ABOUT THE AUTHORS
FELIX YUL’EVITCH YAROSHEVSKY graduated from the First Leningrad Medical Institute in 1957 with specialties in General Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In 1964, while consulting as a surgeon and gynaecologist in a psychiatric hospital, he became increasingly interested in psychiatry. He subsequently entered and completed training at the Bekhterev Institute of Psychiatry and remained on staff as a psychiatrist and researcher in the Department of Psychotherapy. During this period in his career, he developed a new method for individual and group psychotherapy. This treatment process became the subject of a documentary film, which received a Gold Medal at the Moscow All-Union Exhibition in 1968. In 1972, Dr. Yaroshevsky completed his Ph.D. thesis in psychophysiology. His research involved developing the “psychosomatograph”, the first Russian-created polygraph, a machine that was able to measure several psycho-neurological reactions simultaneously.
Dr. Yaroshevsky and his family emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1972, briefly residing in Israel and Italy before arriving in Canada at the end of 1973. There he worked as a research assistant at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto. As a contributing author and correspondent for Radio Canada International (CBC), he was instrumental in bringing to light the influence the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa was at that time exerting over the CBC. Dr. Yaroshevsky completed additional psychiatric training at the University of Toronto and passed specialty certification as a psychiatrist. He next worked as a consultant and lecturer at the University of Toronto. Since 1982, he has served as a consultant psychiatrist in the Child and Family Clinic and as Clinical Director for The Family Life Foundation. Dr. Yaroshevsky has authored numerous scientific and popular articles and has made presentations to many different audiences. In his practice he prescribes medication only as a last resort, believing in the human capacity to self re-program and retrain under the guidance and supervision of a competent professional.
VIVIAN BEKIARIS began her training at The Family Life Foundation in 1994, after a lifelong experience of personal and business endeavours. Her natural talents and vast accumulated theoretical and experiential knowledge rapidly progressed and propelled her to become the astute, highly effective and intuitive psychotherapist. She takes in the essence of the patient’s emotional, intellectual and socio-biological context, envelopes it in the totality of her own being and reflects it back in a well paced, sensitive and thoughtful manner. The patient’s growth in this envelope usually progresses steadily in a process of solidifying the ego, creating an observing ego and facilitating emerging maturation. In a matter of what may be at times just a few months, her patients are engaged in emotional and psychological growth, and change to more adaptive and functional styles of relating to themselves and to others. Until 2017, Vivian was an Associate Member of the Canadian Society of Medical Evaluators (CSME) and a Member of the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP). She has since retired from private practice.