Education
- PhD Clinical Psychology: Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2001
- STM Religion, Culture, and Personality: Boston University School of Theology, 1986
- MA Religion: Earlham School of Religion, 1982
- BA: Guilford College, 1972
Certification
North Carolina Board of Examiners of Fee-Based Practicing Pastoral Counselors. Certification #0047. I have retired from my practice of psychotherapy and will not renew my license after it expires at the end of 2024.
Experience
6/1/24-Present: I offer services in spiritual direction (spiritual listening) and occasional teaching in strategic nonviolence, integrating theology, depth psychology, spirituality, and social engagement by means of the systemic perspectives developed by Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others.
3/1/24-5/31/24: Sabbatical. I retired from practice on 3/1 and took this three month period for reflection, prayer, and further writing.
3/14-3/24: Private Practice, Black Mountain. I offered office-based pastoral psychotherapy until Covid made that dangerous, then switched to online therapy.
11/12-3/14: Black Mountain Pastoral Care and Counseling Center. BMPCCC is a community counseling center offering subsidized services for clients who would otherwise be unable to afford counseling. I was on staff at the Center as a pastoral counselor serving individual adults and couples.
1/11 – 11/12: Easter Seals ACTT (Assertive Community Treatment Team), Morganton, NC. As an ACTT psychotherapist, I worked with people with severe and persistent mental illness in an intensive treatment model that included in-home visits, linking clients with community resources and providing comprehensive support.
11/05 – 11/12: Private practice, Asheville. I offered pastoral counseling and spiritual direction primarily, though not exclusively, for clergy. Many of my clients were referred through Potter’s Touch, a pastoral counseling resource for the Western NC districts of the United Methodist Church.
9/99 –9/05: Pendle Hill, a Quaker community and center for adult religious education located in Wallingford, PA.
§ 1999-2001: I took this period of residency in the Pendle Hill community in order to complete a PhD dissertation entitled “Myth and Metaphysics: Archetypal Psychology and Christian Spirituality in Dialogue.”
§ 2001-2003: I was appointed to the core faculty as the Peace Studies teacher. In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I was faculty advisor for six students each term, provided individual counseling as needed and shared responsibility for the pastoral care of the community.
§ 2003-2005: I shifted my responsibilities to the “Pendle Hill on the Road” series, offering lectures and workshops for Quaker Meetings and organizations unable to send students to our campus.
6/97-8/99: Private practice, Waynesville, NC.
I offered pastoral psychotherapy and spiritual direction for individuals, couples, and families.
1/98-5/98: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Western Carolina University: I taught two undergraduate courses, one in Theories of Personality and one in Abnormal Psychology.
9/95-12/97: Georgia Association for Pastoral Care, a community counseling agency and training center for the three Atlanta – area seminaries. I provided supervised pastoral psychotherapy for individuals and couples in partial fulfillment of my PhD internship requirements.
3/94-9/95: Counseling Associates of North Georgia, a group psychotherapy practice located in Cartersville, Georgia which I helped to form along with five colleagues. My practice consisted in creating, directing, and acting as the primary therapist in a domestic violence intervention program for men.
9/89-3/91: Georgia Mental Health Institute, a state mental hospital located in Atlanta. I completed 6 units (18 months) of Clinical Pastoral Education, a training program in clinical chaplaincy. During this time I provided pastoral services for children, adolescents, and adult psychiatric patients. The final 6 months of my training was in CPE supervision. During this period, I provided clinical supervision for beginning seminary students completing a practicum in hospital chaplaincy.
Additional Life Experiences
Habitat for Humanity: I gave a year of volunteer service to this organization (1988-1989) at its headquarters in Americus, Georgia.
New England Friends Home: I spent two years working in this Quaker retirement facility located near Boston (1984-1986). I began as caretaker of the building and grounds and finished as Interim Administrative Director. In both positions I offered pastoral care for our residents and their families.
St. Benedict’s Monastery, Snowmass, Colorado: I spent a year with this Trappist community in the Rockies in their “observer” program for men considering a monastic vocation. I spent this period (1978-1979) in silence, work, and worship. I began my seminary studies the following year.
Other Interests, Hobbies, and Goals
Piano: I’ve played by ear since age 6 and enjoy playing blues, pop, oldies, and a few originals. I’ve recently taken up the task of learning to read music so I can learn to play Chopin – much too complicated to play by ear.
Workshop: I have worked on construction crews, as well as on my own doing both new construction and remodeling projects. I love the process, especially working with wood.
Language: I chose my undergraduate major (French, with a minor in German and Spanish) purely out of a love for the sound of language. For years this interest has been dormant but I’ve recently recovered much of my German and had an opportunity to improve my French and Spanish when hiking the Camino de Santiago in the fall of 2013.
Publications
“Prophetic Mysticism and Strategic Activism: Quakers as Calculating Contemplatives” in Quakers and the Future of Peacemaking (Quakers and the Disciplines Series, Volume 8), Lonnie Valentine, Paul N. Anderson, and Christy Randazzo, Eds. Longmeadow, MA: Phil Weinholtz, Publisher; Longmeadow, MA: Full Media Services, 2024.
Praying in the Dark: Spirituality, Nonviolence, and the Emerging World. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022.
“Quaker Witness as Sacrament.” Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill Publications (Pendle Hill Pamphlet #397), August 2008.
“Nonviolence Then and Now: A Shared Search for Truth and a Deeper Meaning.” An article commemorating MLK day. Phildelphia Inquirer, January 19, 2003.
Book review of Archetypal Process: Self and Divine in Whitehead, Jung, and Hillman, by David Ray Griffin. Process Studies 31.1, Spring-Summer, 2002, pp. 187-190.
“Violence and Nonviolence: Quaker Spirituality and the Treatment of Domestic Violence Offenders” in Out of the Silence: Quaker Perspectives on Pastoral Care and Counseling. (J. B. Ratliff, Ed.)Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill Publications. 2001.
”Suffering, Prayer and Hope.” Quaker Life, July-August, 1983.