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Advisory Council Members
Biographies
The Center has a stellar group of Advisory Council members who are participating
organization and the expansion of our reform work.
Here are their biographies.
Penelope Young Andrade, LCSW ~ Psychotherapy: Penelope Andrade is the author of Emotional Medicine Rx: Cry When You’re Sad, Stop When You’re Done Feel Good Fast, and is founder of the San Diego Center for Psychosynthesis. Her popular advice column, “Transformational Talk,” reaches thousands of readers in southern California. Her work draws on the most powerful elements of both traditional and alternative therapies to help people heal depression and anxiety without medication. Her website is: www.EmotionalMedicineRx.com.
Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD ~ Neurology: Dr. Baughman is an adult and child neurologist in private practice for 35 years. As a neurologist on a daily basis he makes distinctions between "disease" (real diseases such epilepsy, brain tumor, and multiple sclerosis) and "no disease" (emotional, psychological, psychiatric) diagnoses. He has discovered and described real, bona fide diseases, and published scientific articles in leading national and international medical journals. Dr. Baughman has testified for victimized parents and children in ADHD/Ritalin legal cases, writes for the print media and appears on talk radio shows, always making the point that ADHD is fraudulent--a creation of the psychiatric-pharmaceutical cartel. Without the fraudulent diagnosis ADHD, the psychiatric-pharmaceutical cartel would have no justification for prescribing their dangerous, addictive, Schedule II, stimulants drugs such as Ritalin (methylphenindate), Dexedrine (dextro-amphetamine), and Adderall (mixed dextro- and levo-amphetamine). Dr. Baughman has appeared frequently on national television and radio and is the author of The ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes “Patients” Out of Normal Children.
Bart Billings, PhD ~ Psychology: Bart P. Billings, PhD, a retired U.S. Army Colonel, is a licensed clinical psychologist and marriage and family therapist. He has been chief of professional services and assistant director at the University of California Davis Medical School's Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department. He has also been senior faculty at the William Glasser MD Institute for thirty-five years and has taught classes at universities including the University of San Francisco, University of California Davis and United States International University. During Dr. Billing's service as commanding officer for a general hospital section in the U.S. Army Reserves, he founded and directed the National Tri-Service Prisoner of War Conference and the military-wide Human Assistance Rapid Response Team (HARRT) program. Dr. Billings also directs the oldest annual military stress conference, the International Military and Civilian Combat Stress Conference. Dr. Billings has been interviewed on ABC News Nightline and ABC World News with Charlie Gibson about combat stress.
Doug Bower, PhD ~ Counseling & Clergy: Doug Bower, Ph.D. is a licensed professional counselor and a United Methodist minister. In addition he is a Registered Nurse who worked psychiatry, recovery room, and post-op surgical care. He presently offers consultations in counseling and psychotherapy through Counseling Ministries which he founded in the 1980s. He also is on a circuit with the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church serving as pastor and pastoral counselor for Burts and Glade United Methodist Church. Dr. Bower has been influenced by the Person-Centered Approach which was originally presented by Carl Rogers. He has prepared two book projects: “The Person-Centered Approach: Applications for Living,” and “Person-Centered/Client-Centered: Discovering the Self One Truly Is. A third book project “Revising the Person-Centered Approach: Pushing on the Envelope, but not too Hard” which is in its final stages of submission for publication. He held an adjunct faculty position in the Counseling Psychology department of Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, Georgian from 2000-2005. He is a member of the Association for the Development of the Person-Centered Approach. Dr. Bower is a Life Diplomat and Fellow with the American Psychotherapy Association and is Board Certified in Counseling through the American Psychotherapy Association. He serves the Athens Georgia area in the Kiwanis Club of Athens, the Special Needs Committee of the North Georgia Annual Conference Host Committee, and Native American Concerns of the Athens-Elberton District Connectional Ministries.
Pat Bracken, MD ~ Psychiatry: Pat Bracken, M.D., Ph.D. works as a Consultant Psychiatrist with the West Cork Mental Health Service. He is also Clinical Director of this service. He trained in medicine and psychiatry in Ireland and in Birmingham, England. Between 1987-1990 he worked for the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture on a project in Uganda. His MD degree was awarded for research that looked at how one village had been affected by war time violence. He has also carried out consultancy work for Save the Children in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nepal. Dr. Bracken also has a background in Philosophy with a PhD from the University of Warwick in 1999. He was Professor of Philosophy, Diversity and Mental Health at the University of Central Lancashire between 2006 and 2008. He co-edited the book Rethinking the Trauma of War with Dr Celia Petty (1998). His own book Trauma: Culture, Meaning and Philosophy was published in 2002. With his colleague, Prof Phil Thomas, he published the book Postpsychiatry: A New Direction for Mental Health in 2005.
Bonnie Burstow, PhD~Psychotherapy: Dr. Bonnie Burstow is a faculty member at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto who is a trauma specialist and as well as a research specialist, and whose expertise includes among other things working with clients harmed by electroshock. She is also a well known feminist psychotherapist, and she wrote one of the early classics of feminist therapy (Radical Feminist Therapy: Working in the Context of Violence. Sage, 2002) --a book which emphasizes gender oppression and stretches the concept of empathy in therapy to “political empathy”. Additionally she a trainer of therapists, and a clinical supervisor who has been working in Toronto for three decades. At the same time , she is a long time antipsychiatry activist. She is currently chair of Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault, and she is the founding member of Health Care Professionals against Electroshock. She has presented on ECT at numerous academic conferences, and is particularly known for her investigations of electroshock with respect to gender. Correspondingly, she is a prolific researcher and has authored many articles with respect to electroconvulsive therapy, including, Understanding and Ending ECT: A Feminist Imperative, Canadian Woman Studies, Vol. 15, nos. 2 and 3, 2006: pp. 115-122; and Electroshock as a Form of Violence Against Women, Violence Against Women, Vol. 12, No. 4, 2006: pp. 372-392. As a professional and a concerned citizen, she also helped organize a number of public hearings into electroshock as well as a hearing into psychiatric drugs. And as an academic who supervises doctoral and masters thesis, she is one of the scholars who have been opening the doors of academia to antipsychiatry—via conferences, coursework, articles, additionally, the theses of her students, whose psychiatry-related theses are making are establishing new ground in discourse analysis and radical ethnography.
Joanne Cacciatore, PhD, LMSW, FT ~ Bereavement Trauma Specialist: Dr. Joanne Cacciatore is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University and directs the graduate Certificate in Trauma and Bereavement program. She is also the Founder of the MISS Foundation, an international nonprofit organization with 78 chapters worldwide which aids parents whose infants or children have died or are dying. Her research has been published in The Lancet, Birth, Families in Society, Affilia, Death Studies, Omega, Social Work, and many other peer reviewed journals. Her work has been featured in Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and CNN. She is a diplomat with the American Psychotherapy Association and has been an advocate and counselor for traumatically bereaved families since 1996. She lives with her family in Sedona, Arizona and is the mother of five children; “four who walk and one who soars”.
Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D.~ Psychology: Dr. Paula Caplan is an Associate at the DuBois Institute, Harvard University. She is a clinical and research psychologist and longtime advocate for people in and survivors of the traditional mental health system. Her book, They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal is the only exposé of the process of creating psychiatric diagnoses by an insider -- she served for two years on two DSM-IV committees before quitting after observing the way the process was characterized by ignoring, distorting, or lying about good research that failed to support what the DSM-IV leaders wanted to do and by their denial of the harm done by their diagnoses. She edited Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis and has written many chapters and papers about matters related to diagnosis and other corruption and harm in the mental health system. She coordinated the filing of two sets of complaints about harm from diagnosis -- one with the American Psychiatric Association, the other with the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- creating a paper trail that documents once and for all that neither of these two entities, the two that by all rights should regulate psychiatric diagnosis, provide no regulation or redress from harm, and have no intention of doing so. She has long advocated for Congressional hearings about psychiatric diagnosis. Her paper, "Diagnosisgate: Conflict of interest at the top of the psychiatric apparatus," appeared in 2015 in APORIA:The Nursing Journal and addressed the mystery of why not one major media story about the corruption involving the marketing of Risperdal revealed the name and secret, crucial roles played by Allen Frances immediately after his edition of the DSM had been published. She has written award winning stage plays and a screenplay dealing with these issues.
Dorothy Cassidy, MEd ~ Special Education: For many years Dorothy Cassidy, M.Ed. has served on the Board of Directors of a couple of mental health organizations. She is now thrilled to be part of The Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy, Education & Living. Nationally, statewide, and locally, she has been giving presentations and seminars on issues and choices for mental health, especially those involving children, with personal appearances which on occasion have included radio and television. Over a 36 year period, she has primarily taught special education for all grades levels through adults including incarcerated women. Dorothy Cassidy offers local seminars dealing with children’s emotional needs in North Myrtle Beach, SC. The next event is on August 6th, 2011. If any of you are down/up this way and want to attend, you may call Dorothy at 843 272-3432 and leave a message. These presentations are given at her own expense and without compensation, though representative of many of the ideals of The Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy with encouragement and essential information from Peter and Ginger Breggin. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in political science; master’s degree in special education from the University of Virginia and; doctoral level classes were taken at the University of South Carolina.
