Shai Schwartz

Shai Schwartz has been a therapist for the last 16 years. He originates from over thirty years of proffesional theater, performing, directing and writing, since 1974 in all the major theaters in Israel. Appeared on national TV, radio and in many international feature films, and  has toured the USA and Europe with his storytelling shows.

Later in his career he studied  therapy and education through the arts, group facilitation, Gestalt, focusing and psychodrama and took a degree in Education.

Since then he has been integrating story telling and drama into his work with groups in education , dialogue and therapy.

He facilitated dialogue of the Jewish Arab conflict in diverse frameworks. Including Neve Shalom /Wahat a Salam, IPCRI, and “Peace Child-Israel.

He has used the tool of story and drama therapy in facilitating workshops on cultural conflict in Europe and the USA: The Olson Inner- City Elementary School in Minneapolis, NY City Y, Chautauqua and other venues.

 Through the  years he has been co-facilitating and developing a model of intervention with Sheila Melzak while she was the principal psychoanalyst of the children and youth dept at the “Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture” in London. He is now active as a consultant and story therapist, Cooperating with  Sheila Melzak the Directress of  the new established "Baobab Therapeutic Centre for Young Survivors in Exile"-London

 They work with youth asylum seekers –who have been victims of torture. They train and teach group workers and therapists in Great Britain and Europe. They have published an article on their work in "Group Analysis" Vl.38-June 2005" Sage Publications.

He works with the Ministry of Health originally at the Kaplan Hospital and now at the Tel Hashomer Hospital -Tel Aviv with HIV Positive Ethiopian immigrants. 

He has taught his model of Intervention at at the Jerusalem Intercultural Center course “ The Traditional Tale in Dialogue and Therapy in Work With Groups And Individuals” for Palestinian and Jewish social workers,  therapists and group facilitators. The course ran as an ongoing dialogue.

He currently teaches " Story , drama, and puppetry as tools in therapy and education" at the School for puppetry on the Campus of the Kibutz Seminary -Tel Aviv. He teaches a personal development course for the Reidman Institute for Alternative Therapy

He has facilitated women empowerment groups, parents’ groups and clean drug abusers with  The Organization For Anti Drug and Alcohol Abuse- in Jerusalem

He also has a growing private clinic in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and at his home in Neve Shalom/Wahat a Salaam 

A second article on his work has been published in “International Journal of the Humanities Volume 6, Issue 6.”

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