Jitka Vodňanská (CZE)

After graduating from Charles University in anthropology, Jitka joined the anti-alcohol treatment center at Apolinář Hospital. In the following years, she completed her studies in psychology and several psychotherapy courses . Over time, she created the Center for Psychotherapy and Family Therapy at Apolinář Hospital, which still operates to this day.
In the 70s, she married the Czech writer and songwriter Jan Vodňanský, with whom she has a son. The family lived in a dissident environment and they held various lectures in their apartment since it was unapproved by the communist authorities. After their divorce, Jitka became close to Václav Havel and their relationship lasted until the early 1990s. After the Velvet Revolution, Václav Havel became the Czech President and Jitka turned to Buddhism and meditation. Myanmar became her spiritual home. She travels there every year and then uses her experience with Buddhist meditation techniques in her psychotherapy practice.
In 2018, she published the autobiographical book Voda, která hoří (Water that burns), full of memories of her Ukrainian grandmother, her childhood in rural South Bohemia, years of studies, and the mood of the 1960s in Prague, and the unique world of the anti-alcohol treatment center.