Ted Chabasinski, J.D. ~ Patients' Rights Attorney: Ted Chabasinski was six years old when he was taken from his foster family and turned over to a leading child psychiatrist of the time, Dr. Loretta Bender, who had invented the diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia. Since his natural mother had been in a psychiatric hospital just before he was born, he was labeled as schizophrenic as well, and then became one of the first children to be given electric shock treatment, part of an experiment that involved several hundred other children. After this episode, he was sent to a state hospital in New York, where he spent the rest of his childhood. After his release at age seventeen, he worked his way through college and graduate school, and eventually became an attorney. He has been active in the psychiatric survivor movement since 1971. Among his accomplishments, he led the ballot campaign in Berkeley, California that convinced voters there to overwhelmingly adopt a ban on electroshock at the local psychiatric ward. Ted has appeared on national television and radio many times, blogs on the website Mad In America, and continues to be active in the movement against psychiatric abuse, with special emphasis on the drugging of children.
Tony Coates, MBChB MNZAP ~Psychiatry: Tony Coates works as a Psychiatrist/ Psychotherapist in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland (population 1.5million). As a Psychiatrist he works in the Acute Intake and Assessment Team of West Auckland’s Mental Health services (Waitemata District Health Board), the New Zealand Department of Health agency provider to the people of West Auckland. He also runs a private practice in psychotherapy and is a member of the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists. Tony spent five years as a psychiatric Registrar(Resident) but refused to join the College of Psychiatrists on the grounds that the diagnosis of mental illness lacked rigor, and was devoid of scientific evidence, such diagnosis being a requirement for College membership. He then undertook training in psychotherapy, group therapy and family therapy and for three years was Leader of Segar House Group Psychotherapy unit. The work of Humberto Maturana, and the Biology of Cognition, provided Tony with the missing scientific links between human language, behavior and neurobiology. In 1998 he presented a paper, "The Ethics of the Medical Model in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy" at the International Symposium on Autopoiesis at Belo Horizonte Brazil. His further studies with Maturana took place in 2000 at Schumacher College, Devon England. Tony strongly supports non-pharmacological and empathic approaches to issues of mental distress. He is a frequent lecturer to patients’ rights groups, advocacy groups, University classes, and mental health professionals about the dangers inherent in DSM diagnosis and psychiatry’s reliance on drug interventions; and its clandestine and co-dependent support of the pharmaceutical Industry. Tony lives in Auckland New Zealand with his artist wife Jude.
Ty C. Colbert, PhD ~ Psychology: Dr. Ty Colbert has been a licensed clinical psychologist for the last thirty years. He specializes in drug free psychotherapy for such so-called mental disorders as Schizophrenia, Bipolar and ADHD. He is the author of Broken Brains or Wounded Hearts: What Causes Mental Illness, Rape of the Soul, Blaming Our Genes, as well as several short booklets. He has given Continuing Educational seminars across the United States to professionals on the fallacies of the medical model of mental illness and on drug free approaches to psychotherapy. He presently works as a prison psychologist in the state of California.
Michael Cornwall, PhD ~ Psychology: Michael worked for almost 30 years as a front line therapist in a large California County Mental Health System with adults, teens and children. For the first 3 years he served in a 20 bed, free standing, open door first episode psychosis, system diversion program that used no medications or restraints and opposed the medical model. There he learned the power of empathic therapy to help people through their journey of madness and come out the other side-"Weller than well" as Karl Menninger famously said. Up until his retirement, Michael was also an elected advocacy group political leader who actively fought against the ever progressing harmful take-over of the county system by bio-psychiatry. Michael currently is a CEU trainer, alternative services conference presenter and psychology graduate school lecturer, and has recently been an Esalen Institute workshop leader on alternative approaches to madness. He is a designated blogger on Robert Whitaker's Mad In America web magazine and is on the steering committee of the newly forming family support network that will provide and alternative to NAMI, called the Mother Bear Community Action Network.
Michael W. Corrigan, EdD ~ Educational Psychologist: Michael Corrigan is an educational psychologist and professor of child development and research methods at Marshall University. He is the author of Debunking ADHD: 10 Reasons to Stop Drugging Kids for Acting Like Kids as well as numerous other books and peer-reviewed publications on education and the social development of children. His research on child development and school improvement has been funded through the US Department of Education, National Science Foundation, and Department of Justice.
Carolyn Crowder, PhD ~ Psychology: Dr. Carolyn Crowder is a retired psychologist who specializes in parent education. She is a trainer in effective discipline following the philosophy and practical, common sense methods of Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs. She has taught parenting classes for 40 years and before she retired she worked in private practice as well as the state prison, juvenile court, incest treatment program, university counseling center, and public schools. Dr. Crowder has published three parenting books, one of which was on the NY Times bestseller list. She appeared on 20/20, Dateline, Lifetime Live, The Early Show, and Today, as well as NPR. She is on a tear about the drugging of children in the mental health system and considers it child abuse. Her other cause is animal rights. Dr. Crowder serves on the board of the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry and serves on the steering committee for Mother Bear CAN. She also serves on the boards of Equine Voices, and The Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary. She has recently started her own non-profit with the mission of granting scholarships to underserved women in Alabama and providing a summer Civil Rights camp for youth from the Birmingham, Alabama community.
Thomas P Cushman, PhD ~ Counseling & Education: Thomas Cushman, Ph.D. is a former Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Counseling & Psychological Services at SUNY Oswego. He received his BA from the University of New Hampshire; his MA from SUNY-Oswego; and his Ph.D. from Syracuse University.
Beth Darnall, PhD ~ Pain Psychologist: Beth Darnall, PhD is author of Less Pain, Fewer Pills: Avoid the dangers of prescription opioids and gain control of chronic pain © 2014, Bull Publishing. She is Clinical Associate Professor in the Division of Pain Medicine at Stanford University. Her research topics include single-session treatment for pain catastrophizing; the impact of opioids on the brain; the impact of psychological factors on neural functioning, inflammation, and sensory perception in chronic pain; and broadening access to low-cost pain care with novel chronic pain treatments. She provides public education about pain psychology in her Psychology Today column entitled “Less Pain, Fewer Pills: How to use your mind-body connection to your advantage.” More information is available at www.bethdarnall.com
Nadine De Santo, EdS ~ School Psychology: Nadine De Santo is a school psychologist in Indiana. She also teaches classes incorporating personality, learning style, challenging temperaments, and drug-free discipline at schools, churches and the women’s division of the local rescue mission.
Anthony DiGiovanni, MD ~ Psychiatry: Dr. Anthony DiGiovanni practices adolescent psychiatry & pediatric psychiatry in San Francisco, California, and is planning to move to the upstate New York area.
Mathy Downing ~ Drug Safety Advocate: Mathy Downing is wife and mother of two daughters. Mrs. Downing’s daughter, Candace Leigh Downing, committed suicide as a result of the effects of the Zoloft prescribed to her at the age of 12. The Downings have testified at FDA hearings and are lobbying Congress to make public all drug company research. Mathy Downing has also addressed the US Drug Safety Systems Committee, which is reviewing the numerous allegations against the FDA's mishandling of antidepressants. The story of their family tragedy and the broader story of the deadly effects psychiatric drugs can have upon children is told in the documentary film, Prescription Suicide.
Kathryn Douthit, PhD ~ Counseling and Human Development: Dr. Kathryn Douthit is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Counseling and Human Development Program in the Department of Counseling & Human Development, Warner School of Education, University of Rochester, New York. Dr. Douthit is a counselor educator who joined the Warner School in 2001 with a scholarly background and career experiences that encouraged her to bridge the worlds of social and biological sciences. Dr. Douthit thinks it is crucial to bring together the literatures of science and counseling to form one coherent statement about their relationship that both disciplines can digest and accept. In her earliest academic and professional experiences, she devoted more than a dozen years to earning degrees in science, teaching undergraduate biology and mathematics courses, working in a tutoring program for medical school students in medical microbiology, and conducting research for use in various federal substance abuse prevention programs. Through her academic work and career experiences, she has become increasingly interested in the relationship between neuroscience and counseling, and on the neurological changes that can result from effective counseling. As a division counselor in the department of math, science, and allied health at Harrisburg Area Community College, she provided personal and career counseling and academic advising to science and mathematics students. Her research and doctoral education have produced articles and professional presentations on subjects as complex and diverse as an ecological view of attention deficit disorder, academic failure among gifted students, understanding the relationship between counseling and psychiatric genetics, the inequality of the aging experience, and a critical view of contemporary dementia care. Dr. Douthit currently teaches courses in human development and the counseling process, including the requirements for effective multicultural counseling.
M.N.G (Graham) Dukes, MD ~ Medical Ethics and the Law: Graham Dukes qualified in both international law and medicine at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He was awarded a higher degree in medicine (MD) at the University of Leiden (The Netherlands) in 1963, and in Law at Cambridge in 1986. In 2009 he was awarded honorary membership of the Royal College of Physicians of London.
Dr Dukes worked in the pharmaceutical industry from 1957 to 1972, latterly as Research Manager of a multinational company.. In the latter year he moved to the Netherlands Ministry of Health and was appointed Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the Evaluation of Medicines. In 1982 he was appointed Regional Officer for Pharmaceuticals of the World Health Organization’s Office for Europe. Since 1993 he has variously been a senior consultant on pharmaceuticals to the World Bank and to the bilateral aid organizations of Sweden and Denmark. He held the external chair of Drug Policy Studies at the University of Groningen from 1987 and since 1996 he has held the corresponding professorship at the University of Oslo.
His publications include the long-term editorship of Meyler’s Side Effects of Drugs and the associated Annuals as well as books on drug policy including The Effects of Drug Regulation, The Law and Ethics of the Pharmaceutical Industry and (with Prof. Frederick Abbott), Global Pharmaceutical Policies; he is currently finalizing with Prof. John Braithwaite (Canberra) an updated and completely reworked edition of the latter’s Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry.
