Edward W.L. Smith, Ph.D. is a "therapist's therapist" - a teacher, trainer, mentor and author - whose writings from 1972 - 2009, capture the essence of Gestalt therapy's contribution to psychotherapeutic practice - the embodied patient. From Freud and Reich, to Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, to Perls and Polster - projection and retroflection, contact boundary disturbances, awe and terror in insight and expression, the meaning of the person of the therapist, and working with the client's breathing and posture - the essays and articles in this book incorporate Gestalt theory, applications, history and philosophical roots, yet they never leave the consulting room. Students, trainees and seasoned therapists alike will find themselves stimulated and energized in their work with clients. After earning a B.A. degree in psychology from Drake University, and an M.S. in experimental psychology and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Kentucky, Edward W. L. Smith taught at Georgia State University and then pursued an18-year full-time independent practice of psychotherapy in Atlanta. Returning to academia, he was the founding Director of Clinical Training for the Psy.D. program at Georgia Southern University, where he is now professor emeritus.Edward is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Clinical Psychology, and the Georgia Psychological Association. He has been an international workshop leader for nearly 40 years. He holds the certificate of the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) and was an early member of the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology. His books include The Growing Edge of Gestalt Therapy (Ed.), The Body in Psychotherapy, Sexual Aliveness: A Reichian Gestalt Perspective, Not Just Pumping Iron: On the Psychology of Lifting Weights, Gestalt Voices (Ed.), Touch in Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice (Co-ed. with Pauline Clance & Suzanne Imes), and The Person of the Therapist. Edward pursues jazz with a tenor saxophone as an erotic balance to his logos-heavy professional writing. The poetry Muses sometimes beckon him, as well.
