Miri­am Free­man met Vir­gin­ia Satir in 1987 when she atten­ded her month long pro­cess com­munity in Cres­ted Butte, CO, USA. This was the start of a life long explor­a­tion and applic­a­tion of the Satir Mod­el. It was indeed a life chan­ging exper­i­ence that has provided a road map for her life for the last 34 years. She retired as a social work pro­fess­or in 2012 after 30 years of uni­ver­sity teach­ing and a total of 43 years as a social work­er. In her retire­ment, in addi­tion to Satir-based coach­ing, ment­or­ing and train­ing, she is a run­ner, read­ing tutor, anti­racism advoc­ate, drum­mer of tra­di­tion­al West Afric­an rhythms, mem­ber of a chor­us, paint­er, and some­times sax­o­phone play­er. She is also a cer­ti­fied laughter yoga lead­er. She lives in the moun­tains of North Car­o­lina in the US with her hus­band and they have two adult sons.

Wal­ter F. Zahnd has been a stu­dent of Vir­gin­ia Satir since 1982. He traveled with her the last year of her pro­fes­sion­al life. He has been an act­ive teach­er and train­er in the Satir, Human Val­id­a­tion Pro­cess, often called The Satir Mod­el. He has presen­ted at pro­fes­sion­al organ­iz­a­tions in Canada, the United States, East­ern Europe, and the Phil­ip­pines. He is a Pro­fess­or Emer­it­us and taught Social Work from 1970 till 2007. He has pub­lic­a­tions in pro­fes­sion­al Journ­als, worked with incar­cer­ated inmates, res­id­en­tial treat­ment with adoles­cents, plus foun­ded a social work agency. His pro­fes­sion­al prac­tice took him to work­ing  with street addicts in an Afric­an Amer­ic­an Com­munity, con­sult­ing in res­id­en­tial treat­ment as well as extens­ive work­shops with men, growth groups and co-founder with Olga Hol­ubova the Satir Insti­tutes in Czech Repub­lic and Slov­akia. Recently he has developed the Human Kal­eido­scope which has been pub­lished in the Satir Journ­al, he has done train­ing on it and oth­er Satir Pro­cesses. He has 56 years of pro­fes­sion­al prac­tice and teaching.

Steven Buck­bee is from Escanaba Michigan. He retired from Bay Col­lege where he taught in the social sci­ence divi­sion. He became inter­ested in Satir while employed as a social work­er in the 1970’s. In the mid 80’s he had the oppor­tun­ity to have her as a teach­er. In 1988 he was invited to join a group called „Avanta“ which is now known as the Vir­gin­ia Satir Glob­al Net­work. He is also a mem­ber of the Inter­na­tion­al Human Learn­ing Resources Net­work and retired from the fac­ulty of the Ban­men Satir China Man­age­ment Cen­ter. He is cur­rently serving on the board of The Vir­gin­ia Satir Glob­al Net­work. He is a Licensed Mas­ters Social Work­er and a Licensed Pro­fes­sion­al Coun­selor in the State of Michigan and a part­ner In BDD Train­ing Asso­ci­ates. He a mod­er­at­or for the Satir Glob­al Net­work Web Site, the VSGN Face­Book account and is devel­op­ing online courses focused on Satirs process.

Michael Dupont is a part­ner in BDD Train­ing Asso­ci­ates, an adjunct instruct­or at Bay Col­lege and the men­tal health/​substance abuse coun­selor at Bay Col­lege. He is a retired ther­ap­ist from Path­ways Men­tal Health Cen­ter in Escanaba, Michigan. He has a M.Ed. in Coun­sel­ing and Guid­ance from North­ern Michigan Uni­ver­sity. Mike is a Licensed Mas­ter­’s Social Work­er and a Licensed Pro­fes­sion­al Coun­selor by the State of Michigan. Michael has over 40 years of clin­ic­al exper­i­ence in the men­tal health and sub­stance abuse field. Michael has been licensed as a Cer­ti­fied Advanced Addic­tions Coun­selor by the Michigan Cer­ti­fic­a­tion Board for Addic­tion Pro­fes­sion­als. He is a past board mem­ber of the Satir Glob­al Net­work. He is a clin­ic­al mem­ber of the Satir Insti­tute of the Pacific.

