John Sobraske

John Sobraske, based in Rochester, New York, has an MA in clinical psychology and is licensed as a mental health counselor and marriage and family therapist. He has worked as a psychotherapist for 25 years, serving youth, adults, couples and families; as a collaborative facilitator and family specialist for 7 years; and as a mediator for 5 years.

John has extensive training in attachment, object relations and psychoanalysis, with specialties in adoption, foster care, trauma, executive function and autism, and he works extensively with LGBTQ, African-American and Hispanic populations as well as low-income individuals and families. John regularly provides mental health evaluator and has served as an expert witness. He has developed two innovative psychotherapeutic approaches—Cognitive Affective Somatic Therapy and Psychoenergetic Psychotherapy.

His background in natural medicine includes training in botanical medicine, classical homeopathy, acupuncture and qigong. He is the chief editor for the homeopathic reference series, Materia Medica Clinica, by Massimo Mangialavori and has taught courses on natural medicine as adjunct faculty at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

John is an international presenter on adoption and collaborative law. He regularly provides introductory two-day trainings and has presented several times to IACP. Together with Donna Maier and Diana Deyo Ryan, John founded Interfow which provides trainings on adaptive strategies for optimal outcomes in co-mediation and collaborative law. This group most recently presented in Spanish to the International Commission on Collaborative Law of Latin America. He has a special interest in collaborative team dynamics and innovative ways to combine mediation and collaboration. He has participated on two IACP committees and is currently the acting president of CLARA.