Fred Ernst, Ph.D. ~ Psychology: Dr.Fred Ernst finished his education as a clinical psychologist at The Ohio State University. He began his career helping to build programs and providing services in the early comprehensive community mental health centers of the 1970s. For ten years he developed and sustained a busy private practice in Ohio. He helped build one of the first “behavioral medicine” units in a private hospital back in the day when behavioral medicine was actually behavioral. He also developed one of the first chronic pain treatment programs in a V.A. Medical Center. While on the faculties of Wright State University and later, Meharry Medical College, for a combined thirty years he trained medical students and residents in family practice and in psychiatry. Since 2005, Dr. Ernst has been a tenured Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas – Pan American, a university that is on schedule to consolidate with UT – Brownsville as the new University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) in 2015. In 2016, UTRGV will enroll its inaugural medical school class. Since 2007, Dr. Ernst developed a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) program training graduate students for intervention on children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Currently he is investigating the use of antipsychotic drugs in Latino children living in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas where obesity and diabetes are already epidemic. He is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy.
Timothy D. Evans, PhD ~ Psychology: Dr. Evans received his doctorate from the University of Georgia . He completed an American Psychological Association accredited counseling psychology internship at the University of Delaware. Dr. Evans is an approved supervisor and clinical member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He is a Florida licensed Marriage and Family Therapists. He has a private practice with his wife Geri Carter. They help individuals utilize their strengths and solve important human relations problems. Dr. Evans is the Executive Director of the Florida Adlerian Society and an adjunct faculty member for Webster University, for more information go to: www.carterandevans.com.
Alberto Fergusson, MD ~ Psychiatry: Alberto Fergusson, MD is a psychiatrist in Columbia, South America, who also consults in the United Sates. He is an international innovator in the field of helping deeply disturbed and homeless patients without resort to psychiatric drugs. Dr. Fergusson works at the institution, Fungrata, dedicated to the rehabilitation of homeless, so-called psychotics. In private practice since 1976 and at Fungrata since 1982 with at least 500 persons diagnosed as schizophrenia has given Dr. Fergusson the clinical experience to develop the approach he now calls Accompanied Autoanalysis. Dr. Fergusson's essay on Accompanied Autoanalysis is one of many in Dimensions of Empathic Therapy (Editors, Peter R Breggin MD, Ginger Breggin, Fred Bemak)
Robert K Ferrie, MD ~ General Practitioner & Psychotherapist: Dr. Robert Ferrie is a graduate of the University of Toronto. He has practiced as a medical doctor since 1969, initially in the field of Urology. In the 1980s he became interested in psychotherapy through exposure to the work of Carl Gustav Jung and made the decision to retrain in psychotherapy and began a practice in that field. He took his training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in 1996 and is certified in EMDR by the International Association. His private practice is primarily with the victims of childhood adverse experiences and in the field of adult psychological trauma. He noted problems with the use of psychiatric medication since the early 1980s through exposure to patients who were already on medication at the beginning of therapy. He has presented on this topic and others at EMDRIA and EMDR Canada conferences. He has continued to develop a large case study series on EMDR and psychiatric drug use. The finding of this case series is that these medications are not helpful and unnecessarily complicate the course of therapy because they are neurotoxic. He has never seen pharmaceutical representatives. His practice is located north of Toronto in Caledon, Ontario.
Robert Foltz, PsyD ~ Psychology: Robert Foltz is a clinical psychologist. He is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, within the Child & Adolescent Track, as part of the Clinical Psy.D. program. He also maintains a private practice in the Chicago area, working with adolescents and adults. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for the journal, Reclaiming Children & Youth, as well as the Editorial Board of the journal, Ethical Human Psychology & Psychiatry. Dr. Foltz has devoted many years to understanding the subjective experience of emotional disorders as well as the experience of being in treatment. He has completed a survey of the experience of being medicated in those diagnosed with schizophrenia and is currently involved in research to understand the experience of severely troubled youth and their response to treatment. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Foltz spent over 20 years working in Inpatient and Residential Treatment settings with severely troubled individuals. In this work, he provided clinical and administrative services and became invested in what works, and what doesn't, for individuals in distress. Throughout these years, Dr. Foltz has closely examined the effectiveness of medication (or lack of) and its integration with psychosocial approaches. He presents and publishes on topics related to the use (and misuse) of psychotropic medications in troubled youth; strength-based approaches; and evidence-based programming for troubled youth.
Mark Foster, DO ~ Family Medicine physician: Dr. Mark Foster is a board certified family medicine physician, a writer, and speaker practicing in Colorado. He graduated from Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2003, completed his residency at North Colorado Family Medicine in 2006, where he was named Family Medicine Resident of the Year. Mark has been actively involved in advocating mental health reform and non-pharmaceutical alternatives since August 2010. He maintains a blog entitled, Letters from the Front Lines, on www.madinamerica.com. He is currently engaged in efforts to create a peer-run Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Facility in Colorado, as well as several writing projects to try to enhance public and professional awareness about the problems of over-prescribed psychiatric drugs.
Thomas Garcia, LMHC NCC CAP ACS MAC ~ Addiction Counseling Mr. Garcia is the Clinical Director of Novus Detox and Suncoast Rehabilitation in Florida. Mr. Garcia also is a Doctoral student in College of Education at the University of South Florida and adjunct professor at Springfield College’s School of Human Services. Previously the Clinical Court Liaison for the Marchman Act in Hillsborough County, Fl. Mr. Garcia has worked with the chemically dependent population – both adolescents and adults, in both private and public sectors, including Florida Department of Corrections and Department of Juvenile Justice for over 15 years. Mr. Garcia is a Board member of the Florida Adlerian Society and an advocate of Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology and its effectiveness when working with children and families. He is a staunch advocate for education and treatment reform and a worldwide lecturer indicating the need for such. He owns Creative Consult Care, a private consulting firm in both Clearwater and Tampa. His major area of research is comparing the American Eugenics Movement (1890-1939) to modern psychiatry, particularly the how early twentieth century American eugenicists influenced the policies of mass exterminations in Nazi Germany before and during WW II, as well as modern psychiatry’s continued systematic labeling of children and adults with “undesirable” and “inappropriate” behaviors derived from subjective, impressionistic diagnostic criteria derived from “overwhelming” and indisputable “objective” scientific “evidence.”
Pamela Glasner ~ Author: Ms. Glasner is a published author of historical fiction. She has a popular blog on the Huffington Post and has also written several short stories. To date, two of her works have been optioned by independent production companies and are in the early stages of development. Originally from New York City (USA), born in 1953, Ms. Glasner moved to Connecticut with her family at the age of eighteen. A Dean's List student, she graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University with a degree in English and secondary education, with concentrations in psychology and sociology. "Finding Emmaus", book one of The Lodestarre series, is her first novel (and one of her two works in early development), and focuses on the treatment and mistreatment of the mentally ill over a period of 350 years. Because her work required a considerable amount of historical research in both the US and the UK, in addition to being a member of the Connecticut Historical Society, Ms. Glasner is also a Registered Reader at both the Royal Society of London and the British Library.
Howard Glasser, MA ~ Psychotherapy & Education: Howard Glasser received his M. A. from New York University in 1974. He is the Executive Director of the Children's Success Foundation in Tucson, Arizona. He designed The Nurtured Heart Approach and authored Transforming the Difficult Child (1999). He has been a featured guest on CNN and a consultant for 48 Hours. He lectures internationally, teaching therapists, educators and parents about The Nurtured Heart Approach, which is now being used in hundreds of thousands of homes and classrooms around the world. Howard Glasser is former director and clinical supervisor of Center for the Difficult Child and he has been a consultant for numerous psychiatric, judicial and educational programs. Although he has done extensive doctoral work in the fields of Clinical Psychology and Educational Leadership, he believes that his own years as a difficult child contributed the most to his understanding of the needs of challenging children and to the success of his approach.
William Glasser, MD ~ Psychiatry: Dr. Glasser is an internationally recognized psychiatrist who became nationally recognized when he wrote Reality Therapy, a method of psychotherapy he created in 1965 that is now taught all over the world. Dr. Glasser was initially a chemical engineer but went into psychiatry when it became apparent to him that this was his real interest in life. He attended medical school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and took his psychiatric training at the Veterans Administration Hospital in West Los Angeles and UCLA (1954-57). He became Board Certified in 1961 and was in private practice from 1957 to 1986. Dr. Glasser's path has been one of a continuing progression from private practice to lecturing and writing, ultimately culminating in the publication of over twenty books. After writing Reality Therapy (1965), he published his first book on education, Schools without Failure (1969). In another key book, Choice Theory (1998), Dr. Glasser greatly expanded the understanding of motivation and behavior. He then added, Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health (2003), to help people improve their mental health and happiness. In 2005 he produced a booklet, Defining Mental Health as a Public Health Issue to provide a new resource for mental health professionals. In 2007 he co-authored Eight Lessons for a Happier Marriage with his wife, Carleen. Dr. Glasser founded and directs the William Glasser Institute, which has trained more than 75,000 practitioners in Reality Therapy and certified more than 10,000 therapists worldwide.
Peter C. Gøtzsche MD ~ Research Institute Director: Peter C. Gøtzsche MD is a specialist in internal medicine and a professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis. He also holds a Master of Science in biology and chemistry. He cofounded The Cochrane Collaboration in 1993 and established The Nordic Cochrane Centre in Denmark the same year. He is Professor in Clinical Research and Design at the University of Copenhagen. Peter has published more than 70 papers in "the big five" (BMJ, Lancet, JAMA, Ann Intern Med and N Engl J Med) and his scientific works have been cited over 15,000 times. Peter is also an author of several books, including Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime and Deadly Psychiatry and Organized Denial. He has devoted his professional life to raising the standards for clinical practice, research, and scientific publications in worldwide medicine. In 2018, he received the first Honored Blogger Award from the Center for the Study of Patient-Oriented Psychiatry (ICSPP).
