Beyond education and licensure which all therapist have, I believe that the "person of the therapist" is critically important to the outcomes achieved by the couple in therapy. In fact, one of the most important things to know about your therapist is their ongoing training and professional experiences beyond grad school.  As you can see below, I take my personal training seriously, developing my "personhood of the therapist".  When therapists say they have extensive experience, it is often a vague concept. Below, I outline my experience in transformational, experiential, systemic couples therapy.

​

Books Written and Educational Background

• Author of the book "Managing the Aftermath of Infidelity: A Sequential Guide for Couples and Therapists (2021).

• Author of the book "Creating an Effective Couples Therapy Practice" (2017).

• Author of Bullying, Suicide, and Homicide: Understanding, Assessing, and Preventing Threats to Self and Others for Victims of Bullying (2011).

• Obtained a Doctorate and Masters degree in counseling (2009, 2004).

My Professional Training Experiences:

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), 4-Day Intensive Retreat (January 2024). Montego Bay, Jamaica. The retreat focused on mindfulness practices and how to open up to thoughts and feelings without getting entangled in them, identify what truly matters to you, and take meaningful action. These are often critical skills for couple who are struggling with the emotional turmoil with discovery and disclosure of infidelity. ACT is also useful for couples having difficulty with connection because it can help clarify value-based decision-making.

• Counseling and Technology: Innovation or Invasion (January 2024). American Association of State Boards,.Tucson, Arizona. I attended this 3-day conference of the American Association of State Boards as one of two voting delegates representing the state of Ohio. We discussed access to synchronous health, how counseling will adjust to A.I. technology, the concept of digital therapeutics and how this will effect delivery of care, machine ethics and accountability, and how state boards will formulate policy and ethical codes related to A.I. We also discussed the counseling compact and its development. 31 states are currently in the compact.

• Treating Couples: Surmounting Challenges. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (November through December, 2023). This conference series took on a variety of different topics, with several focused on experiential process. Internal Family Systems theory and techniques were described to experience "self-leadership" and how this model could be effective in couples therapy. Another experiential model, Emotion Focused Therapy and Attachment Theory were reviewed as a means to create healthy bonding and attachment. Infidelity treatment was also discussed and the program advocated for helping couples predict possible struggles and offering structured interventions if they occur. 

• The Person of the Therapist: Understanding the History and Identities We Bring to Couples Work. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (October, 2022). Effective couples therapy requires the therapist to "be present", which means "being present with their own life experiences". In doing so, the therapy experience is a rich experience for the couple and a rich experience for the therapist. This is exponentially better when the therapist works on their "signature themes" outside of the therapy session, so that the therapist can learn about the own issues and work on them.

• Optimizing Therapeutic Efficiency: Applying Concepts from a Single-Session Delivery Model to Short- & Longer-term Couples Work: Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (October, 2022). This program discussed a session structure for effective couples therapy using just one session. Research shows that most of the benefits of couples therapy happen in the initial stages of therapy and that one session can be the "whole therapy". The model proposes that a single hour of therapy can lead to significant change even for long standing issues.

• Seeing Beyond the Couple in the Room: Couple Sensitive Individual Therapy: Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (October, 2022). This program discussed the potential negative outcomes of individual therapy, when the therapists takes a position of being a one-sided advocate in a relationship conflict, having never seen the other partner.

• Complex Developmental Trauma and Couples: The Collaborative Change Model. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (September 2022). This program discussed about how to help couples that are triggered into traumatic stress states to move them relationally to emotional regulation and connection, so that they can change patterns on consolidate their regulation and healing.

• Internal Family Systems Clinical (IFS) Lab. Cincinnati, Ohio (August though September 2022). I led this clinical lab with other clinicians to develop skills in the IFS Model. The training include four, 3-hour sessions of clinical work with "live supervised therapy".

• Internal Family Systems Model. Two-Day Conference. The model helps therapists support their clients in healing trauma though understanding their internal experience. Cincinnati Ohio (April 2022).

• International Human Learning Resource Network Annual Conference, Los Angeles, California (November 2020). This non-traditional conference is experiential, creating opportunities for personal growth of the clinician. The conference has an international scope and it fosters intimate connections with other professionals from other countries.

• Sex, Sexuality and Gender Conference, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (Nov, 2019). Healthy sexuality is essential to the wellness and vibrancy of intimate relationships.

• Completed a weekend experiential workshop on Deconstructing Shame: A Gestalt Approach. Cleveland, Ohio (Oct, 2019). Deconstructing our shame response is paramount to creating intimacy, particularly for couples in troubled relationships and those experiencing infidelity. When we lack awareness of our shame, we become less available in our ability to be in relational contact with our partner.

• Completed a 6-day intensive training program in the Satir Growth Model of Transformational Systemic Therapy at the University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill, North Carolina (July 2019). This retreat focused on gaining clarity about our own thought processes and feelings, which are crucial elements in improving our communication skills and increasing intimacy with others. It is also important for therapists to know self to engage couples in healthy ways.

• Treating Couples Conference, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (Nov, 2018). The focus this year was on using brain science to work with couples, treating traumatized couples and working with couples "that hate each other and the therapist".

• Completed a 7-day intensive, residential training program for Satir International Trainers at the Satir Institute of the Pacific, Vancouver, Canada (2018). The retreat focused on effective leadership in training other therapists to use the Satir model.

• Treating Couples Conference, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (Dec, 2017). 

• Completed a 7-day intensive, residential training program in Use of Self in Family Therapy at the Satir Institute of the Pacific, Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, Canada (2017). Beautiful country, beautiful people, beautiful personal experience of self.

• Completed an 10-day intensive, residential training program in Transformational Systemic Therapy at the Satir Institute of the Pacific, in Langley, British Columbia, Canada (2017). Fantastic personal and professional experience.

• Completed a year-long, post-graduate clinical training in Milan Systemic Marriage and Family Therapy in Cincinnati Ohio (2006).​ One of the most impactful aspects of my training.

​

Other Professional Experience:

• Counseling Professor at Xavier University (2010 to 2022).

• CEO and owner of Waybridge Counseling (2004-present).

• Chair of the Professional Standards Committee for the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapists Board (2018-2021).

• Appointed by Governor Mike DeWine to the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board as a board member and committee member of the Professional Standards Committee for counselors (2020-Present).

• Appointed by Governor John Kasich to the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board as a board member and committee member of the Professional Standards Committee for counselors (2017-2020).

• Executive Director of the Greater Cincinnati Counseling Association for 4 years, President for 1 year and an executive board member for 13 years (2002-2015).

• 2011 Outstanding Alumnus Award, University of Cincinnati (Doctorate Program), Presented at the 4th Annual Ecological Counseling Conference.