Madeleine De Little MTC., RCC., CCC. has been a stu­dent for twelve years of Satir Trans­form­a­tion­al Sys­tem­ic Ther­apy. She is cur­rently the research chair of the Satir Insti­tute of the Pacific in Canada and a fac­ulty mem­ber of the Ban­men Satir China Man­age­ment Centre. Her stud­ies of the latest devel­op­ments in neur­os­cience and trans­form­a­tion­al change have led her to devel­op a unique mod­el of sand tray ther­apy and write a book, Where Words Can’t Reach – Neur­os­cience and the Satir Mod­el in the Sand Tray (NSST). Madeleine has been an ele­ment­ary and high school for 28 years and con­tin­ues to be a ther­ap­ist in private prac­tice and an inter­na­tion­al train­er in her mod­el of sand tray work. Madeleine has taught NSST in Slov­akia and the Czech Repub­lic since 2008 and the par­ti­cipants are some of the most exper­i­enced users of NSST in the world. Madeleine has writ­ten a book entitled „Where words Can’t Reach: Neur­os­cience and the Satir Mod­el in the Sand Tray.“ This book is now pub­lished in Eng­lish and Man­dar­in and the Eng­lish ver­sion is avail­able in hard copy and as an eBook on Amazon. The research for her Ph.D. focused on the per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al impact on stu­dent ther­ap­ists learn­ing and prac­ti­cing this mod­el of sand tray ther­apy. Madeleine is a Mas­ter Thera­peut­ic Coun­sel­lor, a Registered Clin­ic­al Super­visor and a Cer­ti­fied Cana­dian Coun­sel­lor. She is the recip­i­ent of the „2021 Cana­dian Coun­selling and Psy­cho­ther­apy Asso­ci­ation Coun­selling Prac­tion­ers Award“.

Valer­ie McGaha, Ph.D. is an Asso­ci­ate Pro­fess­or of Com­munity Health Sci­ences, Coun­sel­ing and Coun­sel­ing Psy­cho­logy at Oklahoma State Uni­ver­sity. She is licensed as a Licensed Pro­fes­sion­al Coun­selor, Licensed Mar­riage and Fam­ily Ther­ap­ist, and Licensed Alco­hol and Drug Abuse Coun­selor. Her research interests cen­ter around mul­ti­cul­tur­al coun­sel­ing, psychoso­cial adoles­cent devel­op­ment, men­tal and addict­ive dis­orders, at-risk adoles­cents’ court-man­dated inter­ven­tions, and sui­cide pre­ven­tion and edu­ca­tion. In her schol­arly work, she has examined indi­vidu­al and col­lect­ive factors related to aca­dem­ic, per­son­al, and social suc­cess of vari­ous populations.

Cyn­thia Spray is a com­munity act­iv­ist, life-long children’s advoc­ate, and entre­pren­eur liv­ing in Taos, New Mex­ico USA. She met Vir­gin­ia Satir as a child in Palo Alto, Cali­for­nia and they remained friends through­out Virginia’s life. Cyn­thia has suc­cess­fully used a Satir-based Mod­el for over forty years, in each of her many roles work­ing with chil­dren, fam­il­ies and com­munit­ies through­out the west­ern United States.

Louis Vetri was born and raised in Phil­adelphia, PA, USA; in a fam­ily of 4 of Sicili­an des­cent and in the Roman Cath­ol­ic Reli­gion. He spent most of his adult life single liv­ing in Read­ing, Pennsylvania. He has been mar­ried just over 5 years. His 35 year career began as an indi­vidu­al and group ther­ap­ist and then a fam­ily ther­ap­ist. Over time he saw and worked with fam­il­ies in their lar­ger con­text and became involved in social justice act­iv­ism, edu­ca­tion and advocacy work and com­munity organ­iz­ing and devel­op­ment. Over the last 10 years he has worked as a Pas­tor in the United Church of Christ cur­rently serving as Inter­im Pas­tor near Spring­field, Ohio. Lou’s exper­i­ence with Vir­gin­ia Satir’s work began in 1990 with a 3 week intens­ive in Cres­ted Butte, Col­or­ado (USA) fol­lowed over the years with numer­ous and extens­ive addi­tion­al Satir train­ings. He recently com­pleted level 3 of the Coach­ing and Ment­or­ing Spe­cial­ist Train­ing and is in the prac­tic­um phase of certification.