Robert J Grimm, MD ~ Neurology: Dr. Robert Grimm has recently retired from a long and distinguished career in neurology. He obtained his undergraduate degree at Antioch College and masters and medical degrees and an internship at the university of Michigan with post-doctoral work in psychology and biophysics at the University of Washington. His neurology residency was in Portland, Oregon. The years 1970-1995 in Portland were spent teaching neurology and running a brain research lab. He was in private neurology practice from 1973 to 2010. In 1973, he co-authored the Oregon bill outlawing psychosurgery. Dr. Grimm and Dr. Breggin met that year and have been colleagues and friends ever since. Dr. Grimm accumulated substantial courtroom experience testifying on behalf of individuals injured by lobotomy and ECT. Dr. Grimm’s latest book is Neurology Work (in press) and examines his career in neurology.
Miles Groth, PhD ~ Psychoanalysis and Existential Analysis: Miles Groth is full professor in the Department of Psychology at Wagner College, Staten Island, New York. He trained as a psychoanalyst in Philadelphia and New York and has been in private practice since 1977. Dr. Groth is the author of three books, editor of a fourth volume, and co-editor of a fifth volume; chapters in nine books; twenty-seven articles in peer-reviewed journals; and many book reviews in more than twenty different journals. He has served as a consultant for publications and international policy-making organizations on boys’ and men’s well-being. He is editor emeritus of two journals, the International Journal of Men’s Health and Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies, which he co-founded. He is founding editor of New Male Studies: An International Journal and a member of the Executive Advisory Board of the Australian Institute for Male health and Studies. Dr. Groth has lectured residents in psychiatry at Richmond University Medical Center in New York on integrating psychodynamic psychotherapy with traditional inpatient treatment. He has been invited to present papers in Australia, Canada, England, Italy, Lithuania and Hungary, as well as at eleven colleges and universities in the United States on topics ranging from existential analysis to the psychology of men and boys. His current areas of scholarly interest are the psychology of boys and men, existential analysis, and continental philosophy. He is a founding member of the American Association of Existential Analysis. He resides in New York and may be reached at mgroth@wagner.edu.
Ross Halpern, PhD ~ Psychology & Chronic Pain Specialist: Dr. Halpern has been a clinical psychologist in private practice since 1992, specializing in treating chronic pain. He’s had the opportunity to evaluate and treat over ten thousand chronic pain patients. His clinic, Ross Halpern and Associates in Ann Arbor, Michigan has ten psychotherapists that all specialize in treating chronic pain. Dr. Halpern is of the strong belief that chronic pain is curable and is passionate about weaning people off addictive narcotics and sedatives. It has been his experience that chronic pain is often the result of unresolved emotional trauma and can be successfully treated with a combination of therapies that address the whole patient with caring, insightful psychotherapy as its foundation. Dr. Halpern is on staff at the University of Michigan, Department of Anesthesiology. For the last five years he has taught physicians who are involved in a one year fellowship on the subject of the psychology of chronic pain. He is on staff at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Ann Arbor, Michigan and Carson City Hospital in Carson City, Michigan. He is the main consulting psychologist for Tri-County Pain Clinic, Michigan Pain Specialists, Michigan Pain Center and Michigan Brain and Spine. Recently he has given talks regarding chronic pain psychology to the University of Michigan Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology and Gerontology and has been a featured speaker at Grand Rounds in the University of Michigan Medical Center. Dr. Halpern has lectured at a recent American College of Family Physicians conference and spoken numerous times regarding chronic pain psychology to the Michigan Association of Case Managers at their conferences. Currently he is involved with completing a book about chronic pain.
Walter E. Jacobson, MD ~ Psychiatry: Dr. Jacobson, a graduate of Cornell University, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and the UCLA / San Fernando Valley Psychiatry Residency Program, is a Board-Certified Psychiatrist who has been in private practice in the Los Angeles area since 1999. He specializes in cognitive-behavior therapy, spiritual psychotherapy, and couples therapy. He was Editor of “The Southern California Psychiatrist,” the monthly newsletter of the Southern California Psychiatric Society for two years and has written dozens of articles and blog posts about psychiatry and mental health. He has authored his first book, Forgive To Win!, which teaches people cognitive tools and spiritual techniques for building self-esteem, eliminating self-sabotaging behaviors, and manifesting the lives that they want.He is currently the Medical Director for the Wellness Forum’s “Emotional Wellness 101” Program. His website is http://walterjacobsonmd.com.
Adrianne Johnson, PhD ~ Counseling & Education: Dr. Adrianne Johnson is Assistant Professor, Counseling and Psychological Services at SUNY Oswego. She received her BS and MS at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater; and earned her PhD at the University of Arkansas.
Bob Johnson, MD ~ Psychiatry: Dr Bob Johnson is a fully qualified Consultant Psychiatrist as registered by the General Medical Council, UK. He trained at Cambridge University with a degree in psychology, at the London Hospital, and at the renowned Claybury Hospital, Essex where he learned the art of the Therapeutic Community Approach. In 1964-65 he was a Senior Psychiatrist in Middletown State Hospital New York, USA, working in the Drug Addiction Unit and the acute wards. He underwent further training at the Columbo-Presbyterian Psychiatrist Institute, New York City where he was awarded the Diploma in Psychotherapy, Neurology and Psychiatry. He is an expert in the management and treatment of Personality Disorder. His work as a Consultant Psychiatrist in the Special Unit in Parkhurst Prison, Isle of Wight, UK, from 1991 to 1996, was widely reported by the press and formed the basis of a documentary investigation by the BBC’s flagship program Panorama, on 3 March 1997. He was chosen to be the first Head of Therapy at Ashworth Maximum Security Hospital in Liverpool, UK. Dr. Bob Johnson is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the United Kingdom. His latest project is organizing Emotion Support Centers where recoverers help others recover. He holds the view that mental disorders are software based, not hardware. Dr. Johnson can be reached at his website and organization TruthTrustConsent. He is the author of Emotional Health, What Emotions Are & How They Cause Social & Mental Diseases (2002) and Unsafe at Any Dose: Exposing Psychiatrist Dogmas So Minds Can Heal (2006).
Daniel Johnston, MD ~ Psychiatry: Daniel Johnson, MD is a psychiatrist practicing in Asheville, North Carolina. He was born in Charlotte and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. He graduated from Davidson College with a degree in biology in 1995. He received a Master’s of Physicology from N.C. State University in 1997. He graduated from medical school from UNC - Chapel Hill in 2002. He completed his residency in Charleston, South Carolina in 2006, moving to Asheville to begin his practice. He has worked in several inpatient and outpatient settings, and holds a small private practice in Asheville. Since 2012 his practice has centered around safe medication minimization and withdrawal strategies through individual and group sessions. He considers Dr. Breggin, to be one of his primary role models and has tailored his practice around Dr. Breggin’s guiding principles of finding deeper fulfillment in life through safe reduction and elimination of psychiatric medications.
Lucy Johnstone PhD ~ Psychology: Dr. Lucy Johnstone is a consultant clinical psychologist and the author of 'Users and abusers of psychiatry' (2nd edition Routledge 2000) and co-editor of 'Formulation in psychology and psychotherapy: making sense of people's problems' (2nd edition Routledge 2013) along with a number of other publications taking a critical perspective on mental health theory and practice. She is the former Programme Director of the Bristol Clinical Psychology Doctorate and was the lead author of the 'Good practice guidelines on the use of psychological formulation' (Division of Clinical Psychology, 2011.) Lucy is a long-standing critic of psychiatric diagnosis and biomedical models of distress, and her work on psychological formulation is an increasingly popular alternative way of conceptualising and working with mental distress. She has worked in Adult Mental Health settings for many years and is an experienced conference speaker, lecturer and trainer. She is currently based in a community mental health team in South Wales.
Jon Jureidini, MD ~ Child Psychiatry: Jon Jureidini is a child psychiatrist at the Women's and Children's Hospital, Adelaide where he works with ill and disabled children and their families. He has also trained in philosophy (PhD, Flinders University), critical appraisal (University of British Columbia) and psychotherapy (Tavistock Clinic). He is a professor in the Disciplines of Psychiatry and Paediatrics at the University of Adelaide. He heads Adelaide University’s Paediatric Mental Health Training Unit, providing training and support to GPs, allied health professionals, teachers and counsellors in non-pathologising approaches to primary care mental health. Jureidini learnt most of what he knows about psychiatry growing up in a pub, from being a father, from reading novels, and from Michael Leunig’s cartoons. He is spokesman for Healthy Skepticism, which aims to counter misleading drug promotion, chair of Australian-Palestinian Partnerships for Education and Health, and on the board of Siblings Australia, an organisation that advocates for individuals with ill and disabled siblings. His other published interests include cognitive science, ethics, quality use of medicines, immigration detention, suicide, and child abuse.
Bertram Karon, PhD ~ Psychology: Bertram P. Karon, Ph.D., is retired Professor of Clinical Psychology at Michigan State University. Dr. Karon received his undergraduate degree from Harvard, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton. He is a former President of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association, and has over 150 publications. He was selected by the Washington School of Psychiatry as the 2001 Fromm-Reichmann memorial lecturer. The US chapter of the International Society for the Psychological treatment of Schizophrenia and Other Psychoses gave him their 2002 Award for "profound contributions to our psychoanalytic understanding and humane treatment of patients with severe mental illness." Dr. Karon is the author of The Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia. Dr. Karon authored an important chapter with Leighton C. Whitaker in Psychosocial Approaches to Deeply Disturbed Persons, (edited by Peter R. Breggin and E. Mark Stern).
