Matthew Rich-Tolsma

About Me

I am a group analytic therapist (working with individuals, couples, and groups), executive coach, mindfulness teacher, and organisational consultant working online and in person in the Netherlands and South Africa. I work with adolescents and adults. I have experience in private practice, in organisations, in the Higher Education sector, and in the humanitarian sector (working in areas affected by armed conflict).

Education & Training

I trained as a Groupwork Practitioner and Group Analyst at Group Analysis North (Manchester), where my dissertation of Decolonising Group Analysis through an Encounter with Afrikan Knowledge Systems was awarded the IGA's Dennis Brown Prize. I also hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Traumatic Stress Studies and am a Somatic EMDR Practitioner. I am also a Certified Mindfulness teacher. I hold an MPhil in Complexity & Management, where my research focused on paradox and anxiety in organisations.
Additional relevant training includes a range of Developmental Psychometric certifications (Career Path Appreciation Interview, Leadership Circle, Enneagram, Lectical Assessment, Structural Dynamics), training in Parent-Infant psychotherapy, and advanced training in Micro-expressions and Facial Action Coding (FACS).

Additional Certifications & Experience

I have extensive international experience in conflict resolution and am a certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication. My expertise includes working with racial trauma and facilitating white affinity groups, informed by my training with Prof. Robin Diangelo. I am a co-convenor of the EDI Professionals Together Netheork for the Institue

I am also an artistic researcher exploring the paradoxes of organisational life.
I hold several relevant professional fellowships and memberships positions:

• Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Fellow of the Institute of Educational and Social Equity
• Professional Fellow of the Institute of Coaching
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
• Association of Psychosocial Studies
• Institute of Group Analysis
• Group Analytic Society International
• African Academy of Management
• UK Council for Psychotherapy

Some relevant roles I have held

• Co-founder at Not Without the Rose: Workspace for Social Sculpture
• Pedagogue-in-Residence at ArtEZ University of the Arts
• Convenor of the Foundation Certificate in Group Analysis at Turvey Groupwork (UK)
• Adjunct faculty for the Diploma in Reflective Practice in Organisations at the Insititute of Group Analysis (UK)
• Former Director at Institute of Group Analysis (UK)
• Former President of the Board at the Center for Nonviolent Communication
• Former Counsellor at Guildhall School of Music & Drama

What I offer

Individual & Group Counselling

I offer long-term psychodynamic relational therapy to individuals, couples, and groups. My trauma-sensitive practice is grounded in a group analytic and relational psychoanalytic approach, taking into account social and developmental experience. I support clients in exploring the depths of their emotions and experiences in context.

Coaching, Mediation, & Reflective Practice

I also offer coaching, conflict resolution, and reflective practice in organizational and institutional settings.

Some common topics in my work include…

• Adverse Childhood Experiences;
• Anxiety;
• Bereavement (death and dying);
• Body-image, and body dysmorphia;
• Discrimination, race, and ethnicity;
• Finding direction and purpose;
• Gender, transition, and gender dysphoria;
• Exploration of intersectional identity;
• Life transition and change;
• Loneliness;
• Neurodiversity;
• Relationship difficulties;
• Sadness;
• Sexuality, Sexual Orientation;
• Survivors of childhood sexual and non-sexual abuse;
• Trauma (sexual and non-sexual);
• Vulnerability;
• Working with artists and creative professionals.