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Advanced Trainers

Felicia Carroll
Valente Headshot 2.jpeg

Felicia Carroll, MEd, MA, LMFT, RPT-S

Program Director

Felicia Carroll has studied and been a training co-leader and colleague with Violet Oaklander, Ph.D. for more than 40 years. She has been recognized for her work with children and adolescents as a keynote speaker and presenter at conferences on Gestalt Therapy. She is published in several books and articles on child psychotherapy and teaches internationally at major post-graduate Gestalt institutes. Since 1991, Felicia has conducted on-going training programs in Gestalt Therapy with children as well as supervision of trainees and licensed clinicians. Prior to her clinical practice, Felicia was a classroom teacher for twelve years and a social studies curriculum supervisor. She has two master’s degrees, one in educational psychology from the University of Oklahoma, the other in early childhood education and counseling psychology from the University of California Santa Barbara. In addition to offering training programs, she also teaches university classes at local graduate programs as adjunct faculty. Felicia is the Founder, Program Director and Advanced Trainer at the West Coast Institute for Gestalt Therapy with Children and Adolescents.

Valente Orozco, LCSW, RPT-S, PPS

Felicia & Violet 2004

Felicia & Violet 2004

Felicia, Violet & Valente

Felicia, Violet & Valente

Administrative Director

Valente currently works in private practice in Fresno, California, and offers training, supervision, and consultation in Gestalt Therapy with Adults, Children, and Adolescents. Mr. Orozco is also an adjunct faculty member at California State University Fresno, where he teaches courses in the Child and Family Science department. He has worked with children in a variety of settings, including school-based mental health, child welfare, and outpatient mental health. Valente served as the 2015 President of the Central Valley Chapter of the California Association for Play Therapy. He is certified by the Pacific Gestalt Institute (PGI) in Los Angeles, where he is also an Adjunct Faculty member. He is a Certified Gestalt Therapist with Children and Adolescents through The West Coast Institute for Gestalt Therapy with Children and Adolescents, where he serves as the Administrative Director. Valente has given presentations at national conferences and workshops and has been an international trainer in Mexico and S. Korea. 

Core Faculty

Denise Richman, MS, LMFT

Denise Richman, MS, LMFT

Denise has expertise in somatic movements and dramatic therapies as a clinician and also with business management outreach and program development. She is also an early childhood specialist birth to five years. She is a frequent presenter at Fox Studios child development center. She developed and presented the workshop fostering creativity in young children for parents who work at the studio. She is in private practice and is a workshop facilitator and guest lecturer. Denise has recently been an international trainer in Mexico and Australia.

Janet Nordine, LMFT, RPT

Janet Nordine, LMFT, RPT

Janet Nordine, LMFT, RPT is a Nevada Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Registered Play Therapist, a Trust Based Relational Intervention Practitioner (TBRI) and a Level 1 Theraplay * trained therapist. She has worked extensively with children in the foster care system who are in the process of adoption and who have been adopted. She is a co-facilitator of the Las Vegas Adoptees Connect group. Janet is an adopted person and her experiences add depth and perspective to her training. Mrs. Nordine has presented on the topic of adoption at national conferences throughout the US.

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Theodore Stripling, LCPC

Theodore Stripling is a school counselor and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in Chicago, IL. He received his master’s in counseling at Wake Forest University in 2012 and is currently working as a high school counselor. He is passionate about practitioner-focused research and published his first article on attendance interventions in 2019. Other research interests are Gestalt approaches for children, school policies for equitable practices, and best practices for supporting anxious students. He is currently on research teams at the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium, exploring mental health training for teachers. 

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