Avraham Santopinto has over two decades of experience as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. He currently provides consultation, education, research & exemplary practice support for interdisciplinary health care teams at Regional Mental Health Care.
Education
• MScN, University of Western Ontario, 1988
• BScN, University of Western Ontario, 1983
• BA Hons (Philosophy), Trent University, 1972
Santopinto studied phenomenology and existential philosophy as a Swiss Government Scholar at the University of Basel in Switzerland , and was awarded the prestigious Lady Davis Fellowship to study German idealist philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He completed graduate level course work at the Medical College of Georgia (theory development) and at the University of Colorado (therapeutic touch).
Academic Affiliations
Santopinto holds two academic appointments: Assistant Professor (casual) & Member (limited non-core) Faculty of Graduate Studies, at the University of Western Ontario .
Research & Publications
Santopinto's peer-reviewed publications and original research are grounded within existential phenomenology, and Parse's theory of human becoming. He has presented his work at scholarly conferences across North America, as well as in Switzerland , Brazil , Korea and China . Over the last three years, he mentored Dr. Catherine Aquino-Russell ( University of New Brunswick ) in a Giorgi methodology phenomenological investigation of the lived experience of hearing loss.
Throughout his career, Santopinto has helped practitioners and students to apply innovative, science-based approaches to the daily discourse of persons labeled psychotic. Santopinto's public presentation on the toxic effects of humour in psychotherapy was awarded “Best CME of the Year”, and has now been submitted for publication.
Current Activities/Future Plans
Santopinto is the Editor of Establishing Therapeutic Relationship: An Update.
To check out this colourful and informative newsbulletin click here.
Recently, Santopinto reviewed the empirical base of a manualized therapy modality. His review was published in May 2005 : “Ten Socratic questions for dialectical behavioural therapy.” This publication was presented at an international conference of suicidologists in Aeschi , Switzerland .
In 2006, Santopinto was designated Implementation Leader for a three-year demonstration project “Establishing Therapeutic Relationship,” planning, implementing and evaluating this complex project on three busy in-patient units across two municipalities.
In July, a paper: "Innovations in the evaluation of therapeutic evaluation" was accepted for presentation in Beijing, China. This paper proposes the use of cultural photography and stakeholder dialogue instead of reductive rating scales to describe lived experiences. |