Jennifer L Kinzie, MS, LMHC ~ Counseling: Jennifer Kinzie is the Program Manager at Syracuse Model Neighborhood Facility, Inc, an individual and family services facility. She is also a mental health counselor in private practice where she provides mental health counseling, parent consultation, and psychosocial education for adolescents, parents, families, and providers.
Stanley Krippner, PhD ~ Psychology: Dr. Krippner is Professor of Psychology at Saybrook University and the author or editor of two dozen books including Personal Mythology, Perchance to Dream, and Haunted by Combat: Understanding PTSD in War Veterans. He is the 2002 recipient of the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association for the Study of Dreams. His other honors include The Ashley Montagu Peace Award, the Society of Clinical Hypnosis Award for Distinguished Contributions to Professional Hypnosis, and the Association for Humanistic Psychology Pathfinder Award.
Brenda A. LeFrançois, PhD ~ Psychology: Dr. Brenda LeFrançois is a critical psychologist and social work educator. She is a faculty member in the School of Social Work at Memorial University of Newfoundland, with a cross-appointment to the Faculty of Medicine. Her areas of specialism include children’s rights and medical ethics in relation to psychiatrized children, the lived experience of sanism and psychiatrized abjection, and anti-sanist praxis. She has published articles on these topics in journals such as: Children & Society; The International Journal of Children’s Rights; The International Journal of Social Psychiatry; and, Asylum Magazine, amongst others. An inter-disciplinarian, her work sits jaggedly at the interface between childhood studies and Mad Studies, between social activism and professional practice, between lived experience and theoretical framings. She is co-editor, along with Canadian scholars and activists Robert Menzies and Geoffrey Reaume, of the book Mad Matters: A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies (2013, Canadian Scholars Press Inc) and was one of the founding editors of the journal Radical Psychology. She has been an activist in the psychiatric survivor movement in the UK and Canada for many years, aiming always to bridge the divide between academia and activism, including through disrupting the exclusion of those ‘othered’ by the privileged.
Terry Lynch, MD ~ Psychotherapy & General Practitioner: Dr. Lynch is the author of Beyond Prozac: Healing Mental Suffering Without Drugs (2001). He has been a fully registered GP, based in Limerick, Ireland, for over twenty years and has further trained as a psychotherapist, in an attempt “to fill the gaping holes in my medical training regarding how to deal with emotional and mental distress.” For over 10 years Dr. Lynch has worked totally in mental health and he oversees a recovery-oriented mental health service. He receives patients from all over Ireland who present with a variety of diagnoses including depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, etc. Dr. Lynch works with them in their recovery and reports many patients have done very well. Dr. Lynch reports that “I work with people to reduce their meds where I feel the person can handle it, thats probably the best way to put it. Fundamentally, I do not see meds as having a central role in treatment, though if a person is already on lots of meds then I take my time reducing given the risks of withdrawal, emotional surges, and so forth.”
Mary Maddock ~ Advocate & Psychiatric Survivor: Mary is a former nun and psychiatric survivor. Believing in the myth of ‘mental illness’, for 20 years she was, as she describes herself, a psychiatric slave chemically lobotomised by the drug treatment which deprived her of her humanity. With the help of people like Dr.Peter Breggin and Dr. Terry Lynch and MindFreedom International, family and friends, she had her eyes opened and today is a liberated 10 year drug-free woman and active campaigner for a non-violent revolution in psychiatry. She is a founder member of MindFreedom Irelandhttp://www.mindfreedomireland.com and a Board member of MindFreedom International and a former Board member of ENUSP (European Network of ex/Users and Survivors of Psychiatry. She is also a member of INTAR (International Network Towards Alternatives for Recovery). She has spoken widely at conferences and in the media and is co-author with her husband Jim of ‘Soul Survivor – A Personal Encounter with Psychiatry’ which coincides with the Campaign to Abolish the Schizophrenia label (CASL). Her dream would be to see: (a) an end to forced ‘treatments’ and guardianship (b) for people labelled with ‘mental illness’ to be recognised as citizens by the law(c) for many Soteria-type communities to be established (d) that people like herself who are destroyed and crippled by psychiatric drugs will have safe supported havens to detoxify and recover and (e) that a human model of recovery will become the norm rather than the exception.
Joanna Moncrieff, MD ~ Psychiatry: Dr Moncrieff studied medicine at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and trained in psychiatry in London. She currently works as an academic psychiatrist at University College London, and she practices as a consultant in general adult psychiatry in north east London. Her interest is in psychiatric drug treatments, and in the history, politics and philosophy of psychiatry. She is also a founding member and co-chair person of the Critical Psychiatry Network. She has written numerous academic papers and three books: The Myth of the Chemical Cure, a Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs, and her latest, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2013, The Bitterest Pills: The Troubling Story of Antipsychotic Drugs.
Jodi Weinstein Mullen, PhD LMHC NCC RPT-S CPT-S ~ Counselor & Educator: Dr. Jodi Mullen is a mental health counselor, play therapist and counselor educator. Jodi is the Director of Integrative Counseling Services in Cicero & Oswego, New York. She is an associate professor at SUNY Oswego in the Counseling & Psychological Services Department where she is the coordinator of the Mental Health Counseling Program and Graduate Certificate Program in Play Therapy. Dr. Mullen is a credentialed play therapist and play therapy supervisor. She is the author of several manuscripts on play therapy, counseling children and supervision. Her books include Counseling Children & Adolescents through Grief and Loss (co-authored by Dr. Jody Fiorini) (2006), Play Therapy Basic Training: A Guide to Learning & Living & the Child-Centered Play Therapy Philosophy (2007), Supervision can be Playful: Techniques for Child and Play Therapist Supervisors (co-edited with Athena Drewes) (2008), and Counseling Children: A Core Issues Approach (co-authored with Richard Halstead and Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson) due out in 2011). Dr. Mullen is on the editorial board for the International Journal of Play Therapy and the clinical editor of Play Therapy Magazine. Dr. Mullen was the 2008 recipient of the Key Award for Professional Training & Education through the Association for Play Therapy.
Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD ~ Psychology: Dr. Neimeyer is a professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, where he also maintains an active clinical practice. Since completing his doctoral training at the University of Nebraska in 1982, he has conducted extensive research on the topics of death, grief, loss, and suicide intervention. Dr. Neimeyer has published 25 books, including Techniques of Grief Therapy: Creative Practices for Counseling the Bereaved and Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society: Bridging Research and Practice and The Art of Longing, a book of contemporary poetry. The author of nearly 400 articles and book chapters, he is currently working to advance a more adequate theory of grieving as a meaning-making process, both in his published work and through his frequent professional workshops for national and international audiences.
Neimeyer is the Editor of two respected international journals, Death Studies and the Journal of Constructivist Psychology, and served as President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling. He was appointed to the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on End-of-Life Issues, where he helped implement a research and practice agenda for psychology in this critical area. In recognition of his scholarly contributions, he has been granted the Distinguished Research Award, the Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Eminent Faculty Award by the University of Memphis, elected Chair of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement, designated Psychologist of the Year by the Tennessee Psychological Association, made a Fellow of the Clinical Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association, and given the both the Research Recognition and Clinical Practice Awards by the Association for Death Education and Counseling.
Bob Nikkel, MSW ~ Counseling Administrator: Bob Nikkel, MSW, served as Oregon's mental health and addictions commissioner from 2003-2008. Prior that he held positions at the local and state levels, including leadership of a National Institute of Mental Health Dual Diagnosis Demonstration Project. He has published on a variety of topics including consumer-operated programs, supported education, and music therapy. He currently serves as an Executive Board member for the Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care and is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Public Psychiatry Training Program at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon.
Kim Olver, MS, LCPC, NCC, BCC ~ Executive Director of the Glasser Institute for Choice Theory: Kim Olver has a mission to help people get along better with the important people in their lives, including themselves, at home and at work. Since 2011, Kim has been the Executive Director of the Glasser Institute for Choice Theory and later was a founding member of United for Integrity in Mental Health (UIMH). She is an award-winning, bestselling author who has authored three books, Leveraging Diversity at Work (2006), Secrets of Happy Couples (2010), and Choosing Me Now (2019). In 2004, she founded her own company, Coaching for Excellence, where she is a speaker, coach, counselor, and author. Kim is an internationally recognized speaker, who is in high demand. In 2011, she founded Academy of Choice, a board-certified coaching program for the Center for Credentialing & Education. Kim was certified in Choice Theory and Reality Therapy in 1992 and has dedicated her life to helping others embrace the freedom and power of implementing Choice Theory psychology in their lives.
Judith Orloff MD ~ Psychiatrist: Dr Orloff is the author of The Empath’s Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People. Dr. Orloff is a psychiatrist, an empath and intuitive healer, and is on the UCLA Psychiatric Clinical Faculty. She synthesizes the pearls of traditional medicine with cutting edge knowledge of intuition, energy, and spirituality. Dr. Orloff also specializes in treating empaths and highly sensitive people in her private practice. She passionately believes that the future of medicine involves integrating all this wisdom to achieve total wellness. Dr. Orloff’s work has been featured on The Today Show, CNN, Oprah Magazine, the New York Times and USA Today. She has spoken at the American Psychiatric Association, Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women’s Summit and Google.
