Therapist and Founder of Ocala Balanced Living
Therapeutic and Consulting Services

• Solution-focused therapy for individuals, children, couples, families
• Therapeutic consulting services provided for family businesses, corporations, privately held medical and dental practices, private and parochial schools
• Over 35 years in the therapy field, both inpatient and outpatient settings
• Family business consulting since 1996, including privately held medical and dental practices, auto parts suppliers, private and parochial schools, and Palm Beach restaurants
• Ph.D., M.S.
  LMHC 3863

An Introduction

My experience with inpatient populations occurred largely as a resident of New Orleans, and includes the privilege of participating in what was then deemed a cutting-edge therapeutic milieu environment: the “Intensive – Regressive Psychotherapy Unit – Lake 3”, of River Oaks Hospital. A mentor and friend, William Sorem, M.D., was one of the founders of the program, which today encompasses a campus west of New Orleans.

Valuable learning was also provided in my clinical work with the adolescent population of De Paul Hospital, New Orleans, and that of my friend and colleague who directed the program, Henry Whitworth, M.D.

My first supervisory experience was a residential maternity setting, Catholic Charities St. Vincent’s Home, in which I was integral in the development and implementation of a client behavioral program, assisted by a staff of exceptionally capable and dedicated counselors and clinicians, all of which I hired and trained.

Discussion regarding the “new” pandemic HIV, as well as my evolving clinical and experiential appreciation for Gestalt and Gestalt Body Work, is to be assigned to Gary A. Lloyd, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Tulane University School of Social Work.

St. Elizabeth’s Children’s Home, another Catholic Charities program, allowed me to further refine my clinical and program development / enhancement skills.

The forensic clinical acumen I developed prior to departing New Orleans for doctoral work in Florida in 1989 can be attributed to my friend and mentor Edward Moan, Ph.D., whose unwavering diligence, integrity, and tenacity in the field, serves as a touchstone for me even now.

When my doctoral studies commenced at Nova Southeastern University, I was offered a position as a therapist working in the ICCP (Intensive Crisis Counseling Program), under the sage direction of Wendall Ray, Ph.D., the archival custodian of all written, recorded, and filmed research of Don D. Jackson, M.D., founder of the MRI (Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, California).

Strategic and Brief Therapy modalities were some of what I learned in my time with Dr. Ray, along with cultivating an acute awareness of the seminal work of the late Dr. Jackson, the philosophical founder of the Nova Therapy Program.

Immersed in this environment, I began to develop a unique therapeutic approach that was systemic, solution-focused and reality based – integrating a client’s experiences of their past / present / future, in a manner which increased awareness of patterns and choices and maximized opportunities for useful change.

I further refined my clinical approach in supervised doctoral practicum at the famed two-way mirrored therapy rooms of Nova Clinic, and express my appreciation to all of my colleagues and fellow students who sat in darkened rooms, peering through the looking glass – watching, listening, and offering support – many times late into the night as we endeavored to “get to the bottom” of issues with clients who came to the clinic.

Drs. Rambo, Fleming, and Chenail, three jewels in the crown of systemic therapy that were a sweet inspiration and a pleasure to work with, and whose dedication to the field continues to be vigorous and relevant, are within my heart and clinical technique even now.

A potent and essential source of my “education” as a clinician is to be assigned to the many clients whose experiences enriched the creation and evolution of Balanced Living through their earnest desire for meaningful change.

(Yes, it was I who named it as such from the start – a name which caught on and held true: The Clinic).

A Further Chronology of Balanced Living

• Family Therapist; Center for Children in Crisis*West Palm Beach, Florida. May 1990 – October 1992

Provide individual, couple, family and group therapy to clients who have been sexually abused and/or who have sexually offended. Provide legal testimony as applicable.

• Solution Focused Therapeutic and Consulting Services*Lake Worth, Florida. March 1991 – July 2004

Private practice and consulting services in south Florida, during which time I served as the Director of Palm Beach Counties FVIP (Family Violence Intervention Program), including adjunct/satellite services. Director of the Department of Corrections and Department of Juvenile Justice Overlay programs affiliated with same.

• Therapist and Co- Founder of the applied inpatient treatment program at this residential facility: The Refuge *Ocklawaha, Florida. December 2003 – July 2005

Create, establish, implement, and track evidence based clinical protocols for the program. Provide individual, couple, family, and group therapy in this adult residential treatment facility whose target populations are trauma survivors, substance abusers, and those with obsessive-compulsive disorders.

• Balanced Living Therapeutic and Consulting Services*Ocala, Florida. December 2003 – Present

With sensitivity to and awareness of an individual’s “issues,” I apply Balanced Living Protocols in the therapeutic treatment of children, teenagers, adults, couples, and families.

Eclectic and systemic application of cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic and integrative clinical modalities (including psychodrama, family of origin and/or “Smart” recovery in the resolution of addiction) may augment Balanced Living Protocols as deemed useful.

As a monitor, facilitator, evaluator, and therapist for Florida legislated, Impaired Physician and Disruptive Professionals Programs, I have enjoyed the good outcomes when earnest clients honor their obligation to themselves, their colleagues, and their profession by embracing the Balanced Living Protocols.

As a Custody Evaluator for 5th Circuit Court, Marion County, Florida, I have also seen families move through the painful process of divorce / custody, and come to experience the peace of Balanced Living.