2019 T T Presenter Bios
8th Annual International Conference on
Transgenerational Trauma:
October 25-26, 2019 ~ Amman, Jordan
2019 PROGRAM
Sponsored by:
Common Bond Institute,
Michigan State University
International Humanistic Psychology Association
International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations
2019 Presenters
We wish to honor and thank this year’s presenters who recognize the importance of this initiative and have stepped forward to help facilitate it. Presenters have gathered from a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and countries to share skills, learning, promote an engaged, inclusive dialogue, and facilitate action planning toward a more comprehensive, cross-cultural global understanding and response to communal and transgenerational trauma.
(In Order of Appearance in the Program)
Friday, October 25
T T CONFERENCE OPENING
10:00 am – 11:00 am
Greeting, Mission, Overview of Conference Theme:
Steve Olweean, MA
is founding Director of Common Bond Institute, co-founder & President of International Humanistic Psychology Assoc. (IHPA), & past President of Assoc. for Humanistic Psychology. Among topics he writes and speaks on are communal trauma, The OTHER, & dynamics of belief systems. Founder of numerous international conferences, including “Engaging The Other;” “Religion, Conflict, & Peace;” “Transforming Conflict;” & “Transgenerational Trauma.” Graduate degree in Clinical Psychology with treatment focus on abuse and trauma recovery of victims & perpetrators and healing negative belief systems, and adjunct faculty with Michigan State Univ. Dept. of Psychiatry. He developed the Catastrophic Trauma Recovery (CTR) model for treating large populations of trauma victims, and is co-coordinator and core training faculty of CBI’s innovative Social Health Care (SHC) training and treatment program based on it for local capacity building to treat communal trauma. 2011 Recipient of the Charlotte and Karl Bühler Award from the American Psychological Assoc. for outstanding contribution to Humanistic Psychology internationally, and recognized for his life long work in a chapter devoted to his role with CBI in the “The New Humanitarians.”
Email: SOlweean@aol.com Web: www.cbiworld.org and www.cbiworld.org/speakers/
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Community Building Exercise:
Ilene A. Serlin, Ph.D, BC-DMT
is a licensed psychologist and registered dance/movement therapist in practice in San Francisco and Marin county. She is the past president of the San Francisco Psychological Association, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, past-president of the Division of Humanistic Psychology, and the 2018 recipient of the Rollo May award. Ilene Serlin is Associated Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, has taught at Saybrook University, Lesley University, UCLA, the NY Gestalt Institute and the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. She is the editor of Whole Person Healthcare (2007, 3 vol., Praeger), Integrated Care of the Traumatized, over 100 chapters and articles on body, art and psychotherapy, and is on the editorial boards of PsycCritiques, the American Dance Therapy Journal, the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Arts & Health: An International Journal of Research, Policy and Practice, Journal of Applied Arts and Health, and The Humanistic Psychologist
Email: iserlin@ileneserlin.com
Website: ileneserlin.com Blog: ileneserlin.com/pt_blog
CONCURRENT SESSION – A
A-1 IleneA. Serlin, Ph.D, BC-DMT (see Opening)
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A-2 Wajdi Akef Fakhoury, MA, AMFT
is a community mental health clinician (CA AMFT #89499) with a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. Wajdi is a candidate for the doctoral degree in International & Multicultural Psychosocial Education at the Univ. of San Francisco (USA). His research/professional interests include trauma-informed and culturally-congruent psychosocial services, community psychosocial interventions, as well as cognitive-behavioral & experiential psychotherapy. Wajdi has extensive experience providing trauma-informed & culturally-congruent psychosocial services to diverse client populations struggling with trauma- including refugee communities from the MENA region.
Email: wafakhoury@dons.usfca.edu
CONCURRENT SESSION – B
B-1 Ayat Nashwan, PhD
has a PhD in Social Work from the University of Tennessee, USA, and is Assistant Professor at Yarmouk University in Irbid, Jordan. She is Director of the Refugees, Displaced Persons, and Forced Migration Studies Center at Yarmouk Univ. Having primary research interests in social work practice with Arab American, Muslim, and Middle Eastern immigrant communities, Ayat feels compelled to offer culturally bound solutions for the service gap experienced by these individuals and mainstream practitioners. She believes that effective interventions can only be achieved with the knowledge of existing cultural and societal tools for resilience. Ayat is a core member of Common Bond Institute’s Social Health Care local psychosocial team in Jordan.
