Andra Medea, MA: President

Andra Medea is the author of the award-winning book, Conflict Unraveled: Fixing problems at work and in families.  She developed her original approach while teaching at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. She started Medea & Associates in 1987.

Virtual Tranquilizer® projects include a 3-hour DVD from the American Bar Association, Working with Emotional Clients: The Virtual Tranquilizer® for Lawyers. The video has been released internationally, and has been on the ABA's continuing education best-seller list since June.  She has designed other Virtual Tranquilizer® courses for judges, mediators and veterans.

Her latest project is Rapid De-escalation Skills for Mental Health Professionals, designed in collaboration with Zak Mucha, MSW.

Zak Mucha, MSW: Co-Designer & Presenter

Zak Mucha, LCSW, is the co-designer of Non-Contact, Non-Drug De-Escalation: The Virtual Tranquilizer® for Mental Health Professionals. He is an ACT supervisor in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, working with clients suffering from severe psychotic disorders and addictions. He has worked with juvenile wards of the state, and with groups in the criminal justice system. He also maintains a private therapeutic practice. He is on the National Advisory Board of PROTECT , a lobbying group working to pass child-protective laws nationwide.

Mucha is also a journalist examining issues of immigration, child abuse, crime and culture. He is the author of a novel, The Beggars' Shore, and contributor to Heart Transplant, a graphic novel about bullying. His latest work is Psychotherapy for the Sick Poor and Angry, due out in 2012.

Conflict Unraveled: Fixing Problems at Work and in Families, won the Silver Award for Book of the Year from ForeWord Magazine in 2005. 

Going Home without Going Crazy: How to Get Along with Your Parents and Family (Even When They Push Your Buttons) was a double finalist for Book of the Year at ForeWord Magazine in 2007.