1.Row seated: Albert Ellis, Ph.D; Alexander Lowen,M.D.; Viktor Frankl,M.D.,Ph.D.; William Masters,M.D.; Cloe Mandanes,Lic. Psych; Thomas Szasz,M.D.; Aaron Beck,M.D.
2.Row seated: Joseph Wolpe, M.D.; Mary Goulding,M.S.W.; Irvin Yalom,M.D.; Mara S. Palazzoli,M.D.; James Masterson,M.D.; Salvador Minuchin,M.D.; Judd Marmor,M.D.
3.Row standing: Adolf E. Meyer, M.D.,Ph.D.; Bernd Trenkle,Dipl.,Psych.; Helm Stierlin,M.D.,Ph.D.; James Hillmann,Ph.D.; William Glasser,M.D.; Donald Meichenhaum,Ph.D.; Nossrat Peseschkian,M.D.,Ph.D.; Klaus Grawe,Ph.D.; Arnold Lazarus,Ph.D; Jay Haley,M.A.
Our Roots
We’re proud of our heritage and draw on the wisdom of our founders and all those who have contributed to the development of Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy over the years.
Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy is a psychotherapeutic method developed in Germany in the '70s by Prof. Dr. Nossrat Peseschkian and co-workers. It was inspired by Prof. Dr Peseschkian’s quest for an integrative method (between Psychoanalysis and Behavioural Therapy) and personal encounters with prominent psychotherapists and psychiatrists, such as Viktor Frankl, Jacob L. Moreno, Heinrich Meng, Raymond Battegay, Gaetano Benedetti. The development of this concept of Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy involved the investigation of the relationship between culture/social perception and illness and the initial research involved 22 different cultural groups.
The term “positive” is derived from the original Latin expression “positum or positivus” which means the actual, the real, the concrete. Disorders and conflicts are not the only things real, factual, the client also holds the capacity to deal with the conflicts.
The aim of Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy is to help the clients discover their abilities, strengths, resources and potential and how to efficiently use them.
Founder
Prof. Dr. Nossrat Peseschkian (1933-2010) was a University professor specialised in neurology, psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine. He was born in Iran and moved to Germany in 1954. He received his psychotherapeutic training in Germany, Switzerland and the United States.
Prof. Peseschkian is the founder and former director of the Wiesbaden Academy for Psychotherapy and the director of the International Academy of Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy – Peseschkian Foundation.
Prof. Dr Peseschkian was an international lecturer and reader at the Academy for Higher Medical Education of the State Medical Chamber of Hesse, Germany.
In 1997 he was awarded one of the highest awards of quality assurance in the medical field in Europe, the Richard Mertens Prize for his work “Computer-Assisted Quality Assurance in Positive Psychotherapy”,
In January 2006, Prof. Dr. Nossrat Peseschkian received the Order of Merit, Distinguished Service Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz).
Prof. Dr. Nossrat Peseschkian is the author of numerous books on psychotherapy out of which 26 books on Positive Psychotherapy have been published in 24 languages.