Email: ayat.n@yu.edu.jo
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B-2 Leon Berg
is a founding member of the Ojai Foundation in California and a Senior Facilitator and Trainer in the Way of Council. He has been training and facilitating Council groups in the U.S. and abroad for over 25 years. Leon is also a certified mediator and holds a Certificate in Peace & Reconciliation Studies from Coventry University, U.K.
Email: leon.berg@gmail.com
Itaf Awad, MA
Trainer in way of Council, has facilitated with the Sulha Peace Project, Academy of Central European Schools, and many other organizations in the Middle East, the United States and Europe. Inspired by the Ojai Foundation in California, founding member of the Circle of Listening, an NGO in Haifa. She currently serves as the Middle East liaison to ReGeneration Education.
Email: itaf.awad@gmail.com Web: www.itafawad.com
CONCURRENT SESSION – C
C-1 Tanya Awad Ghorra, MBA
has a media background, MBA in journalism, & MBA in Non-Violent Education and Conflict Resolution from AUNOHR (Academic Univ. for Non-violence & Human Rights). She took a challenge 2 years ago, & volunteered to create a non-violent communication & conflict resolution course in a private school for children aged 5 to 10 theat has since declared itself a non-violent one, & is in the process of implementing a mediation desk & extending the course to higher classes. She is an NVC & conflict resolution trainer for teachers & NGOs where, often traveling to Egypt & other countries to do so. and is an activist in her country of Lebanon working on abolishing capital punishment & achieving permanent peace in civil society & civil marriage. She is often featured in the media for her work & increasingly enlisted by media, business, & political parties to offer NVC programs & workshops to staff members, corporate managers, & the public. In August of 2012 she began the 1st weekly public education TV show on NVC in Lebanon that has since expanded to airing twice a week. Tanya is on the core training faculty of Common Bond Institute’s Social Health Care (SHC) training and treatment program.
Email: tanyaghorra@yahoo.com Blog: www.tanyaawad.blogspot.com/
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C-2
ROUNDTABLE – D
Myron Eshowsky, M.S.
in Counseling Psychology, is co-director of the Social Health Care Program for Syrian Refugee Children and Families. Myron has taught and written extensively on the integration of cross cultural healing approaches to the needs of modern life. He began being mentored by Ben Black Elk when he was 18 and since that time has worked with other Native American medicine people, Siberian and Hmong shamans, and traditional African healers. Myron worked for seven years doing traditional healing in a community mental health center with all populations being served. The effectiveness of the work , led to his being first person in the U.S. to have soul retrieval covered by a U.S. health insurance company. Research showed a 50% drop in health insurance payouts for patients who utilized these services. Over the 50 plus years , he has worked extensively with youth gangs, in prisons, child soldiers in Africa, and communities suffering from significant traumatic events.
Email: myron@myroneshowsky.com Web: www.myroneshowsky.com
Ilene Serlin, PhD, BC-DMT (see Opening Session)
Steve Olweean, MA (see Opening Session)
~ Saturday, October 19 ~
CONCURRENT SESSION – E
E-1 Myron Eshowsky, MS (see D)
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E-2 Denise Ziya Berte, PhD
is a licensed clinical forensic psychologist with 25 years working with survivors of torture and trauma in Central America, West Africa, and Palestine. She served as director of the Liberty Center for Survivors of Torture and the An Najah Child Institute. Dr. Berte has published various articles exploring multicultural mental health and trauma and served as an expert witness in over 500 cases documenting trauma in international court systems.
Email: drdzb@yahoo.com
CONCURRENT SESSION – F
F-1 Beatrice Schlee, PhD
has a PhD in political science and is initiator of the bodymemory project.
