Credentials and Experience

I received the PhD degree in clinical psychology from Ohio State University in 1970.  My dissertation research involved an intensive study of self-disclosure in the communication of mothers and daughters.  I am board-certified in clinical psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology, and board-certified in group psychotherapy by the American Group Psychotherapy Association.  I am licensed to practice as a doctoral-level psychologist by the state of North Carolina.  I am also a Fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology, and have served as a Board Director of the Academy..

I have been involved in treating individuals, families and groups for over 30 years in a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings.  My private practice has been ongoing for most of that time.  I recently looked back and did the arithmetic and was surprised to learn that I have conducted over 80,000 hours of psychotherapy sessions of various sorts.  By Malcolm Gladwell's  criterion, I have become an expert in this field at least 8 times over.  Does this mean that I am always confident that I will best know how to confront some situation, or that I "have seen everything?"  Not at all!  I expect to be surprised by something tomorrow.  And I will always be struggling to find some way to be useful even when some dilemma might seem insoluble.

I think I have accumulated a kind of confidence, not exactly in myself, but in the context of wisdom and support that surrounds me and my patients when we need it.  This may be my peer supervisors, my family and friends (discussing something in scrubbed, general terms), reading, teachers, and the more "transpersonal" or "spiritual" sources of guidance that  seem to respond when we call.  Especially, I have increased faith in the implicit wisdom of my patients' suffering, their yearning to grow, their stubborn refusal to be merely functional or "well-adjusted."

My formal teaching experience includes faculty positions with the University of North Carolina Department of Psychology and the Training Program in Clinical Psychology, and the Duke University Department of Psychology. After leaving those Psychology Departments posts, I served as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UNC for several years.

I have received and given training in many aspects of psychological practice, including psychodynamic psychotherapy, gestalt therapy, group therapy, family therapy, marital therapy, personality theories, psychological assessment, dream and imagery work, and cognitive-behavioral therapy.

My publications include numerous articles and book chapters on various aspects of professional practice, psychotherapeutic process, communication, human potentials; and a book about the nature of the mind..