Walter Kempler was a
psychotherapist
Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...
and
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
who co-founded the Kempler Institute.
Kempler was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on September 9, 1923. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1946 and his MD in 1947 from the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
.
Like many of the early
family therapy
Family therapy (also referred to as family counseling, family systems therapy, marriage and family therapy, couple and family therapy) is a branch of psychology and clinical social work that works with families and couples in intimate relationsh ...
theorists,
psychoanalytic training was also the starting point for Walter Kempler; he later became interested in
existential issues and family therapy. He worked for a time with
Fritz Perls
Friedrich Salomon Perls (July 8, 1893 – March 14, 1970), better known as Fritz Perls, was a German-born psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. Perls coined the term "Gestalt therapy" to identify the form of psychotherapy that he devel ...
at the
Esalen Institute
The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanistic alternative education. The institute played a key role in the Human Potential ...
in the 1960s. Kempler called his form of treatment, variously, Experiential or
Gestalt family therapy. His focus was on the immediate, on feelings and desires that lie behind verbal and nonverbal messages, and on their clear and complete delivery. Kempler applied
Gestalt Therapy on families and termed it experiential family therapy.
The Kempler Institute
In 1979, the Kempler Institute was founded in
Denmark
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by the American psychiatrist and family therapist Walter Kempler, MD, in collaboration with child psychiatrist Morgens A. Lund, Proff. Lis Keiser, and family therapist
Jesper Juul, with the objective of developing a long-term postgraduate education in experiential family psychotherapy with families.
The general office was situated in
Odense, and the Institute owns educational facilities in Odder, Copenhagen, and a conference center on Hjarnø, Denmark.
The Institute worked primarily in Denmark, Scandinavia, and other European and central European countries.
About the Kempler Institute
homepage of the facility
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kempler, Walter
American psychiatrists
American psychotherapists
Family therapists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)