She became aware of how profoundly conflict permeates society during the field research during her PhD thesis in International Politics on the long lasting effects of the Spanish civil war 60 years after it ended. She then directed the office of a German political foundation in Zimbabwe for three years to support democracy. Returning to research, she concentrated on the political immobility and apathy of Zimbabwean citizens. Findings from social psychology, neuroscience, and embodiment theory broadened her perspective. Currently, she is using body work based on the methodology Body-Mind Centering® with refugees, migrants and Germans in German refugee camps to deepen her knowledge on the bodily imprint of conflict and war.
Email: beatrice.schlee@abi.uni-freiburg.de and info@bodymemory.de
Web: www.bodymemory.de
Lucie Stolwijk, BA
Marie Löbe, BA
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F-2 Nimo Patel
From an Ivy League education to Wall street to fame and fortune as a MTV Rap star, at some point along Nimo’s journey he realized that we was walking a path of suffering and that the only path to light was through selfless service to others and his own internal purification. For the past 7 and half years Nimo has been serving and working with the underprivileged communities in the Gandhi Ashram in India. Most recently Nimo has reconnected to his roots of music and is offering this gift of love, peace and oneness through his songs: an offering he calls “Empty Hands Music.” Nimo chose the title ‘Empty Hands’, because of the profound wisdom we all can gain when we understand this deeper truth: that we arrive on this planet empty handed and we will all soon leave empty handed. So then, how and in what spirit do we want to spend the time in between?
Email: nimo.patel@gmail.com Web: www.emptyhandsmusic.org/
CONCURRENT SESSION – G
G-1 Nicole Olweean, MA
Email: nicoleolweean@gmail.com
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G-2 Jilong Zhao
Is a kungfu master specializing in inner style kungfu (calm, happy, and defensive). Starting with an internal style of Shaolin when he was 5 years old, he has spent his life traveling China studying with masters from all internal styles and learning their best practices. Using an understanding of both Chinese and Western culture he has been teaching for the last 20+ years with more than 20000 students world wide, with a focus on teaching people to be healthier, friendly, confident, strong, happy, and calm.
Email: 5775667@qq.com
ROUNDTABLE SESSION – H
Beatrice Schlee, PhD (see F-1 )
has a PhD in political science and is initiator of the bodymemory project.
She became aware of how profoundly conflict permeates society during the field research during her PhD thesis in International Politics on the long lasting effects of the Spanish civil war 60 years after it ended. She then directed the office of a German political foundation in Zimbabwe for three years to support democracy. Returning to research, she concentrated on the political immobility and apathy of Zimbabwean citizens. Findings from social psychology, neuroscience, and embodiment theory broadened her perspective. Currently, she is using body work based on the methodology Body-Mind Centering® with refugees, migrants and Germans in German refugee camps to deepen her knowledge on the bodily imprint of conflict and war.
Email: beatrice.schlee@abi.uni-freiburg.de and info@bodymemory.de
Web: www.bodymemory.de
Ayat Nashwan, PhD (see B-1 )
Ilene Serlin, PhD (see Opening Session)
Moderator: Steve Olweean, MS (see Opening)
Rana Dajani, Ph.D
in molecular cell biology. She is Associate Professor at, Hashemite University, Jordan, a Harvard Radcliff fellow, Global Changemaker Award IIE/Fulbrighter, visiting professor at Yale Univ. and Cambridge Univ., and Jordan leader in studying refugee youth and epigenetics of trauma across generations with Yale. She organized the first gender summit for the Arab world 2017, established stem cell research ethics law in Jordan, and developed a community-based model “We Love Reading,”and received Synergos Arab World Social Innovators. She has received the WISE Award, King Hussein Medal of Honor, IDEO.org Best Refugee Education Program, UNESCO International Literacy Prize, World Literacy Council Award, King Hussein Cancer Institute for Cancer And Biotechnology Award, Jacobs Social Entrepreneurship Award, and has been recognized in the Women In Science hall of fame, as 12 among 100 most influential Arab women 2015, and Higher Education Reform Expert EU-TEMPUS. She is a member of the UN Women Jordan Advisory Council and an advocate for biological evolution and Islam,
Email: rdajani@hu.edu.jo