Seattle Faculty

Svetlana Vasilyeva, M.D. (Russia), M.C. (Canada), RCC (she/her)
Director, Trainer

Svetlana is in private practice in Vancouver, Canada working with individuals and couples. She also co-teaches Gestalt therapy course at Vancouver College of Counsellor Training. Svetlana is trained in Gestalt therapy with GATLA since 2009. Certified as Gestalt therapist in 2015. Since 2016, Group Leader at GATLA Summer Residential Program. Since 2023, trainer at GATSEA. Her professional interests are in Gestalt group leadership, psychosomatics and psychopathology from Gestalt therapy perspective. She is a passionate skier, hiker and city-biker. Practicing Tai Chi since 2009. Svetlana identifies as white, cisgender and straight.

Kristen R Myers, PsyD, DrPH, LP (she/they)
Director, Trainer

Kristen is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, GATLA-certified gestalt psychotherapist and clinic site director. She completed doctorate degrees in Clinical Psychology (with a specialization in Health Psychology) and Public Health (with a specialization in Preventive Care) at Loma Linda University. Kristen has trained in and practiced Gestalt Therapy since 2005 and joined the faculty in 2016. She is passionate about self-acceptance, connection, interdependence and agency. She approaches her professional life and personal life with values for inherent growth and wholeness-orientation of all living beings. Also core for her are the importance of non-pathologizing, anti-oppression lenses and the importance of the impact of one’s developmental and current environment on well-being and health. She works with individuals, couples, families and groups. Experience includes working through trauma, grief and loss, eating disorders and attachment difficulties. Kristen identifies as white and queer.

Christina Cantwell, MA, LMHC (she/her)
Director, Group Leader

Christina is a licensed mental health counselor and gestalt psychotherapist, trained in and practicing gestalt therapy since 2010. She joined the GATSEA faculty in 2020. She specializes in working with trauma and the LGBTQIA and BIPOC communities. She focuses on growth, healing, and empowerment in her work. She is also trained in EMDR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and works from an anti-oppression stance. Christina is also adjunct faculty in the Online Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Seattle University. Christina identifies as a queer, multiracial, person of color.

Daniel Kelley-Petersen, M.A.Ed., LMHC, LPC, NCC (he/him/his)
Group Leader

Dan is a licensed mental health counselor in WA state and licensed professional counselor in the state of Arizona. Dan began his formal training in Gestalt Therapy as a second-year graduate student in 2014 and obtained his Certification in Gestalt Therapy in 2023 and continues his desire for learning and growth. Dan was honored when he was invited to join the Seattle Program Faculty in 2023. Dan is passionate about learning and expresses this passion through teaching, seminars, workshops, and salons in the region. Dan enjoys working with adults, couples, and groups through a social justice lens, taking a non-pathologizing and anti-oppression stance, and specializes in career counseling, working with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and grief. Dan identifies as white, cisgender, straight, and an ally.

Sarah Scott Dyrhaug, MA, LMHC (Washington) (she/her)
Group Leader

Sarah has studied with GATLA in Seattle and Europe since 2015 and joined the Seattle faculty as a group leader in 2023. She earned her counseling degree from the Leadership Institute of Seattle. Prior to her work in psychotherapy, Sarah co-founded the Portland-based Forgery Theater Co. (2008-2011) and studied devised theater with the Saratoga International Theater Institute (2012). That time spent studying present-moment awareness, collaboration, and people’s varying processes of meaning-making became the foundation for her current work as a gestalt therapist. Sarah is passionate about exploring the ways contemporary gestalt therapy can contribute to dismantling systems of oppression in individuals, families, and communities as well as how our organizations and practitioners must evolve in order to more fully embody the values on which gestalt is based. Sarah’s identities include white, straight, cisgender, and able-bodied. She works with adults (as individuals, in relationships, and in groups) in a private practice setting.

Pamela M Ganem, M.S. LPC, NCC (she/her)
Group Leader

Pamela identifies as a queer, cis, mixed woman of color who is obsessed with Gestalt Therapy. She is a licensed professional counselor working and living in Portland, OR, and is passionate about equity, teaching, and dismantling oppressive dynamics in all interactions. Pamela spends most of her time nurturing her ethical group practice, working with QT-BIPOC and non-monogamous clients, running Gestalt training groups, and teaching at Portland State University as an adjunct instructor. Pamela has been studying with GATLA in Seattle since 2015 and the European Residential since 2018, and she joined the Seattle faculty in 2024. As a person with multiple marginalized identities, Pamela fell for Gestalt Therapy when she learned about its radical roots. Since then, she has dedicated herself to making Gestalt teachings and principles both financially and emotionally accessible to all disenfranchised communities.