Hlavní řečníci

WALES, UK

Dr Elizabeth Coombes has been a music therapist for 25 years, with experience prior to this in making music with a range of client groups in the community.  She is a Bonny GIM therapist as well being trained in NICU work.  She is currently course director of the MA Music Therapy training course at the University of South Wales in the UK. She works primarily in the field of children, young people and families as well as having a deep interest in the identity and practice of music therapist in the twenty first century. She has published widely on a range of music therapy topics including neonatal care, autism, liminal spaces, pedagogy and displaced persons and refugees.  She is currently working on a mixed methods co-produced music therapy research project involving displaced mothers and pre-school children to understand the potential benefits of this intervention for them.  

UNITED KINGDOM

BA Fine Arts (Sculpture), Diploma Group Psychotherapy, MA Art Therapy, MA Organisational Consultancy, PhD in Psychology  Val qualified as an Art Therapist in 1986. She later trained as a Group Psychotherapist and Organisational Consultant and completed a PhD on art therapy groups for work-related stress. Currently, she is involved in several research projects, including a Randomized Control Trial on Arts Therapies Groups for people with mixed diagnoses and a pilot of online art therapy groups for people with chronic pain.  Val was the Chief Executive Officer of the British Association of Art Therapists from 2003 to 2021.  She is co-director of the Oxford College of Arts & Therapies, an online training organisation.  She is Visiting Professor on the MA in Art Therapy at the University of Hertfordshire and on the MSc in Art Psychotherapy  at Ulster University. She is the Honorary President of the International Association for Creative Arts in Education and Therapies (IACAET) and  Trustee of the Adamson Collection Trust.   Val works closely with arts in health organisation as a freelance researcher and lectures internationally.   She has been a lifelong passionate advocate of art therapy and continues to share her enthusiasm and passion for her profession.  

UNITED KINGDOM

Dr Giorgos Tsiris qualified as a music therapist in London and since 2009 he has worked in diverse palliative and end-of-life care contexts. In collaboration with arts and community partners, he has led award-winning death education and health promotion initiatives to demystify death, dying and loss. Giorgos is the founding editor of Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy and co-chaired the 12th European Music Therapy Congress. His work has been published widely to include the special interdisciplinary edition on “Exploring the Spiritual in Music” as well as books on service evaluation and research ethics for arts therapists and arts in health practitioners. Giorgos currently serves as Director of Education, Research and Creative Arts at St Columba’s Hospice Care, and Senior Lecturer in Music Therapy at Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, UK. 

HONG KONG

Ms. Vivian Chan, BFA(Hons), MMT, MT-BC, MTA, FAMI is a board-certified music therapist in the United States and Canada. She specialises in music psychotherapy and trauma-informed care and has extensive experience working with children, adolescents, and adults. She offers music therapy and music psychotherapy services to individuals facing mental health challenges and other life-altering conditions. As a qualified Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music therapist, Vivian is passionate about helping clients explore their emotions, their inner self and the unconscious to develop coping mechanisms, and enhance their journey of personal development and overall well-being through the potential benefits music can bring. Vivian also teaches and supervises music therapy internship at Chulalongkorn University and has presented at various international conferences in Asia, North America, South America, Europe, and Australia. She also guest lectured at the University of Hong Kong and at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She served as the Regional Liaison for the Western Pacific Region of the World Federation of Music Therapy (WFMT) (2016-2020), as the Chair of the Education and Certification Commission of the WFMT (2020-2023), and is currently the President of the WFMT. Additionally, she serves as a member of the Ethics Committee of the Hong Kong Music Therapy Association (HKMTA), and is the Director of Koru Music Psychotherapy and Wellness.

CZECH REPUBLIC

PaedDr.  Mgr. Marie Beníčková, Ph.D., DT is a certified music therapist, supervisor, music and university educator, flutist and soprano, musicologist, and special education teacher. She is the author and co-author of several research-validated music therapy methods and methodologies: "Music Therapy Intervention Methodology for Children with Specific Learning Disabilities," the "Interventional Music Therapy" method, and the "Psychosomatic Music Therapy" method. She has authored books such as "Music Therapy and Specific Learning Disabilities" (Grada, 2011), "Music Therapy and Education" (Grada, 2017) and co-authored the book "Possibilities of Using Music Therapy in Working with Special Elementary School Students." Her scientific and research work is grounded in her activities at universities in both the Czech Republic and abroad.  She is the co-founder and director of the therapeutic school Akademie Alternativa s.r.o., as well as the co-founder of the Teva Center (CZ) and Teva Center (SK) – an international network of centers for personal and professional development. She serves as the head of the working group of the National Qualification Framework (NSP) for the establishment of the music therapist and art therapist professions in the Czech Republic. Additionally, she represents the Czech Republic (MAUT) in the WFMT (World Federation of Music Therapy) and is the president of MAUT – the International Association of Art Therapies.  With over 30 years of experience, she has been engaged in music therapy and music education in various forms. She holds two doctoral degrees: the first, a Ph.D. in music therapy (2006) with a dissertation focused on helping children with specific learning and behavioral disorders through music therapy, and the second, awarded in 2024, with a rigorous thesis addressing issues in the high school environment. She is a graduate of a five-year experiential and professional music therapy training in the Werbeck method – the School of Uncovering the Voice. Her Psychosomatic Music Therapy method is applied in practice across all age groups, focusing on a comprehensive approach within the bio-psycho-social-spiritual paradigm.  She regularly lectures to both lay and professional audiences and prepares certified therapists in the field of art therapies for practical work. She also collaborates with radio and television. 

