Meet Our Faculty

The faculty at Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy brings together a diverse and accomplished community of clinicians, educators, and supervisors who are deeply committed to experiential learning, relational integrity, and the transformative power of Gestalt therapy.

With backgrounds spanning psychoanalysis, somatic therapies, social justice work, and the creative arts, our faculty members offer a rich, multidimensional training environment. Each brings their own unique voice and clinical style while sharing a common dedication to cultivating presence, awareness, and authenticity, in themselves, in their trainees, and in the therapeutic relationship.

We invite you to learn more about the people who shape our training programs and hold the vision of GAP as a place of rigor, reflection, and growth.

Featured

Arleen Maiorano

Executive Director, LCSW, Columbia University

Arleen Maiorano is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Psychoanalyst, with extensive training in Gestalt Therapy, also trained in Interactive Group Therapy and certified in Schema, EMDR and Imago Relationship Therapy. She integrates these modalities into her work with individuals, couples, and groups. She is committed to Gestalt theory, both in her professional work, and as a pathway to living a life that is filled with awareness, self-acceptance, and respect for others.

Susan Jurkowski

Director of Training, LCSW, LP, University of Pennslyvania

Susan Jurkowski is an adjunct faculty member in the Psychology Department at Brooklyn College. She has a background in feminist psychotherapy, and special interests and training in dreamwork and group work. She has studied Jungian as well as Gestalt approaches to dreams, completed extensive training in Embodied Dream Imagery with Jungian analyst Robert Bosnak, and has given numerous courses and conference presentations on dreamwork.

Jeffrey Allison

Clinic Director, LCSW, Hunter School of Social Work

Jeffrey Allison is a graduate of Gestalt Associates of Psychotherapy. He was drawn to Gestalt Psychotherapy because of its emphasis on healing and growth rather than pathology.

Jennifer Griesbach

Assistant Director of Training, LCSW-R, New York University

Jennifer Griesbach is a graduate of Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy. She went on to study Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy (DSP) and Child-Parent Somatic Psychotherapy at the Center for Somatic Studies with Ruella Frank, where she is part of the DSP teacher trainer program. She is also trained in EMDR and has a private practice in Manhattan. Jennifer has a special interest in working individually and in interpersonal gestalt groups with adults who were adopted as children. She is excited to share her love of gestalt theory and support the transformation of theory into practice in her teaching, and brings her background as a musician and meditator to the exploration of awareness and creativity in our lives.

Connie Newman

Coordinator of Supervision Groups, M.A., M.A. LMHC, LP, LCAT , New York University

Connie has been in private practice and has been a faculty member and supervisor at GAP since 1986.

Johanna Barrett

LCSW, ACSW, New York University

Johanna Barrett has been in the practice of psychotherapy for 33 years and is a graduate of the Gestalt Center. She has had numerous courses in the treatment of individuals, groups, couples and family therapy. She was in psychoanalytic supervision with Dr. Richard Robertiello for 24 years. “Gestalt Therapy has always gone beyond looking at just the cognitive, linear perspectives of the person. It demands of the therapist an awareness of the body and how it manifests the psyche, which to me, is one of the greatest contributions to the field of psychotherapy.”

Alan Cohen

MSW, LCSW, LP, ACSW, BCD, Washington University

Alan’s interest in Gestalt therapy coincides with his 55 years of meditation practice. He studied with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi over the course of four years, before beginning his post graduate training in Gestalt therapy. “I see the two approaches as complementing and supporting each other in their focus on awareness, the present moment, and acceptance of what is, as the basis of moving into the next moment.”

Jordan Dann

MFA, LP-D, CIRT, SEP, Boston University

Jordan Dann is a dynamic psychoanalyst, author, and speaker. Her training as a Gestalt therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, as well as her many years coaching and directing actors; has fostered her desire to help people become more relational, self-aware, free, and expressive. As a former theatre professor she has taught at NYU, Stella Adler, Boston University, and Colorado Mountain College. As a program designer and experience architect she created the Story Swap program for the Aspen Institute, a program using storytelling and creative writing to build empathy and understanding between diverse populations. She is the author of "SOMATIC THERAPY for Healing Trauma", co-author of "Experiential Therapies for Treating Trauma", and the creator of the "Relationship Transformation Course: The Art of Rupture and Repair". She is a nationally certified and NYS licensed psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City.

Justin Laird

PhD, LP, University of Texas at Austin, Baylor University

Justin Laird is a Certified Gestalt Therapist and is trained in Attachment-Focused EMDR through the Parnell Institute. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor with CUNY, at Brooklyn College and the School of Labor and Urban Studies. In teaching and training roles, he has facilitated conversations with small and large groups on self-compassion, burnout, vicarious trauma, mindfulness, cultural humility, implicit bias, micro-aggressions, and more.

Jim Mulry

LCSW, LP, ACSW, Fordham University

Jim is a graduate of the Gestalt Center for Psychotherapy and Training and was a therapist and a supervisor at the DeSisto Schools in Mass. and Fl. He also trained in gestalt therapy with Laura Perls for 3 years. He has been teaching and supervising therapists at the Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy for the past 40 years.

Todd Senzon

MA, LP-D, New York University

Todd Senzon is a graduate of Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy. Todd came to Gestalt Therapy through Harm Reduction drug counseling, specifically in grassroots work with unhoused young people in NYC. He brings his creativity as a visual artist and his presence as a yoga practitioner to his work with individuals, couples, and groups.

Richard Shrobe

LCSW, LP, ACSW, Hunter School of Social Work

Richard Shrobe graduated from the Gestalt Center for Psychotherapy and Training and did additional Gestalt training for two years with Laura Perls. He has been practicing since 1976 and worked in the drug rehabilitation field before entering private practice. He has also been a practitioner and teacher of Zen meditation. He is Zen Master in the Kwam Um School of Zen, at the Chogye International Zen Center of New York.

Patricia Tucker

LCSW, LP, Columbia University

Patricia Tucker, LCSW, LP, ACSW, Columbia University, is a graduate of Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy, former Director of Training at GAP, and former President of the International Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy. Patricia is also an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the NYU Silver School of Social Work.

Allan Whiteman

LCSW, LP, ACSW, BCD, Smith College

Allan began his training in Gestalt Therapy in 1972. He has also been a Zen student for 45 years, studied the Diamond Approach, a contemporary spiritual path, with A.H. Almaas for almost 30 years, and is an ordained teacher of the Diamond Approach. He also did long study in the therapeutic traditions of hypnotherapy with Stephen Gilligan and brief therapy. He helped begin a hospice program in one of the New York State prisons which is still operating.

Jack Worthy

MS, LMHC-D, Southern Methodist University; MA, Austin Seminary

Jack Worthy appeared in New York Magazine's Best Therapists in New York list in 2023 and 2021. His commentary has been featured in The Atlantic, GQ, Vogue, Cosmo, The Lily by Washington Post and more. In addition to Gestalt Therapy, Jack trained in the psychodynamic Control-Mastery Theory, as well as Ericksonian therapy and hypnotherapy. He writes Good News / Bad News on Substack.

Jennifer Byxbee

MPS, LCAT. ATR-BC, School of Visual Arts

Lina Jandorf

MHC, MA, State University of New York at Stonybrook

Evan Senreich

DSW, LCSW-R, CASAC, New York University

Faculty Emeritus

Jeremy Borer, LCSW-R
Ruella Frank, PhD, LMHC, LP
Susan Friedberg, LCSW, LP, ACSW, BCD
Neila Wyman, MSW

Faculty Posthumous Emeritus

John Mastro, LCSW (1945 - 2014)