Board of Trustees
The trustees are elected from the membership and carry legal responsibility for the charity. Between them they represent most of the traditions that make up existential therapy in Europe: Daseinsanalysis, existential analysis and logotherapy, the British existential-phenomenological school, and the existential-humanistic approaches.
- 11trustees
- 7countries of practice
- 2015founded in London
- 1175907registered charity, England & Wales
Officers
The named posts set out in the constitution.
Claire Arnold-Baker
ChairNew School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London
Existential psychotherapist and chartered counselling psychologist. She is Principal of NSPC and course leader of its doctorate in counselling psychology, run with Middlesex University, and has trained practitioners for over twenty years. Her research concerns motherhood; she edited The Existential Crisis of Motherhood and co-authored Existential Therapy: Distinctive Features.
Nancy Hakim Dowek
Chair ElectNew School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London
Existential psychotherapist in private practice in London and course leader of the professional doctorate at NSPC. Her doctoral research followed the lived experience of the bi-rooted migrant, and she continues to write on identity, belonging and transition. She has worked for many years alongside cancer patients and their families.
Anna Kourtis
Honorary SecretaryGignesthai, the Hellenic Association for Existential Psychology, Athens
Counselling psychologist and existential therapist, licensed to practise in both Greece and the United Kingdom. She trained in existential counselling psychology in London and has worked with the Athens existential community since. Chartered psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a trustee of FETE since 2023.
Ania Capaldo
Honorary TreasurerNew School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, and the Existential Academy, London
Counselling psychologist, accredited psychotherapist and EMDR therapist. Her doctoral research followed the experience of witnessing the death of someone close, and she works with terminal illness, bereavement and complex loss alongside hospices and a low-cost clinic. She came to therapy after a career in business and holds an executive MBA.
Irina Smyshlyayeva
Registrar
Psychotherapist of addictive behavior, Member of the European Federation of Existential Therapists
Trustees
Listed alphabetically by surname.
Gianfranco Buffardi
TrusteeIstituto di Scienze Umane ed Esistenziali and Scuola di Psicoterapia neoEsistenziale, Naples
Psychiatrist, existential therapist and professor of psychotherapy, with degrees in medicine and philosophy and a doctorate in bioethics. He formerly directed a mental health unit in the Caserta health authority. He presides over ISUE and directs SPEs, the neo-existential training school recognised by the Italian ministry, and has written or edited more than a hundred works.
Yaryna Kaplunenko
TrusteeG. S. Kostiuk Institute of Psychology, Kyiv
Psychologist, trainer and supervisor certified by GLE-International in existential analysis and logotherapy. She is a senior researcher at the Kostiuk Institute of Psychology and lectures at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Her recent work studies existential fulfilment and resilience among Ukrainians living through the war.
Ingeborg Künz
TrusteeSociety for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis, Austria
Psychotherapist in existential analysis, registered with GLE Austria and in practice in Vorarlberg. Her particular interest is what existential analysis has to say about work and organisational life, a subject she has written on with Alfried Längle. She also trains and consults through her own practice.
Anna Lelyk
TrusteeExistential School, Ukraine
Existential psychotherapist and counsellor in private practice. In 2022 she founded the Existential School in Ukraine, which opens the existential perspective to psychologists, philosophers and anyone who wants to look at their own life more closely. She has run a cinema club exploring existential themes through film since 2016 and has published several books.
Gideon Menda
TrusteeKibbutzim College, Tel Aviv
Existential psychotherapist, supervisor and lecturer, a founding member of FETE and its immediate past Chair. He founded and heads the postgraduate programme in existential psychotherapy and counselling at Kibbutzim College, and co-founded the Israeli Multi-Disciplinary Association for Psychotherapy. He holds a doctorate from NSPC and Middlesex University and runs a private practice.
Semyon Yesselson
TrusteeInternational Institute of Existential Consultancy
Philosopher, conflictologist and existential therapist. He founded the International Institute of Existential Consultancy in 1999 and still leads it, and he edits the journal Existential Tradition: Philosophy, Psychology, Psychotherapy. He leads the existential modality within his national EAP umbrella body and is honorary president of its association of existential counsellors and therapists.
Trustees are elected by the membership at the Annual General Meeting. The names recorded with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, charity number 1175907, are the authoritative record.
