Core Faculty

Todd Burley, Ph.D., ABPP, trains Gestalt Therapists in the U.S. as well as internationally and is on the Graduate Faculty in Psychology at Loma Linda University where he teaches courses in Gestalt Therapy, Neuropsycho-logical Assessment, Treatment and Research in Schizophrenia, as well as team-teaches Cognitive Psychology and Cortical Functions. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Gestalt Review. His publications and presentations have included such issues as insight and awareness in Gestalt Therapy, clinical judgment in test interpretation, implications of current psychological research in psychology for the practice of Gestalt Therapy, contemporary Gestalt theory of personality, the development of character structure from a Gestalt cognitive perspective (with Kiti Freier), field theory, and the analysis of various personality disorders based upon the disruption of the gestalt formation/destruction process. His keen ability to observe, capacity for clinically sensitive intervention and dedication to keeping Gestalt therapy on the developing edge of psychological science characterize and inform his teaching and research consultation.
Email: toddburley@gatla.org.

Rita Resnick, Ph.D., has been Faculty Chair of GATLA's European Summer Residential Training Program since 1991 and a faculty member since 1986. In addition to her private practice, Rita is actively training psychotherapists in the United States, Australia and Europe in both Gestalt and Couples Therapy. Her professional interests include the exploration of innovative and supportive approaches to supervision (Rita has published an article with Liv Estrup, M.A. "Supervision: A Collaborative Endeavor" in the Summer 2000 issue of the Gestalt Review) and a devoted, passionate (and self serving) interest in the area of women growing older - menopause and mid-life vitality. Rita and Liv also teach supervision courses for the Los Angeles department of Mental Health several times per year. An interview on Contemporary Gestalt Therapy with Rita and Robert Resnick has been published in the Tidskrift For Norsk Psykologforening – the Norwegian Journal for Psychologists. Rita is known for her warmth, perceptiveness and her ability to clearly relate clinical work to theory. FYI: The Resnick's are frequently happily married.
Email: ritaresnick@gatla.org.

Robert W. Resnick, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, has been a Gestalt and Couples Therapist for almost 45 years and an international Gestalt Therapy and Couples Therapy trainer for almost 45 years and an international trainer for almost 40 years. Trained (1965-1970) and personally certified (1969) by Drs. Fritz Perls and Jim Simkin, he is probably the youngest of the "old timers". Proudly, Dr. Resnick was chosen by Fritz Perls (and invited by Nels In de Vid from Holland) to be the first Gestalt Therapist to introduce Gestalt and Couples training workshops in Europe in the summer of 1969 where he presented both a lecture and a training workshop. He has been presenting Gestalt and Couples training workshops in Europe continually since that time. His interview "Gestalt Therapy: Principles Prisms and Perspectives" defining his views of Gestalt Therapy at that time, appears in the summer 1995 issue of the British Gestalt Journal. "The Recursive Loop of Shame" appears in the Gestalt Review 1997. "Chicken Soup Is Poison" (Perls Festschrift) circa 1967. He is currently developing a series of contemporary Gestalt Therapy and Couples Therapy video demonstration and training tapes. His first clinical practicum (while moonlighting as a Columbia University graduate student) was driving a New York taxicab. And yes, the Resnick's are frequently happily married.
Email: bobresnick@gatla.org.