Donna Pierre, MD ~ Family Doctor: Dr. Pierre is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She received her medical degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada, West Indies and completed her residency at the University of Massachusetts Family Medicine Program in Worcester. She is proud to hold a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Work from Lehman College, City University of New York. Dr. Pierre’s practice is guided by the principles of empathy, the right of patient self-determination, and first, do no harm.
Brian J Pidkaminy, MA, MBA ~ Military Chaplain: Reverend Brian Pidkaminy is a Licensed and Ordained Chaplain and Military Chaplin as well as an accomplished business person who holds a Master of Business Administration. Brian has provided numerous individuals with spiritual guidance in the areas of budgeting and financial freedom. Brian has taught on the college level and regularly provides seminars and weekend retreats for married couples. He is available to aid individuals and couples with spiritual guidance and support in all facets of their lives.
Wendy West Pidkaminy, LCSW ~ Social Work: Wendy Pidkaminy is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified School Social Worker in the state of New York. Wendy has decades of experience working with non-profit organizations, government agencies, school districts, universities, and in private practice, bringing transformation, vision, and healing to countless individuals and families. Wendy is an Adjunct Professor in the Syracuse University Department of Social Work and the author of Parenting Challenging Children with Power, Love and Sound Mind.
Mark D. Popper, PhD ~ Psychology: Dr. Mark Popper graduated with his Doctorate in psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) in 1991. He received a Masters in psychology (1988) and a Bachelors in psychology and theater arts from Fairleigh Dickinson University (1984). He is the Executive Clinical Director of Sequoia Psychotherapy Center. Dr. Popper is the coordinator and administrator for mandatory continuation education credits for psychologists (M.C.E.P.) at S.P.C. He also serves as an expert witness in forensic court testimony. Dr. Popper specializes in medication-free, Jungian-oriented psychodynamic psychotherapy. Dr. Popper worked and served as Dr. Kevin McCready's Assistant Clinical Director at the San Joaquin Psychotherapy Center, Inc. from 1992 until 2004. He opened the Sequoia Psychotherapy Center, Inc. in 2005 in order to continue Kevin's work utilizing the same adult day treament model specializing in helping people withdraw from psychotropic medications. Dr. Popper has studied psychopharmacology extensively and is published in Behavioral and Neural Biology, Drug Development Research, Federation Proceedings, Proceedings for the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine, Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, Life Sciences, Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, and the Journal of Neurochemistry. He carries expertise in projective assessment and has had training with George Frank, Ph.D. in Manhattan.
Gerald Porter, PhD ~ Counseling & Education: Dr. Gerald Porter is currently Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Forest Institute in Springfield, Missouri. Forest Institute is a private non-profit graduate institution with doctoral and master’s programs in clinical psychology and other mental health disciplines. He has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Statistics and a Certificate of Advanced Study in School Psychology from the University at Albany, State University of New York. He is permanently certified as a School Psychologist in New York. Prior to his work in academia, Dr. Porter served in a variety of clinical and policy level positions in New York State government including the State Education Department, the Department of Correctional Services, the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, the Division for Youth, and the Department of Economic Development. His area of policy specialization was meeting the needs of underserved and disenfranchised populations. For the past 20 years, Dr. Porter was worked as a faculty member and administrator in higher education, training mental health counselors, school psychologists, and educators. He was Chair of the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services at SUNY Oswego. He was Professor and Dean of the School of Education at SUNY Cortland, one of the ten largest teacher education institutions in the United States. Dr. Porter was founding Dean of the School of Natural Health Arts and Sciences at Bastyr University just outside Seattle, Washington. He was Interim Dean of the Doctoral Program and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at the School of Professional Psychology at Forest Institute. With over 70 conference presentations and workshops, Dr. Porter has authored a number of scholarly works including the Dictionary of Counseling with Dr. Donald Biggs. His research interests include the social construction of race, gender, and psychiatric diagnostic classification. In recent years, his scholarly attention has focused on critical theory, in particular, the ontological assumptions that inform research paradigms and the cultural fallout from the application of different research methodology approaches.
Dee Ray, Ph.D., LPC-S, NCC, RPT-S ~ Counseling and Education: Dr. Ray is Associate Professor in the Counseling Program and Director of the Child and Family Resource Clinic at the University of North Texas. Dr. Ray has published over 40 articles, chapters and books in the field of play therapy, and over 15 peer-reviewed research publications specifically examining the effects of Child Centered Play Therapy. Dr. Ray is author of the Child Centered Play Therapy Treatment Manual, co-author of Child Centered Play Therapy Research and former editor of the International Journal of Play Therapy. She currently serves on the editorial board for IJPT and Research Committee for the Association for Play Therapy. She is the recipient of the 2008 Outstanding Research Award for Association for Play Therapy, 2006 Outstanding Research Award for Texas Counseling Association, and 2006 Nancy Guillory Award for Outstanding Service and Contribution to the Field of Play Therapy from Texas Association for Play Therapy.
Elizabeth Root, MSW ~ Social Work: Elizabeth Root earned her MSW from Syracuse University. She has been a licensed clinical social worker for over 18 years. She also specialized in the field of substance abuse, which enhanced her effectiveness in helping families. Betsy also holds a Master of Science in Education. In 2002 Betsy began writing to educate people about a mental health system that she was convinced was doing more harm than good to children. She witnessed a lack of knowledge everywhere—from other mental health professionals to educators, family court judges, social service case workers and lawmakers. By 2007, Betsy had accumulated volumes of information about a broken system, how to fix it, and how to help children without drugs. She retired from practice and set to work completing her critique of America’s mental health treatment of children—Kids Caught in the Psychiatric Maelstrom: How Pathological Labels and “Therapeutic” Drugs Hurt Children and Families (2009)
Gayle S. Rozantine, PhD ~ Psychology: Dr. Gayle Rozantine is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in mood disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), health psychology, and stress management. She is the founder of The Center for Health & Well-Being, P.C, in Savannah, Georgia, where she is in private practice with her husband, Dr. Barry Rozantine, psychiatrist. She is a Diplomate and Board Certified in Stress Management by the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress and has written and recorded nine compact discs aimed at teaching effective relaxation techniques, improving self-esteem, and facilitating healing from childhood abuse. Throughout her professional career, Dr. Rozantine has worked extensively with service members and their families. She founded a publishing company, Optima Vita, Inc., and has written and published four books: Warrior’s Workbook, At Ease, Soldier! How to Leave the War Downrange and Feel at Home Again, The Clinician’s Guide to At Ease, Soldier! Theory and Practice, and The Wisdom of Wellness. Her books are being used by hospitals offering the Patriot Support Program, a special program for military service members struggling with emotional issues related to their combat training and experiences. Dr. Rozantine has developed an innovative approach to psychotherapy, named "Quiet Awakening," which combines psychotherapy with stress management training and guided imagery delivered in special rooms. Since opening the Center, she has used the Quiet Awakening approach successfully with hundreds of patients.
Olga Runciman, BSc, RN ~ Psychiatric Nurse: Olga Runciman is currently taking her Masters in Social Psychology. She is a voice hearer, an advocate and a psychiatric survivor working both within and outside the psychiatric system. She has her own business, teaching clients and staff alike, as well as working as a therapist individually and in groups. She is an experienced international conference speaker. She is the chair of the Danish Hearing Voices Network, a network which in its five years of existence has been one of the most influential in spreading the philosophy of recovery throughout Denmark. She has, along with parents who have lost their children to psychiatric drugs, founded the organization Death in Psychiatry and they, with the Danish user organization LAP, have recently completed a successful nationwide awareness campaign. Her fight for human rights and the right to choose has meant she can be found not just on the streets of Copenhagen but in the corridors of parliament.
Jay Salwen, MD ~ Radiology: Dr. Jay Salwen has spent a lifetime in the medical practice of radiology.
Melanie Sears, RN MBA ~ Psychiatric Nursing: Melanie Sears is a psychiatric nurse and an author who has been a trainer for the Center of Nonviolent Communications since 1991. She works with businesses, hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, individuals, couples and parents to transform their usual ways of dealing with conflict to one which is more compassionate, conscious and effective. Melanie Sears has published Humanizing Healthcare With Non-Violent Communication, as well as her most recent book Choose Your Words with an accompanying Workbook.
Michael Shaw, MD ~ Obstetrics & Gynecology: Dr. Michael Shaw practices obstetrics and gynecology in Binghamton, New York. His medical practice includes a special emphasis upon helping men and women who are suffering from intimacy issues, including those problems caused by the adverse effects of SSRI antidepressants.
Stuart Shipko, MD ~ Psychiatry: Dr. Stuart Shipko is a psychiatrist and neurologist, and Director of The Panic Disorder Institute in southern California. Dr. Shipko's practice focuses on panic disorder, stress-related medical conditions, stress and trauma related disorders, psychiatric injury, psychosomatic medicine and general psychiatry. Dr. Shipko has a subspecialty interest in panic disorders and adverse reactions to SSRI's and has published in these areas. He also provides expert testimony on adverse effects of SSRI's and BDZ's. He is the author of Surviving Panic Disorder: What You Need to Know (2003).
