Certified SAVI Trainers

 
Developers of SAVI

Anita Simon, Ed.D.
Co-developer of SAVI with Yvonne Agazarian in 1965, Anita is a continuing member of the SAVI Development Group.  She creates and leads SAVI basic and intermediate workshops and develops SAVI materials for application in specific contexts: education, corporate, clinical.  Previously, Director of the Humanizing Learning Program, a government funded national major curriculum development effort, she also co-founded an experimental School for entrepreneurs in Philadelphia. Currently, she is a psychologist in private practice in Philadelphia with a specialty in working with SAVI with couples and individuals.
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Yvonne Agazarian, Ed.D.
Yvonne is the developer of the Theory of Living Human Systems and founder of the Systems-Centered® Training and Research Institute.  She was co-author of SAVI - Sequential Analysis of Verbal Interaction, 1965, and has been developing and applying the theory of SAVI in training's, workshops, and writings since it’s inception. SAVI is a core construct in her Systems-Centered® consultations and training for organizations educational and clinical settings.
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Website: http://www.systemscentered.com

Senior Certified Trainers

Claudia Byram, Ph.D.
SAVI Consulting Group
Claudia began her long acquaintance with SAVI in 1975, when she apprenticed herself to Yvonne Agazarian and Anita Simon, who were launching the first open workshops training professionals in the SAVI model.  Intrigued and convinced that SAVI had something unique to offer, she has continued to work with and teach about it ever since.  She has brought SAVI into educational and organization settings, has been bringing SAVI into the annual conference of the American Group Psychotherapy Association for many years and teaches both basic and advanced SAVI workshops.
Claudia co-authored the SAVI Coding Manual with Anita Simon, the handbook for researchers who are using SAVI to organize data about the systems they are studying.  She is a principal of SAVI Communications, along with Fran Carter and Ben Benjamin. Claudia is a senior trainer in the SAVI Certification program, contributes to its development and works with Fran Carter to make the program available to people who want to develop sufficient skill to train others in SAVI.

Claudia is also a founding member of the Systems-Centered® Training and Research Institute, a current member of the Board of Directors and a System Mentor.  Her work in developing the SCT training curriculum, the SCTRI web site and the organizational structure itself reaches back to the emergence of SCT in the early 1990s.  She is a licensed Systems-Centered Practitioner and an active clinician in her Philadelphia psychotherapy practice.
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Fran Carter, LSW
SAVI Consulting Group
Fran has been working with SAVI, and its developers – Yvonne Agazarian and Anita Simon, since 1981 in both a research and training contexts. She is currently a principal in SAVI Communications and SAVI Consulting Group, a company that provides training, coaching, consultation and counseling using SAVI. She is one of the developers and senior trainers in the SAVI Certification Program, a program designed for professionals who would like to be able to teach SAVI in their work contexts. She is a founding member of the SAVI Network where she collaborates with others to develop training in SAVI for application to business, educational and clinical contexts.

