CAGA
China–Australia Gestalt Association
Our Team
Leadership, faculty, and the compliance function.
A small team responsible for the curriculum, the partner network, the supervision and clinical standards, and the regulatory compliance that makes the international program work.
Organisational structure
How the team fits together.
Founder
The founder.
Five decades of study in psychotherapy; four decades in private practice with individuals, couples, and families.
Dr Steve Vinay Gunther
Founder & Chief Trainer
Dr Steve Vinay Gunther brings five decades of study in psychotherapy and four decades in private practice with individuals, couples, and families. He founded the Northern Rivers Gestalt Institute — a four-year postgraduate program — and directed the program for seventeen years. As founder of Gestalt Therapy International, he curates the contemporary relational Gestalt curriculum, trains faculty across China, Australia, and the United States, and convenes the international community of dialogue that animates the organisation's work.
- Contemporary relational Gestalt
- Curriculum and faculty development
- International training programs
- The Unvirtues and shadow-aware practice
Associate Director
Siita Lu — China Lead
Siita Lu
Associate Director & China Lead
Siita Lu is a senior HR strategist, executive coach, and convenor of leadership communities in China. With more than twenty-five years of experience inside the world's top 500 human resources organisations, she has served as HR strategic consultant to many well-known state-owned, foreign, and private enterprises, supervised senior EAP experts and national psychological counsellors, and coached executives across cultures.
Siita is co-founder of Sangzi Culture, founder of the Xidetang physical-and-mental growth platform, and a columnist for fashion and psychology features in publications such as Youth Daily. She has been LinkedIn China HR Network's most popular lecturer, served as Chairman of the ART Club of Toastmasters International Speech Association, directed Lions International Shanghai for ten years, and coordinates the Biodynamic Education Association in China. At Gestalt Therapy International she leads the China program, faculty liaison, and partner network.
- China program leadership
- HR strategy and executive development
- Faculty liaison and partner relations
- Cross-cultural training design
Social Work Division
Rahim Thawer.
Director of the Social Work division — clinical social worker, educator, and author.
Rahim Thawer
Director — Social Work Division
Rahim Thawer, LMSW, RSW, CCS, is a social worker, psychotherapist, educator, author, and organizational consultant with over 15 years of experience across mental health systems, higher education, and nonprofit sectors. He is an Instructor and Affiliate Graduate Faculty member at the University of Alabama School of Social Work, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate social work courses, and is completing a Doctor of Social Work in Organizational Leadership. His areas of expertise include sexuality and gender diversity, LGBTQ+ Muslim mental health, HIV-related stigma, addiction, clinical supervision, anti-oppressive practice, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral and Gestalt-integrated therapy, and systemic sex therapy.
Rahim completed the Professional Program in Gestalt Therapy at the Gestalt Institute of Toronto in 2016, completed its Clinical Supervision Training Program in 2022, and has served on the Institute's Board of Directors since 2023. He is the author of The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys (New Harbinger Publications, 2025), which incorporates Gestalt-informed exercises throughout each chapter to explore the social and subcultural determinants of mental health outcomes. Following his connection with Gestalt Therapy International in the summer of 2026, he was invited to serve as a co-convener of the Tao of Gestalt Conference, to be held in Shanghai in April 2027.
- Sexuality and gender diversity
- LGBTQ+ Muslim mental health
- HIV-related stigma and addiction
- Clinical supervision and anti-oppressive practice
- Gestalt-integrated therapy
- Systemic sex therapy
Compliance
Akintunde Benjamin.
US Continuing Education Compliance Specialist — NASW, NBCC, HIPAA.
Akintunde Oluwaseun Benjamin
Compliance Officer
Akintunde Oluwaseun Benjamin is the US Continuing Education Compliance Specialist for Gestalt Therapy International, based in Trappes, France. He audits conference data, processes NASW and NBCC certificates, and organises document-retention workflows while the US team sleeps. With deep expertise in the NASW Continuing Education Approval Program and NBCC ACEP standards, he ensures audit-ready documentation, on-time submissions, and zero-compliance-gap operations across the organisation's international programs.
Akintunde leads CE compliance for the Tao of Gestalt Therapy International Conference (164 presenters, 108 workshops, hybrid delivery across fifteen-plus countries), and is certified in HIPAA Privacy & Security, Cyber Security Masterclass, Google Data Analytics, and Customer Service Excellence. He is a member of AIIM and the Records Management Association.
Trainings
- HIPAA Privacy & Security
- NBCC ACEP Provider Standards
- NASW Continuing Education Approval
- Cyber Security Masterclass
- Data Analytics (Google)
- Customer Service Excellence
Memberships
- AIIM — Association of Intelligent Information Management
- RMA — Records Management Association
Advisory Board
Leadership, in conversation.
The advisory board meets quarterly to advise on ethics, curriculum, and the international trajectory of the program.
Sangzi
Cross-cultural partner in China
Living Gestalt Community
Practitioner network
Take the next step
Write to the team.
For partnership, media, training applications, and supervision enquiries — the team reads every message personally.