Steve Bearman, Ph.D. is the founder of the Interchange Counseling Institute, and a counselor, social justice educator, and workshop leader residing in San Francisco. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he also received an MS in Social Psychology. He has published articles on internalized sexism, male sexual conditioning, mentoring, and the philosophy of psychology. He receieved his BA in Individual Transformation and Social Change from Hampshire College.
Steve has been teaching in the Bay Area and throughout the country for the last 20 years. In addition to teaching counseling skills classes, he has led workshops in the areas of community building, relationships, ending jealousy, overcoming anxiety, gender role conditioning, healing body shame, death and grieving, spiritual practice, and group facilitation. He was a teacher for the Re-evaluation Counseling Community and was counseling faculty at the Omega Insititute for Holistic Studies, where he trained support group leaders and peer counselors, led men's groups, and taught classes in ending suffering and holistic sexuality, and at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where he taught counseling skills to health coaches.
In his secret life as a researcher, Steve created and runs Psychsurveys, a free website that thousands of social science researchers use to conduct survey research on the web. He is part of a research team at the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), in conjunction with UC Santa Cruz, working to find out how to best support students from underrepresented minorities to succeed in the sciences. His dissertation research involved seeding contagious behaviors into high schools to reduce racial segregation. He has also studied the ways in which internalized sexism pervades everyday dialogue between women and the use (or lack thereof) of anti-oppression practices amongst therapists.
Steve counsels a number of people in San Francisco, helping his clients to heal old hurts, to overcome emotional obstacles, to recover meaning and passion, to create healthy relationships and support structures, and to realize their unique and extraordinary capacities.
Ashley Aron Craig is the Media Director and Community Coordinator for Interchange Counseling Institute. As a multi-media documentarian and academic researcher, she has interviewed over two thousand people, counseling them all the while, as well as training students in documentary and interview techniques. She currently incorporates filmmaking into her work with Interchange by creating all of the media on the Interchange website, and filming weekly video blogs with Steve. She brings a strong social justice, anthropological perspective into her counseling relationships, as well as a deep mindfulness practice, and trust that there really are no problems that cannot be healed, transformed, and viewed from a more holistic, empowered point of view. Ashley is a two-time Interchange graduate and has been on the leadership team since 2011.
Keri Syndulko, MA, is a Marriage and Family Therapist working in private practice in both San Francisco and San Rafael with couples and individuals specializing in intimacy, sexuality, and helping her clients develop the capacity for secure emotional bonds. Her approach combines over 10 years of mindfulness practice and somatics with techniques such as EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy). Her teaching and performance experience in improvisational dance inform her therapeutic and leadership style. Keri graduated with the first Interchange class in 2003 and has been on the leadership team since 2010.
Karim Bishay is originally from Egypt and currently resides in Oakland, CA. He obtained his MTS degree with highest honors in Pastoral Counseling and his MBA in Nonprofit Management from Boston University. Karim founded his own business in Egypt, which he now uses to establish a social enterprise helping provide water to underserved communities in Egypt. He also founded and ran BetterMeans, a startup focused on providing enterprises with democratic, non-hierarchical organizational structures. He is currently a counselor and facilitator, and has been on the leadership team since 2011.
Marielle Amrhein is an educator, activist, and counselor who embraces life full on with energy, compassion and love. In addition to her MA in international educational development: peace and justice education, she has certifications in massage therapy, yoga, and theater of the oppressed. Since 2003, she has been working with women, youth, people of color, lgbt folks and other underserved communities at CounterPULSE (SF), Global Kids (NYC), the American India Foundation (India), and throughout the world. Marielle is the founder of Activate, an organization which supports the development of young female leaders from marginalized communities in the US. Marielle is a 2007 Interchange graduate. She has been on the leadership team since 2011.
Greg Callahan is a senior program manager and team lead for Philips Healthcare. Greg draws from more than two decades of leadership experience, intensive inquiry into the nature of the self, embodiment, and relationships. His study of mind, nature, and spirituality spans a degree in cognitive neuroscience, a meditation practice which has included 1 and 5-month vipassana retreats, and course leadership at Headwaters Outdoor School. His practice in health, fitness, and nutrition includes 5 years of intensive martial arts training in Qigong, Tai Chi, and a black belt in Ninjitsu. Greg's had a 22 year career in business and IT management and he spent 6 years as a semi-professional musician with 15 years of formal percussion and vocal training. Greg brings highly developed capacities in the areas of empathy and embodiment to his work as a counselor. He is a two-time Interchange graduate from 2008 and 2010.
Daniela Koenig, MA, is a Marriage and Family Therapist Intern at the Marina Counseling Center in San Francisco working with individuals and couples. She is passionate about supporting her clients to get unstuck, live the life they want, and enjoy authentic relationships. She incorporates somatic and experimental approaches in her work as well as AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy). Daniela's international upbringing, awareness of different cultures, and multiracial experience informs her counseling and facilitation. Daniela is a 2012 Interchange graduate. You can learn more about her at www.danielakoenig.com.
Troy Dayton is a 2012 graduate of Interchange with his own life counseling practice. Troy is an Admissions Counselor for Interchange as well as the co-author, along with Steve Bearman, of two widely read Interchange blog posts about personal growth and Burning Man. He also blogs at Burner Love. He is the co-founder of Burner Map, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Open Mic Meditation (Bay Area edition), CEO at The ArcView Group, former director of development at MAPS, and formerly part of the founding team at Renewable Choice Energy. You can learn more about Troy at www.troydayton.com.
Leaf Tine, a Sacramento resident, is a life coach, creative counselor, expressive arts educator, and interdisciplinary artist. A 2012 Interchange graduate, he also holds an MFA in digital art + new media. He studied Re-evaluation Counseling in 2003, and began life coaching in 2002 while co-teaching a muralism program for at-risk teens. His unorthodox work in the fields of education, art, and counseling is based on the premise that there exists in each of us an underlying love (for ourselves, for one another, and for the planet) that yearns for expression. Intentionally inviting this "open secret" into the structure of a class, workshop, or session is often all it takes to make it so. You can find out more about Leaf at http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/112333.
William Winters is an organizer and activist based in Oakland, California. Originally from New Iberia, Louisiana, he is currently a senior campaigner at Change.org. William is a 2012 Interchange graduate.
Bernard Zylberberg is a 2012 Interchange graduate. When he's not counseling his IT clients through their computer woes, he can be found facilitating men's groups or mentoring teenagers.
