Dr. Pat Omidian -
USA
Dr. Pat Omidian is a medical anthropologist with a passion for empowering individuals and communities to heal and grow. She has collaborated with groups worldwide to create community-led wellness programs and manuals that were created by these communities in their own languages. Her work has reached individuals and organizations in over 30 countries, touching lives across five continents. Her sessions cover Community Wellness, Focusing in Community, Psychosocial Support, Self-Care, and Psychological First Aid.
Dr. Banu İbaoğlu Vaughn – Türkiye
Dr. Banu İbaoğlu Vaughn, PhD, LPC is a psychologist and seasoned psychotherapist specializing in dialogical and community-based interventions alongside her clinical practice. Her professional experience spans multiple cultural contexts, including extensive disaster response in Turkey’s earthquake-affected regions and clinical and community work in the U.S., Turkey, and parts of Europe.
Charlotte Faris – USA
Charlotte Faris holds a MA from the Education and Rehabilitation Department at the University of Arizona. She is a Certified Focusing Professional, Somatic Practitioner , Licensed Massage Therapist, and Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach. As an educator and wellness provider, she has over 20 years of experience guiding individuals, groups, and communities along pathways to well-being.
Francesco Spada – Italy
Francesco Spada is a Certified Focusing Professional and Community Wellness Focusing Trainer. He is also an environmental physicist, group facilitator, and trainer specializing in nonviolent conflict resolution and gender equality. He enjoys leading experiential workshops, incorporating creative methodologies, such as role-playing, board games, and Theatre of the Oppressed, into his training.
Hope Maltz – USA
Hope Maltz is a trauma survivor and Certified Focusing Professional dedicated to fostering resilience and healing in individuals and communities. She integrates Psychological First Aid to support communities recovering from disasters and finds profound healing through Inner Relationship Focusing and Untangling. These approaches offer a compassionate framework for navigating inner dynamics, fostering peace and wholeness after feeling stuck.
Mahek Shah – Pakistan
Mahek Shah is a Psychologist and trauma specialist with a master’s in research psychology from Northumbria University, dedicated to supporting individual and family healing. Certified in CBT, DBT, NLP, and Focusing, she integrate trauma-informed and evidence-based approaches into therapy, coaching, and community interventions.
Mano Krach – Germany
Mano Krach is a Certified Focusing Professional and has been actively involved in self-organized social and political communities for over two decades. Their work has primarily focused on addressing police violence, incarceration, and social discrimination. A key aspect of this engagement involved organizing legal rights workshops, providing support, and building psychosocial support structures.
Wajid Syed – Pakistan
Wajid Syed is a Focusing trainer and has been active in teaching psychosocial wellness and Focusing in refugee camps and with aid agencies in western Pakistan since 2006. He adapts what he learns to local cultures and looks for ways to expand programming. He worked with UNWomen for a number of years as a trainer and social worker. He now oversees a education program for working children in Peshawar Pakistan called Brighter Tomorrow.
Maliha Khawajazada - Afghanistan
Maliha Khowajazada is a dedicated community health advocate with a background in psychology and education. She trained in PSS and Community Wellness Focusing (CWF), becoming a Certifying Coordinator after mentoring eight students from Kabul University and training more than 700 community health teachers across the provinces of Kabul, Parwan, and Kapisa.
Now living as a refugee outside Afghanistan, she remains committed to supporting vulnerable communities and continues to pursue her lifelong mission of education, community wellness, mental health, and social change.
Abdul Wahab Wasiq - Afghanistan
Abdul Wahab Wasiq is a dedicated community wellness advocate with a background in psychology and education. He trained over 700 teachers in Community Wellness Focusing across Afghanistan, equipping them with psychosocial support skills. As a trainer with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC/Quakers), he worked on peace education and trauma healing. He also supported women’s rights and girls’ education, creating university entrance exam prep classes for village girls and fostering cross-cultural student exchanges. Though forced to stop group work after the Taliban takeover in 2021, he remains committed to community wellness, continuing his efforts to support vulnerable populations.
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