy Institute in Berkeley, and served on the teaching faculty of the Women’s Therapy Center in El Cerrito, California. Before transitioning to private practice, she headed the Psychiatric Emergency Clinic in Napa County, CA, and served as a supervisor in the Acute Psychiatric/Crisis Service in Marin County, CA. She has taught and lectured in various graduate programs in Northern California. Her office is located in Petaluma, California.
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Monique is a registered psychologist, psychotherapist, specialized group psychotherapist and supervisor in the Netherlands. For over twenty-ive years she has worked with adults diagnosed with PTSS and severe mental health issues in residential, day clinic and outpatient settings. Interested in the connection between body and mind, she has taught for nearly two decades at the Master Dance Movement Therapy program at Codarts, University of the Arts. She also lectures at the RINO, the National Institute for Post Academic Training for psychologists. Monique serves as a board member of the Dutch Association for Group Psychotherapy (NVGP), as a member of the editorial board of Groepen, the Dutch magazine for Group Dynamics and Group Psychotherapy where she has also published clinical articles. Monique is an award-winning poet and a long-time practitioner of Zen Buddhism.
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Paul Kaye
Ph.D., CGP, FAGPA
Paul is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in the state of Michigan. Following seven years at Sinai Hospital of Detroit where he worked extensively with individuals receiving psychiatric services on both inpatient and outpatient services, he began a private practice in 1980. He has been on the teaching faculties at the University of Detroit’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program; Wayne State University-School of Medicine-Psychiatric Residency program; and the American Group Psychotherapy Association.
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Richard Beck
LCSW, BCD, CGP, FAGPA
Richard is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City with a specialization in the treatment of psychological trauma. Richard is the Immediate Past President of the International Association for Group Psychotherapy and Group Processes; a Senior Lecturer at Columbia University School of Social Work; on the Voluntary Faculty at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College; and an Honorary Member of the Italian Society for Psychosomatic Medicine.
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Darren Haber
PsyD
Darren is a psychoanalyst practicing in West Los Angeles. He specializes in treating childhood trauma, addiction, and anxiety/depression. His book, Circles Without a Center: Addiction, Accommodation, and Vulnerability in Psychoanalysis was published in July 2022 by Routledge Press. He is the winner of several analytic writing awards, Dr. Haber’s articles have been published online on many websites including the Los Angeles Review of Books, Psychology Today, and the American Psychoanalytic Association. He has also published numerous times in the journals of Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, and Psychoanalytic Inquiry.
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Eva Jahn
LPCC, DIPL.SW
Eva’s clinical work has been focused on survivors of traumatic experiences with an emphasis on exploring themes of shame, self-esteem, and racial and multicultural identities. She graduated from the California Institute for Integral Studies with a master’s degree in Integral Counseling Psychology and holds a Social Work degree from the University of Applied Science in Germany. As a trauma-informed psychotherapist, she takes an integrative approach that includes psychodynamic psychotherapy, neuroscience, and contemplative-based trauma and resiliency training. Eva’s clinical work is rooted in social justice and anti-racism celebrating both personal and collective liberation.
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Elizabeth Driscoll
LPC
Elizabeth received her master’s degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy from Naropa University and now serves as faculty in the graduate program in Contemplative Psychology. As faculty of the International Center for Mental Health & Human Rights, she has facilitated the Contemplative Based Trauma & Resiliency curriculum through Boulder Valley Care Network and online internationally. Committed to excellence in the field of group facilitation, she serves on the Board of Directors for the Four Corners Group Psychotherapy Society.
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