Fireside Tendings with Ann Gila

Join us for an Autumn treat as one of Psychosynthesis' foremost teachers and writers reflects on a lifetime in the field.

Ann Gila was fortunate to be accepted on an M.A. degree program in humanistic psychology at Sonoma State University. Over this time she faced into "a crisis of transformation", and "a time of intense inner exploration during which I asked the most basic question: “Who am I?”
 
She also began her career in mental health, volunteering then then as a research associate at Agnews State Hospital in California with young men diagnosed with schizophrenia who were experiencing their first psychotic break. She learned with a great team and was influenced by the Jungian consultant John Perry, by the work of R. D. Laing, and by the personal growth approaches presented at the Esalen Institute.
 
She learned of psychosynthesis through a personal growth center in the Santa Cruz Mountains here in California. Having been a psychosynthesis client she soon became involved with the Psychosynthesis Institute in Palo Alto, running its office while becoming a trainee in its training program. Living onsite, she "lived and breathed psychosynthesis." After I training, she presented psychosynthesis workshops locally and across the country, and wrote for the journal Synthesis.
 
She and her late husband, John Firman, led trainings at the Institute of Psychosynthesis in London; presented workshops in Florence, Italy; and presented a psychosynthesis training program here in Palo Alto.  They wrote three books together: The Primal Wound: A Transpersonal View of Trauma, Addiction, and Growth (1997); Psychosynthesis: A Psychology of the Spirit (2002); and the beautifully titled A Psychotherapy of Love: Psychosynthesis in Practice (2010).

She is author of Stay Present and Love Him: A Memoir (2017), and wrote the foreword for John Firman’s book “I” and Self: Re-visioning Psychosynthesis (2020).

Previously teaching with the Transpersonal Institute for 20 years, Ann is currently an adjunct faculty member at the Sofia University.

We are in for a treat.