SPAIN

Sibylle Cseri is a practicing art therapist with + 20 years of work experience. Throughout these years she has been developing this pioneer profession in Spain in collaboration with numerous institutions, particularly within the mental health sector.  Sibylle is also an accredited clinical supervisor and lecturer. She collaborates with Metáfora; art therapy and contemporary art training institute in Barcelona, has been a long time collaborator with the Master’s of Art Therapy at the Kunstakademie Weissensee in Berlin, Germany and is invited frequently internationally as guest lecturer.  Sibylle is co-founder and member of the Spanish Association of Art Therapists (ATE), co-founder and member of the Spanish Federation of Art Therapy (FEAPA) and co-founder and member of the European Federation of Art Therapy. 
For further information: www.sibyllecseri.com 

MEXICO / GERMANY

Samuel Gracida, MA, MT, is a music therapist, multi-instrumentalist, business owner and consultant with clinical experience with diverse populations in Germany, Colombia, Mexico, and the USA. As a current music therapist and active musician in Germany, and past member of the Executive Committee of the International Association for Music and Medicine, he is deeply committed to supporting the use of music therapy and music globally to promote harmony and healing to all those who need it.   He is currently serving geriatric and displaced populations and is co-editor of an upcoming book on Music Therapy and Displaced Persons. Additionally, he is member of the Commission on Training of the Mexican Music Therapy Association and past member of the Publications Commission of the World Federation of Music Therapy.  Samuel is also founder of Bida Digital, a communications solutions company supporting professionals and organizations that lie at the intersection of music and health through services such as website development, marketing, communications, and event management. 

GERMANY

Dance therapist M.A, BTD, BTA, ECP, team and individual supervisor, special needs teacher, author of eight books and numerous articles, advanced training in family and couples therapy, certified Kestenberg Movement Profiler (KMP), she served many years as a BTD board member, from 2010-2015 she was program director of the dance therapy training in Beijing, China. In her more than 40 years of dance therapy work, she has worked in almost all special educational and psychiatric fields.  She founded EZETTHERA in 1985, held teaching positions at the University of Cologne and Riga (Latvia), worked in private practice and for 4 years in the neurology department at the Asklepios Clinic in Bad Tölz and was head of the dance therapy training of the EZETTHERA from 1986-2020. In 2007, 2010 and 2017 she organized the International Congress on Movement Analysis in Therapy, Education and Research “Moving from Within”. 

NORWAY

Dr. Mimmu Rankanen is a professor of art therapy at the Department of Art, Design and Drama of Oslo Metropolitan University. She conducted postdoctoral research at Aalto University and at the University of the Arts Helsinki. Her doctoral research (2016) focused on how client’s experience the process and impacts of art therapy. Currently, her research interests include embodied views on art therapy process and mechanisms of change in art therapy. She is the Chair of the Research Committee of European Federation of Art Therapy.  She has extensive experience of teaching art therapy at the university level and she has presented her research at numerous international conferences in addition to multiple invited lectures. She has published multiple scientific articles and book chapters and co-authored a book about principles of art therapy.   Mimmu Rankanen is a state authorized psychotherapist, psychotherapy educator and supervisor, who has education both in cognitive analytic psychotherapy and art therapy in Finland. By the side of her academic work in Norway she is continuing her clinical work at private practice in Finland. She is doing long term clinical art therapy with adults suffering from various mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, personality disorders and bipolar disorder. 

GERMANY

Hanna Nöthig has been actively working in various fields of Art Therapy for over 20 years. She successfully completed her diploma course in Art Therapy at the University ‘Berlin Weißensee’, which has a depth-psychological orientation in the art-therapeutic understanding. Additional further training, such as psycho-oncology (WPO), and certified grief counseling (A.i.a.) and supervisor in art therapy (Berlin Weißensee) followed, corresponding to her clinical fields of work at the University Medical Center Freiburg, such as ‘Project Tiger Heart’ (children of oncologically ill parents) and Art Therapy for oncologically ill adults. Regular exhibitions followed to enable a certain amount of publicity about the taboo subject of cancer. She also worked in Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychiatry at the University Medical Centre Freiburg and is currently working again in the psychosomatic department of a clinic. For over 10 years, she also runs the Jacobi5 Studio, where she offers Art Therapy Grief Counseling for children, adolescents and adults, in cooperation with ‘Alles ist anders’ (association for child and adolescent grief) and TrauerLebenFreiburg (grief of young adults). In the SweetPowerPainting group, she works in annual groups with former cancer patients. As a docent in art therapy at various universities, she gives lectures/ seminars/ workshops on art therapy at both national and international level. Her university degree in painting (Basel, Switzerland) and stage design (London, U.K.) is an important part of her early biography as an artist in work as a painter and in the theater, as a stage designer, where she worked at home and abroad. Many years of further training in mindfulness-based therapy methods: transpersonal bodywork, yoga and meditation allow her a further level of understanding of the human being in therapy.