Being in Alexandria, teaching
for Regent University is not only an honor and privilege but reunites
me with my place of birth (Alexandria). Southern style
was to be short-lived however, as my father a restaurant and hotel
manager would not return south until my teen years. Moving first
to upstate New York and then to Northampton Massachusetts; I grew
up in a typical Jewish family until I was 12-years-old. At
age 12, my mother passed on from this life due to inoperable cancer
and by age 14 my father remarried adding three new siblings to our
small family. My younger brother, Seth, adjusted better than
I did and by age 17, I was out on my own just before graduation from
high school in Williamsburg, Virginia. I had a conversion
experience in my senior year after an honest search for answers and
identity. I thought at that time that my relationship with
God would stabilize my life and give it focus. Instead it has
been the centerpiece of an oft-times wild ride through life but always
being the stabilizing force leading me to deeper understandings and
a deeper walk. When I was eight-years-old in Hebrew School
a Rabbi once told me to “question everything” regarding
faith and spirituality. “It’s the only way you can truly
know what you believe and why”. I have applied this mandate
throughout my life; sometimes to the chagrin of those spiritual mentors
around me but always ending up in a richer and deeper walk with God.
Actually, wrestling with God is a more accurate assessment in that
I often feel connected to Jacob.
After several false starts in Bible College and junior college, I was
able to go straight through my Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling
at the University of South Florida. Believing I was too dangerous
to foist on the public at large, I enrolled in my first Doctoral program
for more therapeutic training at the Gestalt Institute in Tampa and
completed in 1985 after sitting on my dissertation for five years. I
have since gone on to complete a specialization in Theology, three
more Doctorates (Theology, Ministry, and Counseling Psychology), and
have received an Honorary Doctorate in Divinity (DD). Education
has been a wonderful way to expand horizons and foster understanding. I
continue to educate myself but no longer search out degrees and credits. I
worked in the field of counseling and ministry, coming up through the
ranks of government and private agencies, hospitals, residential treatment
centers, partial hospitalization programs, churches, training facilities,
and private practice. I have had an extensive career in a wide
variety of venues including the classroom. Teaching and clinical
supervision have always been creative outlets for me and a deep source
of joy and satisfaction. Working with others to understand the
complexities of life and insight to self have been the privilege and
honor others have allowed in sharing their journeys with me. In
the last few years, research has captured my attention with most of
the focus targeted at Dissociative Identity Disorder and both Christian
and secular applications to healing.
I believe that psychotherapy is an art from. The artist must
be equipped with a variety of styles or colors to enable them to be
a catalyst for positive change. As Christian therapists, the
calling often means providing a way for clients (and sometimes ourselves)
to be positively reconciled with God. This comes from a deep
place of love and respect for those we work with and those who allow
us to share in their walk and journey. My favorite scripture
comes from I John 4:8 “. . . for God is Love”. I
believe that we are called to learn how to love in all its many aspects
and that life itself is the classroom in which to learn the lessons. Being
a professor at Regent University has been a long time goal of mine. I
am humbled and honored to be a part of a faculty staff that not only
embodies this idea but walks it out daily. The true fire of this
staff is to convey spiritual insights and growth to assist others to
assist others to do the same. There is nothing more sacred to
me than this.
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