John Foot is Professor of Modern Italian History in the Department of Italian, University of Bristol. His publications include La Repubblica dei Matti. Franco Basaglia e la psichiatria radicale in Italia, 1961-1978 (Feltrinelli, 2014) (The Man who Closed the Asylums. Franco Basaglia and the Revolution in Mental Health Care in Italy, Verso, London, 2015) and L’Italia e le sue Storie. 1945-2019 (Laterza, 2019). An collection edited with Tom Burns will be published by Oxford University Press in May 2020 called Basaglia’s International Legacy, examining the impact of the life and work of Franco Basaglia in a series of countries across the world.

Philosopher, psychologist and psychoanalyst, Alain Gibeault is a Training Analyst of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society and Past Director of the Evelyne and Jean Kestemberg Centre for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (Mental Health Association of Paris 13th). He has played an important role on the international scene as Past President of the European Psycho-Analytical Federation (1995-1999) and as Past Secretary General of the International Psychoanalytical Association (1999-2003)). In this function he has contributed to the development of psychoanalysis in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin wall and especially in Russia, where he has been nominated in November 2006 Honorary Professor of the Lomonossov Moscow State University. He is at present President of the Education Committee of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society.

Vittorio Gallese, MD and trained neurologist, is Professor of Psychobiology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the Dept. of Medicine & Surgery of the University of Parma, Italy, Adjunct Senior Research Scholar, Dept. of Art History and Archeology, Columbia University, New York, USA and Einstein Fellow at the Berlin School of Mind & Brain of Humboldt University. Cognitive neuroscientist, his research focuses on the relation between the sensory-motor system and cognition by investigating the neurobiological and bodily grounding of intersubjectivity, psychopathology, language and aesthetics. He is the author of more than 200 scientific publications and three books.

Psychologist and psychoanalyst, full member with didactic function of A.P.A and full member of IPA. She trained with Jorge García Badaracco in multifamily psychoanalysis over forty years. She became a coordinator and teacher in his clinic. She presented papers at numerous international conferences.  She is the author of two books: Las voces de la locura (2005) and Las voces del silencio (2016). She also published articles in magazines in Argentina, Italy and Spain.

I have been involved in developing family centered mental health care since early 1980’s. Later the new approach was named as Open Dialogues and I was a member of the original team in Western Lapland in Finland. Since 1988 I have conducted tenths of research projects of the effectiveness of the open dialogue approach, especially in psychotic problems. At the same time my interest has been on looking at dialogues as the basic form of human life and therapeutic practice. Lately my interest has been on looking at the embodiment in dialogue, how do we communicate in our bodies and create a relational mind.
I have been active in publishing, being author or co-author of about 190 scientific papers. Two books on dialogical practice has been translated into 15 languages.

Andrea Raballo, MD, Spec. Psych., PhD is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Perugia (Italy) where he serves as scientific and clinical Head of the Center for Translational, Phenomenological and Developmental Psychopathology. He was previously Onsager Associate Professor of Psychopathology and Development at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, post-doctoral researcher at the Norwegian Centre of Excellence for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), University of Oslo, psychiatric consultant at the Department of Mental Health of Reggio Emilia (Italy), and affiliated researcher to the Center for Subjectivity Research (CFS), University of Copenhagen (Denmark).

Prof Alison Yung is a Principal Research Fellow, Consultant Psychiatrist and Professor at the Centre for Youth Mental Health and Orygen, University of Melbourne and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Manchester, UK. She is acknowledged internationally as an authority in early psychosis. Professor Yung’s research has resulted in reform in the delivery of mental health services for young people thought to be at high risk of psychotic disorders. Her program of research began in 1994 with the establishment of a clinical service for such individuals using the criteria she developed – the Ultra High Risk (UHR), or At Risk Mental State (ARMS) criteria. This was the first such service in the world. She developed a structured interview, the Comprehensive Assessment of At Risk Mental States (CAARMS), for assessing the UHR criteria. This instrument has now been translated into 18 languages. In 2013 the UHR criteria were adapted for inclusion in the DSM5, using the term Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome.

Jan Olav was Senior Psychiatrist and Head of Department of Psychiatry in Stavanger from 1985-1992 and subsequently Chief Psychiatrist, Division of Psychiatry, Stavanger University Hospital from 1992-2013 during which time he was the leading influence by which Stavanger became very well known internationally for the quality of its services and research. No one who visited the Rogaland County Hospital can fail to have been filled with jealousy at the tangible quality of both the environment for, and staff attitudes towards, those suffering from mental disturbances. Just one example of an innovation of Jan Olav was a 24 hour comprehensive assessment service that allowed perhaps 50% of those admitted to immediately return to thecommunity. On the other hand, there was a conspicuous absence of pressure to discharge persons who needed many weeks of quality ‘asylum’ time and to build up therapeutic relationships and confidence that would survive into the community.

Unnur A. Valdimarsdóttir is Professor of epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, and adjunct professor at the Department of Medical epidemiology Karolinska Institutet and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. Her team has made important contributions to the field on how various indices of psychological stress affect health and major disease development.

Prof. Pesach Lichtenberg, M.D., is the founder of Soteria Israel, which established Soteria homes and catalyzed changes in government regulation. He is the former academic head of psychiatry at the the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he serves as clinical associate professor. For many years he headed a closed inpatient psychiatric ward, till he was dismissed for establishing Soteria. After 5 years of activity at Soteria, he has lately returned to directing a closed ward, at the Jerusalem Mental Health Center, where he seeks to apply the lessons and the sensibility of Soteria in the most challenging of clinical environments.

Art therapist, President of the Italian Professional Association of Art Therapists (APIArt), co-founder of Psychotherapy School “Istituto Gaetano Benedetti” Perugia, Italy, co-founder in 2011 and Board Member of ISPS Italy (Italian group of the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis). Co-founder of European Federation of Art Therapy (Efat). He is in charge of Atlas Centre (Perugia, Italy).  Educational Director of Art-Therapy School in Assisi, Italy. Professor at Arts Therapy Master in Roma Tre University. He gives regularly seminars, lectures and supervisory sessions in Mental Health Centres in Italy, University of Perugia and New York University Steinhardt. He is Co-founder of Associazione Sementera Onlus and Atlas Onlus. Since 2007 he works on new technology applications development in the treatment of mental disabilities and autism. He developed an innovative video integration method and leads the ‘Painteraction System’ project at Atlas Centre (Perugia, Italy), where an innovative motion response software allows creative expression and image interaction with body movements.