I am delighted to write a recommendation for Professor Gao Lan regarding her lectures and teaching for Chinese parents.
I have worked closely with Professor Gao Lan over the last ten years and have found that she has an excellent understanding of children, child development, and parenting styles.
She understands the nature of child development within the Chinese cultural context and can communicate this to both her students at the universities where she teaches as well as to parents who often come with many questions about their childs developmental needs.
I have had the good fortune to be able to work with Professor Gao Lan in lectures, seminars and workshops on child development and child psychotherapy that we have co-taught in Guangzhou and Macau to both university students as well as to students who are interested in Jungian psychology.
Professor Gao Lan has an excellent knowledge from her many years of research and clinical with children of the impact of the childs temperament, attachment style, and the parenting relationship upon the development of the childs unique and individual personality.
She has a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the importance of the childs first years 0-6years upon their later development.
She understands the importance of a secure attachment relationship between the child and their parents for the development of their emotional, intellectual, spiritual and creative life;
and she understands how to help parents development a secure and trusting attachment relationship with their child.
When I gave lectures with Professor Gao Lan in Guangzhou on the development of secure attachment to parents she was able to explain in a clear and comprehensive manner the need for parents to develop their capacity for sensitivity to their child to help address the childs emotional needs as well as to help the child develop a capacity for agency, positive self-image and secure and coherent identity.
Professor Gao Lan is able to help parents understand their childs individuality in terms of their temperament, gifts, and challenges.
She is able to explain all of this in a clear and concise manner to parents who are able to utilize Professor Gao Lans wisdom and knowledge in positive way in their daily interactions with their child.
Professor Gao Lan has a deep understanding of Chinese culture and she realizes the need to help Chinese parents understand that the childs emotional, creative and spiritual development is as important as the childs academic achievement.
In this regard she brings to her work years of research and clinical work with children in preschool settings.
Her training as a Jungian child and adult analyst and sandplay therapist enable her to more deeply understand the childs emotional, social, and creative needs in the context of the challenges we face in the 21st century.
I think that Professor Gao Lans significant achievements in the areas of child development and Jungian child analysis are both special and unique in China, and I am confident that she shall be able to continue to make important contributions to these fields.
She is an internationally recognized authority in these areas and she has much to share from her many years of research and clinical experience that will continue to make a significant impact in China and internationally.
I think that parents in China are fortunate to have such an important asset and they shall be able to gain much knowledge from her sensitivity, wisdom and creativity.
Brian Feldman, Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley
Former Chief Clinical Psychologist, Stanford University Medical Center, Palo Alto, California
Child, Adolescent and Adult Jungian Analyst IAAP
Infant Observation Seminar Leader AIDOBB
Visiting Professor: City University of Macau, China