Fran is also a founding member of the Systems-Centered® Training and Research Institute, a current Board Member and System Mentor. She continues to be interested in the development of training, curriculum and research and has contributed her time to these workgroups within SCT®RI. She is a licensed Systems-Centered Practitioner and a senior trainer, leading workshops, ongoing training and consultation groups and intensive training blocks throughout the US and Europe. She brings to all her work the energy and creativity of her early background as artist.
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Ben E. Benjamin, Ph.D.
SAVI Training Partners
Ben has taught communication skills as a trainer and coach for over 30 years. He has been studying SAVI for the past 9 years and is a certified SAVI trainer and  Principal in SAVI Communications and SAVI Training Partners. Over the past several years he has been increasingly devoting his time and energy to teaching SAVI and developing new applications of SAVI courses focused on business, health care, education and non-profit organizations. Ben in collaboration with Amy Yeager had been developing materials for yearlong courses in applying using SAVI to meeting management, performance evaluations, giving and receiving feedback and in religious communities.  In 1979 he earned a Ph.D. in Education and Sports Medicine and maintains a private practice as a business coach and consultant. He was the co-founder of Mobius Executive Leadership, a national executive training company. Author and a regular contributor to publications on business, coaching and health issues.
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Amy Yeager
SAVI Training Partners
Amy has designed and conducted SAVI-related workshops for multinational corporations, schools, health care organizations, and other nonprofit institutions. She is also a writer, editor, and information designer, and has worked closely with SAVI co-creator Anita Simon and co-trainer Ben Benjamin to write SAVI training materials and SAVI-related articles. Amy's teaching and writing are also informed by studying the work of Harvard's Program on Negotiation, including participation in research based on the book Getting to Yes. Amy graduated from Harvard University, with a focus on the philosophy of language and the relationship between physical and psychological manifestations of emotion. She has continued to pursue these interests as a certified practitioner of the Alexander Technique and Self Regulation Therapy.
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Certified Trainers

Eileen Jones
Eileen has been working with SAVI since 1994. She develops and delivers workshops for general audiences, with a specialty in combining and integrating movement as a method of communicating with the self and others. She has helped produce SAVI skill training videos.  Eileen has used SAVI in coaching in corporate settings and in personal growth applications, and has delivered SAVI workshops for the Systems-Centered® Training and Research Institute's annual conferences.
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Juli Fellows, Ph.D.
Juli is an independent organizational consultant in Austin Texas. She has worked with SAVI since 1994, and began conducting SAVI workshops in1998. She uses SAVI as a coaching and organizational development tool to help individuals and workgroups, and offers SAVI to the general public. Juli also develops customized SAVI workshops tailored to specific organizational issues or problems.
Web site: www.docfellows.com
          
Irene McHenry, Ph.D.
Irene McHenry, licensed Psychologist, is the Executive Director of the Friends Council on Education, a national organization of Friends schools. She uses SAVI for consulting and organizational development in her work with Friends schools and other independent schools. Irene was founding Head of Delaware Valley Friends School, a co-founder of Greenwood Friends School, and a founding faculty member of Fielding Graduate University’s doctoral program in Educational Leadership. She is vice-president of the board for the Council for American Private Education and serves on the board of managers of Haverford College. She is a regular contributor to publications on education. She provides professional development workshops in SAVI for school administrators, faculty and aspiring leaders.
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Verena Murphy, Ph.D.
Verena has been training in SAVI since 1998. 
Professionally, she has been introducing SAVI as an organizational behavior consultant in the academic, management, and business sector. She also has devised a curriculum that includes SAVI in her Dynamics of Leadership classes at Kent State University, where she is Assistant Professor of Management & Information Systems. She uses it personally in her own family and every other context in which clear information transfer is a goal.
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Laura Silverstein, LCSW
Laura is a clinical social worker with a private practice in suburban Philadelphia.  She has been studying SAVI since 1999 and draws from her expertise in this communication system to facilitate conversations among family members, couples, and groups.  She uses SAVI to help individuals strategize ways to improve both their interpersonal relationships with others as well as their internal dialogues with themselves.  She is available to provide training to organizations, schools, mental health professionals, and anyone who would like to learn how to communicate more effectively.
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Website:  www.laurasilverstein.org

Fred L. Smoot, Ph.D.
Fred is Director of Emory Clergy Care, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. He is a Certified Supervisor of Clinical Pastoral Education, a Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, and a licensed marriage and family therapist (AAMFT).  Fred is using SAVI to train clergy and congregational leaders to communicate effectively in times of difficult professional and congregational turbulence. He designs and presents congregational and staff workshops using SAVI in weekend retreat settings, as well as workshops/consultation for professionals who have stressful public role exposure. Currently, he is developing effective communication tools for couples whose public roles conflict with their private relationships. He is available for consultation online.
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