Dr. Billy Desmond
PhD, MBA, MSc, Dip Gestalt, Dip Supervision, PG Cert Research Supervision
Billy lives between London and the rural west coast of Ireland. He is a registered UKCP, IAHIP Gestalt psychotherapist and supervisor. As a working-class cis gender queer white Irish(e)migrant he has a particular ability and interest in building collaborative partnerships transculturally and transdisciplinary.
His passion for collaborative, embodied and disruptive forms of researching has been driven by his personal and professional experience of exiling and marginalisation, areas he is now particularly focused on addressing. He is an embodied practitioner-researcher and dialogical educator with a particular interest in groups and embodied ways of knowing.
His recent PhD qualitative research focused on aesthetic forms of knowing in groups situated in disturbing fields. He is Director of the Gestalt Institute of Ireland, guest faculty at different Gestalt training institutes internationally, and a certified trainer of Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy. He is on the editorial board of the Gestalt Book Series and the Gestalt Review journal.
He has published journal papers andbook chapters on group work, experiential ways of knowing, sustainability, spirituality,homophobia, working with gay men; and co-authored a book introductionto Gestalt (Sage, 2013). He presents regularly at international conferences.
Contact:
billy.desmond@gestaltinstitute.ie
Mobile:
+353 83 4123447
Lisa M. Diamond
Professor
Lisa M. Diamond is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies at the University of Utah, and past-president of the International Academy for Sex Research. She received her Ph.D. in Human Development from Cornell University in 1999, and has spent nearly 3 decades studying the development and expression of gender and sexuality across the life course. Her current work focuses on social safety (unconditional social connection, protection, and belonging) as a primary driver of health and well-being among sexually-diverse and gender-diverse (i.e., LGBTQ+) individuals across the lifespan.
Dr. Diamond is also well-known for her pioneering research on sexual fluidity, which describes the capacity for individuals to experience unexpected shifts in sexual identity and expression over time. Her 2008 book, Sexual Fluidity, published by Harvard University Press, has been awarded the Distinguished Book Award from the American Psychological Association’s Society for the Study of LGBTQ Issues. Dr. Diamond is also co-editor of the first-ever APAHandbook of Sexuality and Psychology, published in 2014, and is a fellow of two divisions of the APA. She has published over 150 articles and book chapters, and has been invited to present her research at over 200 national and international Universities and conferences. Her 2019 Ted Talk has been viewed over 700,000 times.
Dr. Diamond has received awards for her work from the Developmental Psychology and LGBT Psychology Divisions of the APA, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the International Association for Relationship Research, the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the W.T. Grant Foundation, the Templeton Foundation, the American Psychological Foundation, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, and the Huntsman Mental Health Institute.
Vikram Kolmannskog
Professor
Norwegian Gestalt Institute
Writer – Therapist – Scholar
Vikram Kolmannskog (he/him) is a professor at the Norwegian Gestalt Institute and a gestalt therapist and supervisor in private practice. He has been interested in the topic of gender, sex and relationship diversity as a trainer, therapist and researcher. He is the author of several papers and books, including The Empty Chair: Tales from Gestalt Therapy, and is co-editor of Queering Gestalt Therapy. More at Vikram.no
Contact:
Vikram.no
