While 2021 brought myriad challenges individually and organizationally it also saw the loss of some incredible contributors to the field and to ISSTD. Below we honor these individuals as contributed by ISSTD Members.
Gary Peterson, MD
1945-2021
After a prolonged illness, Dr. Gary Peterson lost the battle with idiopathic pulmonary disease on September 9, 2021 at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Born in Lumberton, NC on April 22,1945, at the age of 6, his family moved to Ormond Beach, Florida where Gary’s famil owned Peterson’s Hat Shop in Daytona Beach. He attended Corbin Avenue Elementary School, Osceola Elementary and Seabreeze High School where he met many lifelong friends. From Seabreeze, he went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, graduating in 1967 as an Air Force Captain. After receiving a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida in 1969, Gary then went to work in El Segundo, California for the Space and Missile Systems Organization. In July of 1971, he left the Air Force to attend University of South Florida Health Morsani College of Medicine where he graduated in 1975 with His Medical Degree. He did his psychiatry residency at the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center and was awarded a Child Psychiatry Fellow at UCLA School of Medicine in 1977 working there until 1984. From 1984 to 1986 Gary was a Research Fellow at the Biological Sciences Research Center at UNC, Chapel Hill. From there he ran the Child Psychiatry Unit in Albuquerque, New Mexico for five years. He then joined the Southeast Institute for Group and Family Therapy in Chapel Hill where he continued in private practice for the remainder of his career.
Gary cofounded the North Carolina Triangle Society for the Study of Disassociation and served as a liaison to the Disassociated Disorders Work Group for APA task force on DSM-IV. He received frequent accolades for his work, including Best Doctors of America, the Distinguished Achievement Award and the President’s Award of the Distinction by the International Society for the Study of Disassociation. He is the author of Energy Healing in Psychotherapy: A Clinician’s Handbook. He served on the board of directors and taught the instructors EMDRIA- the association that approves certification for the use of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR).
Within ISSTD Gary was a beloved member of our Professional Training Program Faculty and led the first Teleseminar Course. Gary’s willingness to embrace new technology with trying out this new format was a huge part of the reason that ISSTD was on the cutting edge of virtual training ahead of the pandemic. Gary was an ISSTD Fellow and an integral part of the EMDR Therapy Training Task Force which worked for three years to develop ISSTD’s EMDR training. He will be greatly missed by his students, colleagues, and ISSTD staff with whom he was always kind and generous.
Maggie Phillips, PhD
It was with great sadness that we learnt of the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Maggie Phillips. She was truly a giant in the field of Ego State Therapy and her work leaves with all of us a legacy of great gifts. Not only did she make a significant contribution to the fields of trauma, dissociation, clinical hypnosis, Somatic Experiencing for trauma and chronic pain management, but also contributed greatly to the foundational intervention model of Ego State Therapy that is used worldwide today. She was particularly interested in the interface of trauma, dissociation, and emotional and physical pain conditions.
Maggie lived and worked as a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Oakland. California. She was the director of the California Institute of Clinical Hypnosis and past-president of the Northern California Society of Clinical Hypnosis. She has served on the faculties of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH), American and European Congresses of Ericksonian Hypnosis and Psychotherapy, the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing International Association (EMDRIA), the Esalen Institute, the European Society of Hypnosis in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, the International Society of Hypnosis (ISH), The Professional School of Psychology, the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (SCEH), the International Society for the Study of Dissociation (ISSD), the International Transactional Analysis Association (ITAA), the University of California at Santa Cruz, Ego State Therapy International (ESTI) and Somatic Experiencing International.
She was co-recipient of the Cornelia Wilbur Award from the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation and recipient of the President’s Award and the Crasilneck Award for the best new writing in the field of hypnosis from ASCH.
Maggie worked closely with ISSTD Member and member of ISSTD’s ASCH Training Faculty Wendy Lemke on the formation of an Ego State Therapy North America certification program. Maggie laid the groundwork for a soon to be established ESTNA community. Maggie left a void in the EST field and will be missed by many. She was a wonderful mentor and colleague.