Rebecca Shipman Hurst, MA, CAGS ~ Human Services: Professor Rebecca Shipman Hurst is Department Chair of the Human Services Department at Massasoit Community College. Throughout her nearly four decades of teaching (at the Community College and Baccalaureate degree levels) she has utilized a student-centered approach to teaching and learning and has developed an Associate Degree Human Services program that emphasizes a person-centered, relational method of helping. Throughout her work with students, in courses such as Interviewing Techniques, Group Dynamics, Fostering Equality and Diversity, Introduction to Social Welfare, Child Welfare, Death and Dying, and Field Experience in Human Services, Professor Shipman Hurst has promoted a perspective which highlights human individuality, diversity, voluntary interdependence, and rights and responsibilities. In her civic engagements Rebecca Shipman Hurst has worked to foster the dual goals of individual sovereignty and peaceful cooperation. Rebecca Shipman Hurst has served as the Coordinator of the Association of Libertarian Feminists, a member of the Board of Directors of the New England Center for Inclusive Teaching, and is a recipient of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development’s Excellence in Teaching Award.
Douglas Smith, MD ~ Psychiatry: Dr. Douglas C. Smith, M.D. a retired U.S. Public Health Service Officer, and an active psychiatrist and mental health consultant who currently lives and practices in Juneau, Alaska. Dr. Smith is board certified in psychiatry extensive post-graduate training in psychoanalysis. He graduated from Indiana University in 1982 with Phi Beta Kappa honors and from the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1986. Dr. Smith completed his residency in in 1990 at the integrated program of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. He was Chief of Mental Health Services at Davis-Monthan AFB from 1990-1994 and Chief of Psychiatry at Mount Edgecumbe Hospital in Sitka, Alaska from 1994-1996, Dr. Smith has testified in dozens of civil commitment hearings and since 1996 has been director of mental health services at the Juneau Medical Center. In 2001 he became the clinic's medical director. Dr. Smith continues to practice psychiatry and through his career has also served in positions at State prisons in Ohio and Alaska and at community mental health centers in Arizona.
John A. Snyder, B.S.,B.D.,StM.,EdD., Psychologist ~ Insight Oriented Psychotherapy and Supervision: Dr. Snyder is formerly an Instructor in Psychiatry at the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania – following a grant from NIMH to introduce relational therapy as taught in the Washington School of Psychiatry. After years of training of psychiatrists in an understanding of depression as a manifestation of personal and relational dysfunction, he became marginalized in 1975 by the department’s choice to support pharmacological research and “treatment” as the answer to these complexities of human emotional distress. Following the publication of Flying Lessons: the Psychology of Intimacy and Anxiety (2005), Dr. Snyder has come full circle, supervising psychiatrists who wish to learn about relational therapy and give up the unsatisfying monitoring of antidepressant medications which don’t seem to work as advertised. Dr. Snyder comes to his understanding of the complexities of human relationships and emotional issues from a background in existential philosophy, liberal theology, and eclectic psychology -- Freudian, Jungian, and Sullivanian. He has a work in progress: Overcoming Depression without Drugs: a Polka with an Introductory Funeral March - believing that the answer to depression is moving toward feelings, all feelings, especially the ones we dislike the most to feel. As the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio says, “Feelings comprise the background music of our lives, feelings in the key of joy, feelings in the key of pain,” both equally essential for emotional health and well-being. Snyder believes, as Breggin proves, brain-disabling treatments to suppress or silence feelings only succeed in making men, women and children less than human.
Tony Stanton, MD ~ Psychiatry: Tony Stanton, MD, is a psychiatrist at the Seneca Program for Children in California.
Barbara F. Streets, PhD, LP ~ Counseling: Barbara Streets, an assistant professor at SUNY-Oswego in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services, is a Board Certified Fellow in African Centered /Black Psychology. She is also a New York State licensed psychologist and an AFAA certified aerobics instructor. Her areas of interest include multicultural counseling, college students, mental health outreach programming and wellness management. Dr. Streets received her BA (Spanish; Psychology) from Meredith College; and her MS and PhD degrees (both in Counseling Psychology) from the University of Kansas.
Grace Karen Sweet ~ Advocate: Having pursued non-traditional studies in the Healing Arts for years, Grace has applied what she has learned toward her own healing/recovery. Having used alternative medicine in her own life, as self-directed care and found healing in body, mind and spirit, she shares this experience is her workshops and trainings. She is a mental health peer, with a unique story, as she did not turn to the mental health system or to conventional medicine for help, but rather relied on her own resources to find her way. The Phenomenon of Laughter in Recovery Workshop introduces her body of work. The Average Miracles Foundation highlights laughter as the most positive and healing experience we can have, however addition workshops are offered which emphasize "self-initiated" healing. Please visit www.averagemiracles.org. Grace is a Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher, an Ordained Healing Minister, a Practitioner of Chinese Energetic Medicine and “TraumaCycles” Healing, an Independent NASMHPD Trainer/Consultant, a Certified Finding Our Voice Peer Advocate Trainer, through The National Empowerment Center, as well as a Consultant for the California Network of Mental Health Clients, which all contribute to her Client Advocacy.
Gail Tasch, MD ~ Psychiatry: Dr. Gail Tasch is a board certified psychiatrist, attended Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine and completed a residency at Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN. Dr. Tasch is doing mostly inpatient work at this time along with consulting for adolescent residential treatment services. She devotes much of her career at this time to people who have been harmed by the mental health system including legal work for people who have committed violent crimes after taking psychiatric drugs. "I believe that people can live strong, powerful lives with the correct approach using psychotherapy, nutrition, and meditation. I believe people should receive the very best treatment for mental health problems and with proper help one can live their life with joy and abundance."
Hemant Thakur, MD ~ Psychiatry: Dr. Hemant Thakur is a psychiatrist and assistant clinical professor with specialized training in psychosomatic medicine, and a specialist in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He has worked as a psychiatrist in various mental health settings including inpatient and outpatient psychiatry programs at Riker's Island Prison in New York City and in many alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs. After years of treating people whose lives were in ruins, he saw that traditional psychiatry, drug therapies and psychotherapies were not always effective and when they did work, the results were not long lasting. He learned that unless these people were taught to have a different perceptions of their problems, they would not be free of the disempowering effects of past trauma, and painful life experiences and problems, nor would they be able to handle new stresses and challenges in life. Thus, they could not be truly happy or successful human beings. He began to identify simple methods that changed behavior, solved life problems and minimized stress. By making better choices these methods can help to start new, productive, and happy lives. He now teaches these techniques in seminars and lectures nationally and internationally. He is a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and Director of the PTSD Program, Lenexa, Kansas. He is the author of Innovative Holistic Approaches to PTSD and Life Stress: Path to Success and Freedom.
Philip Thomas, MD ~ Psychiatry: worked as a full-time consultant psychiatrist in the NHS for over twenty years. He left clinical practice in 2004 to devote his time to writing. He has published over 100 papers mostly in peer-reviewed journals, latterly in philosophy and its relevance to madness and society. He is well known for working in alliance with survivors of psychiatry, service users and community groups, nationally and internationally. Until recently he was chair of Sharing Voices Bradford, a community development project working with Black and Minority Ethnic communities. He was a founder member and until 2011 co-chair of the Critical Psychiatry Network. His first book, Dialectics of Schizophrenia was published by Free Association books in 1997. He has co-authored two other books, including Postpsychiatry, with Pat Bracken. His fourth book, Psychiatry in Context: Experience Meaning and Communities will be published by PCCS Books in 2014. He is currently working on two other books, one a collection of people's experiences of reducing and coming off neuroleptic drugs to be published by Palgrave Macmillan, and co-edited with Rachel Waddingham, Rob Allison and Adam Jhugroo. The other book is a collection of creative non-fiction stories about madness, to be published by Mad in America in 2015.
Michael Guy Thompson, PhD ~ Psychoanalyst: Dr. Thompson received his psychoanalytic training from R. D. Laing and Hugh Crawford at the Philadelphia Association in London, and served as the organization’s administrator from 1973–1980. He is currently Personal and Supervising Analyst and Faculty Member, Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, San Francisco, and Adjunct Professor at the California School of Professional Psychology and the California Institute of Integral Studies, both in San Francisco. Dr. Thompson is former Executive Director of Free Association, Inc., a psychoanalytic salon devoted to integrating phenomenology and psychoanalysis located in San Francisco, and former Director of Shadows, a residential therapy center in Marin County for young adults experiencing a psychotic break, modeled on his work with Laing. He is the author of more than 100 journal articles, book chapters, and reviews, as well as three books, The Death of Desire: A Study in Psychopathology (1985), The Truth About Freud’s Technique: The Encounter with the Real (1994), and The Ethic of Honesty: The Fundamental Rule of Psychoanalysis (2004). He is currently working on a biography of Laing, titled The Road Less Taken: R. D. Laing’s Quest for Authenticity. He lives in Berkeley, CA.
Sami Timimi MD ~ Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Sami Timimi is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, author, psychotherapy trainer and a Visiting Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry based in Lincolnshire, UK. He writes from a critical psychiatry perspective and has published over a hundred articles and tens of chapters on many subjects including childhood, psychotherapy, and cross-cultural psychiatry. He has authored 4 books (including Naughty Boys: Anti-Social Behaviour, ADHD and the Role of Culture and A straight Talking Introduction to Children’s Mental Health Problems) co-edited 3 books (including with Carl Cohen Libratory Psychiatry: Philosophy, Politics and Mental Health) and co-authored 2 others (including with Neil Gardner and Brian McCabe The Myth of Autism: Medicalising Men’s and Boys’ Social and Emotional Competence). He co-founded the International Critical Psychiatry Network (http://www.criticalpsychiatry.net), is co-founder of the group Culture and Equality in Mental Health (http://www.cultureequality.org) and has led on many innovations including the implementation of Outcome Orientated approaches to Mental Health care (http://www.innovationforlearning.com/lpft-institute).
