March 2024

Bernd is a Consultant Psychotherapist with over three decades of clinical, teaching and supervisory experience.

His initial training in the field took place in Germany - he expanded this through further training in the UK (Judi Keshet-Orr Associates, Gestalt Centre, Metanoia, Gaie Houston, Tavistock Institute) and further afield (the Gestalt Centre Cleveland -US- primarily with Joseph Zinker, Sri Lanka, Holland, Ireland and Italy).

Photo of counselling course lecturer Bernd Leygraf

Bernd Leygraf is the only Consultant Psychotherapist in his field. He co-founded a number of organisations (London Men's Forum, UK Standing Conference on Sexual Abuse of Men, the Centre for Personal and Professional Development, the Whittington Hospital Psychotherapy Clinic, the Hungarian Gestalt Association, Naos-Institute). He authored with Judi Keshet-Orr the first MSc in Humanistic Psychotherapy as well as the first Masters programme in Psychosexual & Relationship Therapy in the UK. He also authored as well as led several masters programmes in the UK, primarily at South Bank University, Middlesex University, Westminster and the University of Surrey. He was external examiner to various universities in the UK and taught at Peradeniya University, Kandy (Sri Lanka).

A former Chair of the Professional Standards and Accreditation Board at the European Association for Counselling, and Ethics Committee of COSRT, Bernd works currently with trainees from over 40 countries. He is interested in working with issues of cultural difference and fascinated by the work of Mindell and more recent developments in constellation theory. His principal influences in sexological and couples work are David Schnarch, Joseph Zinker, Ellen Bader, Judith Hemming, Joan Lachkar, Judi Keshet-Orr and, as ever, his clients. Bernd is proud to have supported a significant number of sex and couples therapists in shaping their own professional identities and careers - in the UK and as far as Africa and the Middle East - some have moved into offering specialist sex addiction clinics; others are now trainers in this field in their own right. Bernd is delighted to be (founder and) Honorary Member of the Hungarian Gestalt Association. He was awarded Fellowship of the National Council for Psychotherapy and in recognition of his contributions to the field he was awarded Fellowship by the National Counselling Society. Clinically speaking, from 2017 Bernd focuses on working with celebrity clients and on men in leadership, both nationally and globally. In 2019 he initiated an Intense couple therapy model and teaches in Hungary and Egypt and throughout the Middle East. From 2020 he hopes to run an approved course commissioned by the Jewish community, in the UK and Belgium.

Bernd was accredited by BACP, COSRT, UPCA, UPCA and UKCP registered until he decided to simplify his life.

Additional information can be found on his organisational websites:
www.naos-institute.com
www.gettingbetter.org.uk