Professor Emeritus Jean-Gabriel Castel awarded France's highest honour

muellerm — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 08:00:00 +0000

Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Emeritus Jean-Gabriel Castel has added another prestigious decoration to the long list of awards he has received for service to France, Canada and the French community, and for contributions to legal education and the legal profession.

Jean-Gabriel Castel

On Bastille Day (July 14), French President François Hollande promoted Castel to Officier de l'Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur (Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour). The order is the highest decoration in France and is divided into five degrees: chevalier (knight), officier (officer), commandeur (commander), grand officier (grand officer) and grand croix (grand cross).

The promotion to Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour recognizes Castel’s continuous support of French language and culture and the development of relations between France and Canada at all levels. In addition, Castel holds other decorations from France’s Ordre national du Mérite ��Ի��Ordre des Palmes Académiques, and is an associate member of the Académie du Var.

Castel, who was a professor of French and Canadian law at Osgoode from 1959 until his retirement in 1999, has reached great heights in his lifetime and is recognized for many achievements, including:

his service in the French Resistance during World War II for which he received several military decorations;
his presidency of the French War Veterans from Ontario and Manitoba for 25 years;
a role as an elected representative of the French people in Canada (he was elected three times to the Assembly of the French Abroad in Paris);
his presidency of the Private International Law Committee of the Office of Revision of the Civil Code, drafting the part of the code dealing with conflict of laws along with numerous books and publications;
the creation of the French school Bishop de Charbonnel in Toronto;
his role��– with Judge Lacoursiere and R. Roy McMurtry when he was Ontario’s Attorney General��– in making Ontario law and courts bilingual (for which he received the Order of Ontario);
a 27-year history as the editor-in-chief of the Canadian Bar Review, which��– with the support of his friend Louis St. Laurent – Castel transformed into a bilingual review (for which he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada); and
his contribution to the development of public and private international law (for which an annual lecture in his honour was created at Glendon College several years ago, and he received the Mundell and Read medals).

The author of numerous books, including the celebrated three-volume treatise Canadian Conflict of Laws, Castel earned degrees at the universities of Paris, Michigan and Harvard. He was on the Faculty of Law at McGill University (1954 to 1959) before moving to 91��ɫ's Osgoode Hall Law School.

Castel is also a Queen’s Counsel in Ontario, a member of the Royal Society of Canada and a Distinguished Research Professor at 91��ɫ.

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Professor Robert Muller wins international award for trauma therapy book

fmaquito — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ psychology Professor Robert Muller has won a prestigious international award for his book about how to treat adult trauma survivors who resist therapy.

The International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation () presented its Written Media Award to Muller for his 2010 book . Muller’s award is one of only two Written Media Awards given this year by ISSTD, the leading international academic group devoted to research and treatment of complex psychological trauma.

Right: Robert Muller

Muller, a professor of clinical developmental psychology in the graduate program at 91��ɫ, is also an active clinician who works with adult survivors of physical, sexual and mental trauma. His book offers clinicians methods to work with those who are most difficult to treat – those who avoid talking about their history of abuse, which continues to affect them.

In his book, Muller explains the defensive and interpersonal patterns seen among avoidant individuals, and lays out a game plan for effective treatment. Through detailed case examples and practical clinical instruction, he illustrates how to build trust with clients, help them connect with and commit to the treatment process, and facilitate mourning to face the loss associated with trauma.

“It deals with a population of trauma survivors that therapists often view as untreatable,” says Muller. “These people tend to come in focusing on symptoms – often depression or anxiety – and then through the course of therapy they will begin to reveal aspects of their traumatic history.”

It then becomes important for therapists to use techniques such as challenging them about their defensive statements and also to use the therapeutic relationship to help them change, says Muller.

The theoretical framework driving Muller’s approach is attachment theory, pioneered in the 1970s by psychiatrist John Bowlby, who posited that humans form attachments as a survival mechanism to seek protection from real or perceived threats. Even when a protector’s caregiving skills are lacking, the developing child does what is necessary to maintain the relationship; this shapes negative patterns of defence and affect, carrying over into adulthood.

In addition to his role at 91��ɫ, Muller is a supervising psychologist at the Hincks-Dellcrest Centre, specializing in the areas of trauma, attachment and psychotherapy. He is lead investigator in a multi-site program to treat intra-familial trauma, and has over 20 years of clinical experience in the field. His lab is funded by the Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO).

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Professor Emeritus Jean-Gabriel Castel awarded France's highest honour

Professor Robert Muller wins international award for trauma therapy book