Gestalt Synthesis Team
Here you can find biographies of the Gestalt Synthesis team members and our collaborators.
DIMITRIS TZACHANIS
Dimitris Tzachanis, founder of Gestalt Synthesis, is a certified psychotherapist through the Hellenic National Association for Psychotherapy, holds the European Certificate of Psychotherapy (ECP), and is a member of the European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP).
He trained in Gestalt therapy at the Gestalt Institute of San Francisco, served as Director of the Institute in Greece, and is a member of the European Association for Gestalt Therapy (EAGT).
He is also a certified body psychotherapist, a graduate of the Wilhelm Reich Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling, and a member of both the Hellenic Association for Body Psychotherapy and the European Association for Body Psychotherapy (EABP).
He studied Social Anthropology at the University of Kent in England and completed postgraduate studies in Psychoanalysis at Brunel University in London.
He has also undertaken training and attended seminars in trauma therapy, inner child therapy, the Diamond Approach, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and other approaches.
He draws particular inspiration from transpersonal psychotherapy and integrates elements from different therapeutic traditions into his work.
He works with individuals and groups, designs and facilitates therapeutic and educational workshops, and teaches Gestalt therapy at KETHESY.
MICHAEL SOTH
Michael Soth is an integrative, relational and body-oriented psychotherapist, trainer and supervisor who studied, lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1982 to 2021.
During those four decades, he taught numerous counselling and psychotherapy training courses and served as Training Director at the Chiron Centre for Body Psychotherapy.
Drawing on concepts, values and ways of working from both psychoanalytic and humanistic traditions, he is particularly interested in the therapeutic relationship as a psychosomatic process between two people who are simultaneously wounded and whole.
He has written numerous articles on psychotherapy and is a frequent speaker at conferences.
He is co-editor of the Handbook of Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology, published in 2015.
Excerpts from his published work, along with handouts and presentation summaries, are available on his website:
https://soth.co.uk/
In Greece, he facilitates the Online Integrative Supervision Group.
MORIT HEITZLER
Morit Heitzler is an experienced psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer, and a member of EABP, UKCP and EMDR UK. She has taught in various training programmes across Europe and regularly facilitates workshops and groups. Through her work with different organisations, she has gained extensive experience in treating a wide range of PTSD symptoms and working with traumatised individuals, including refugees and asylum seekers.
Over the course of 30 years, she has developed an integrative approach to trauma therapy, combining body psychotherapy, attachment theory, EMDR, contemporary neuroscience and somatic approaches within an overarching relational framework.
In recent years, she has focused on providing intermediate and advanced Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training and supervision for trauma therapists, particularly in integrating different approaches to trauma treatment.
Further information is available on her website: www.heitzler.co.uk.
ALEX STERNICK
Alex Sternick is an internationally recognised teacher of the Art of Gibberish and Laughter Therapy.
He currently teaches Gibberish techniques in the MSc Applied Positive Psychology programme at Bucks New University in England. He also holds a BSc in Clinical Nutrition.
Alex Sternick pioneered laughter yoga groups in Israel, which he continues to facilitate successfully today.
He began his journey into laughter therapy in India in 2003, where he supported terminally ill patients. He subsequently worked in Ethiopia as a laughter therapist at Mother’s Mission and as a nutritionist with Save the Children USA. In 2004, he established the first laughter groups in Jerusalem and organised workshops with internationally renowned teachers, including Dr Madan Kataria and Belachev Girma (World Laughter Master).
He has worked with Israelis and Arabs in an effort to bring these two communities closer together through laughter and shared joy. In recognition of his contribution to “peace through laughter,” he received the Golden Laughter Award from the French School of Happiness & Rigology in 2014.
Today, he conducts professionally certified training workshops in numerous countries, including Germany, Austria, Finland, England, Israel, Slovenia, France, Italy, Japan and the United States.
HELENE PANITSKAS
Helene Panitskas is a certified advanced Rolfer, movement teacher specialised in Craniosacral therapy. She was born and raised in France. There she studied initially classical dance, choreography and analysis and notation of movement (Labanotation). Later she met Thérèse Bertherat through her personal therapy, who was the originator of a technique known as Antigymnastique. She trained with her in the beginning of the 90s. At the same time she encountered many other techniques (Feldenkrais, Mézières Therapy, Tomatis Method, physiotherapy, etc) and mainly she discovered Rolfing.
She trained in Rolfing in Germany, Italy and mainly in the USA with the most important teachers of its kind (Hubert Godart, Jim Asher, Pedro Prada, Tessy Brunghart and others). Today she lives and works in England and for shorter periods in Greece. She is the mother of two daughters.
MASA MOMOTAKE
Masa Momotake is one of Japan’s most respected Gestalt therapy trainers and is a Director and founding member of the Japanese Association of Gestalt Therapy (JAGT). He is also a founding member of Gestalt Network Japan.
Born in Niigata in 1945, he graduated from Chuo University and received an MA in Psychology from the University of California in 1979. He trained in Gestalt therapy during the 1970s at the San Francisco Institute, studying with Paula Bottome.
For more than 40 years, he has organised, directed and supervised Gestalt therapy training programmes in various cities across Japan, contributing significantly to the development of two younger generations of Gestalt therapists.
He also teaches internationally, offering workshops and training programmes in the United States, Australia, Poland and Europe.
He is the author of three books on Gestalt therapy in Japanese and two books in English:
Transgenerational Gestalt Therapy: Through the Lens of Family Therapy in Japan and The Gestalt Path of the Mini Satori.
His work is characterised by a creative synthesis of classical Gestalt therapy with body-oriented and systemic approaches, incorporating elements of yoga, the Feldenkrais Method and work with family systems into an experiential and holistic educational framework.
He focuses on awakening the human capacity for self-regulation, self-healing and creativity through the cultivation of awareness of the here and now, the reconnection of body, emotions and mind, and the particular importance he places on contact and the therapeutic relationship. His therapeutic presence is distinguished by clarity, simplicity and stability.
FUMI NAKAYAMA
Fumi Nakayama is a Gestalt therapist based in Japan. She completed her foundational Gestalt therapy training in 2011 and her advanced training in 2013. Since then, she has continued her professional development through regular practice, supervision and ongoing training in Tokyo.
Her involvement with Gestalt therapy began in 2006 and is grounded in sustained experiential practice, exploration of the therapeutic relationship as a process, and the cultivation of body awareness. Her work is informed by a phenomenological, field-oriented approach, with particular emphasis on embodied processes and the significance of contact within the therapeutic relationship.
Since 2017, she has been a member of the staff at Gestalt Network Japan, supporting training programmes and workshops.
NICK ATHANASAKIS
Nick Athanasakis is a body-oriented psychotherapist whose main approach is Bioenergetic Analysis. He is a Certified Bioenergetic Therapist (CBT) and has training in Gestalt therapy, inner child therapy and other modalities of psychotherapy. He is a TRE (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises) provider, a somatic method which facilitates the release of traumatic stress through the body’s tremoring mechanism. Nick also has an M.A. in counseling from Azusa Pacific University in California.
In his own approach, Ensomatics, he combines elements from different methods with the aim of helping people expand their body awareness and reconnect with their body’s innate resources in order to heal trauma. “En soma,” literally meaning “in the body,” is borrowed from the ancient Greek saying “a healthy mind in a healthy body.” Together with his father, Apostolos Athanasakis, they have created the Orphic Center, combining elements of body psychotherapy with ancient Greek spirituality and ritual.