Tom and Diane Vande Burgt ~ Advocates for Military and Veterans: Tom Vande Burgt served with the WV Army National Guard, 3664th Maintenance Co in Iraq from Feb 2004-Feb 2005. On June 6th, 2004, Tom made a phone call to his six year old daughter to wish her a happy birthday and this call probably saved his life. Tom's unit had come under unexpected mortar fire, injuring one soldier SSGT Hernandez and killing Sgt Mora, two friends from the unit he was supporting at Log Base Seitz. The entire year in Iraq Tom witnessed and experienced numerous rocket and motor attacks, as well as having run convoys throughout the country. In March 2005, Tom was rotated home to West Virginia. It was a surreal transition. Earlier in life, he served with the Marine Corps for 15 1/2 years, then retired in 2006 from the WV Army National Guard after serving an additional eight years.
Diane Vande Burgt also served in the West Virginia National Guard. She was an active duty military spouse dealing with the military since 1986. She attended WV State University, studying Criminal Justice, and is a skilled computer forensic researcher. Even though Diane has spent the majority of her years caring for a large family, she also has been able to educate herself and has been called an autodidact by many people, which means she is self educated in many areas. Her oldest sons are also currently serving in both the Army and Marine Corps. Diane was awarded the West Virginia Jefferson Award in 2011. This award was earned through nominations of colleagues and community in appreciation for community service as co-founder of 'Lest We Forget. .
Tom and and his wife, Diane Vande Burgt along with their nine children went through the personal trauma of Tom's experience with post traumatic stress disorder after returning from Iraq. Then Tom and Diane founded Lest We Forget, a PTSD support group in Charleston, West Virginia which is a peer to peer run group fighting to get our veterans, troops and their families connected with the help they deserve and need. Lest We Forget is not a therapy group but they work to put individuals and families in touch with caring professionals within the community. The group offers a safe and private place to meet weekly and childcare is provided for families free of charge. Lest We Forget is a peer to peer, veteran to veteran, family to family support group with the belief that PTSD is not just a personal problem nor does it just affect an individual or a single family. PTSD affects everyone around the veteran and most of all it affects the people who are closest, family and friends. Lest We Forget believes that by helping not only the person suffering from PTSD but also the family and loved ones, the road to healing will be less difficult and our military and veterans will not have to try to heal alone.
Dr. Cheryl van Daalen-Smith RN PhD ~ Critical Feminist Nurse & Professor: Dr. van Daalen-Smith is a critical feminist nurse, with experience as a school-based public health nurse, volunteer street nurse, visiting nurse (home health) and child and adolescent mental health nurse. She is a faculty member in the School of Nursing at York University in Toronto, Canada, with cross appointments to both The Children’s Studies Program in the Department of Humanities and The School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies. Her areas of specialization include Children’s rights to Health and Quality of Life, Women’s Health, Girls and Women’s Anger, and Women’s Lived Experiences of Psychiatric Hospitalization and Electroshock. Her current research seeks to illuminate women's lived experience of psychiatric hospitalization in Canada, taking the form of a film and participant-led web-based dissemination project. In her spare time, she cares for and about a menagerie of cast away farm animals on her farm in Ontario, Canada.
Frank van Meerendonk ~ Consumer Activist: Frank van Meerendonk is a consumer activist and publicist in Europe with special experience and knowledge of the class of psychiatric drugs call the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants.
Mary Neal Vieten, PhD, ABPP ~ Psychologist: Commander(CDR) Vieten, a board certified clinical psychologist, served on active duty from 1998 - 2008, with tours at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Roosevelt Roads (Puerto Rico), and Naval Air Station Patuxent River. In 2008 CDR Vieten transferred to the Select Reserve, where she has held several positions, including the Officer-in-Charge of the Headquarters Detachment, and Regional Detachment Director for New England, Expeditionary Medical Facility, Bethesda. In 2014, she was recalled to active duty and assigned to the staff of the Navy Chief of Chaplains where she trained over 1000 military chaplains worldwide in pastoral response to operational and military sexual trauma. She has completed two deployments in support of OIF/OEF.
Dr. Vieten is the Executive Director of Warfighter ADVANCE, which provides intense training programs, such as The ADVANCE 7-Day, for active duty and veteran warfighters with operational stress and reintegration issues. The ADVANCE™ is a non-medical 7-day training program that uses a variety of means to change the trajectory of the warfighter’s (active duty or veteran) post-deployment life, so that rather than an existence characterized by an endless cycle of mental illness diagnoses, medications, medical appointments and disappointments, the warfighter has a life characterized by pride, productivity, healthy relationships, continued service, and advocacy for the same outcomes for their fellow service members.
Her civilian practice, Operational Psychology Solutions, serves clients who are military, paramilitary (e.g., police, EMS, contractors), veterans, and civilians who work or have worked in high-risk operational environments. She actively encourages her clients to pursue trauma recovery and resilience outside of the medical model, and proactively educates them on the dangers of psychopharmacology. With this approach, she has been successful in keeping her clients in their occupations, or returning them to a fit-for-duty status, while empowering them to manage residual symptoms and assist their peers. Dr. Vieten serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Society for Ethical Psychology & Psychiatry, and on the Board of Directors for Operation Grateful Nation (Massena, NY).
Clemmont E. Vontress, PhD ~ Counseling: Professor Emeritus and former Department Chair of Counseling at George Washington University. Dr. Vontress authored Cross-Cultural Counseling: A Casebook (Mar. 1999) with Jake A. Johnson, PhD and Lawrence R. Epp, PhD. Dr. Vontress has been honored with the biography Counseling Across and Beyond Cultures: Exploring the Work of Clemmont E. Vontress in Clinical Practice (2010), edited by Roy Moodley and Rinaldo Walcott.
Orly Wahba, MA ~ Educator: Orly Wahba has a rich background in education and has received her BA in Film Production and English from Brooklyn College as well as her MA in Jewish History from Touro College. Orly is an educator and community activist who is passionate about inspiring and motivating people to be the best that they can be. For over the past ten years, Orly has worked extensively with tweens and teens as well as local charities in her community. In 2011 Orly founded Life Vest Inside (LVI), a non-profit organization with a mission to encourage people to embrace the incredible power of giving and to show each other that there is love, hope and magic all around us. Orly has developed a Social Emotional Learning program utilizing the tool of kindness to build self-esteem and self-value as a preventative measure to the many social issues plaguing the youth of today. Bullying, substance abuse, peer pressure, and suicide are just a few of the many issues that teens and tweens are dealing with on an everyday basis. While there are programs developed as anti-bullying, anti-drug, and so forth – these programs only deal with the problem once it becomes a problem. LVI acts to prevent such issues from materializing by focusing on the positive rather than the negative; it’s not about fighting against bullying, but rather about empowering children to recognize the potential within themselves. Since its inception Life Vest has received many accolades through a viral video produced and directed by Orly titled, "Kindness Boomerang", demonstrating how one good deed leads to another. The film has reached over 20 million people globally through many media channels and has been placed on international news channels, motivating people to take action and make a change in their lives. People are giving back, feeling more energized to work, and feeling a greater sense of meaning and purpose. Orly’s work has been featured in many publications including Ad Week, IBTimes, and on CBS News.
Jo Watson ~ Psychotherapist: Jo Watson is a psychotherapist and activist with a history in the U.K. Rape Crisis movement of the 1990’s. She has worked therapeutically for the last 24 years with those who have been victims of sexual abuse /violence and has campaigned on women’s survivor issues for the past 3 decades. She presently represents the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) on a steering committee for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence working on creating guidelines for psychological therapists on prescribed psychoactive drugs. She is part of the Mad in the U.K. team, a founding member of ‘United for Integrity in Mental Health’ (UIMH) due to be launched in 2019 and the editor of PCCS Books ‘Drop The Disorder!’ - Challenging the Culture of Psychiatric Diagnosis, due to be published in September 2019.
Marnie Wedlake PhD ~ Health Professional Education: Dr. Wedlake has worked in community-based mental health care for almost 28 years. She earned a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology from the University of Waterloo, a Master of Education in Educational Psychology from the University of Western Ontario, and a PhD in Health Professional Education from Western University (formerly known as the University of Western Ontario). As a qualitative researcher and a person who tends to be relatively practical, Marnie delights in finding varied and creative ways of applying philosophy and theory to ‘real life’. In this regard, Marnie’s interests include (but are not limited to) the narrative structures of what are referred to as experiences of ‘mental illness’, the vulnerability of service-user voice and personal authority within health care system hierarchies, positioning the self as the ‘primary author’ of one’s own story, and the use of aesthetic representation as a means of making meaning and creating understanding. In her spare time Marnie enjoys reading, photography, writing poetry and being active outdoors. With regard to the philosophy of care she uses to guide her work with clients, the last paragraph of my doctoral dissertation, sums it up: "It is my ultimate hope that by way of humility and a rejuvenated pledge to the strength of the human spirit, we will choose to show our faith in The Other by bearing witness to her incoherent narrative. That we will embrace our own smallness by joining her on the ground when she is brought to her knees by the weight of too much adversity. Perhaps it is through these demonstrations of genuinely engaged compassion that we will experience the joy of watching the re-integration of her narrative self."
Don Weitz ~ social justice activist and psychiatric survivor: Don Weitz is co-founder of the antipsychiatry magazine Phoenix Rising (1980-1990), and co--editor with Dr. Bonnie Burstow of the anthology Shrink Resistant: The Struggle Against Psychiatry in Canada (1988). As an activist committed to abolishing electroshock and the psychiatric system, Don is co-founder of the former Ontario Coalition to Stop Electroshock and its successor Resistance Against Psychiatry. With Dr. Bonnie Burstow, he is co-founder of the Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault (CAPA),a political action organization that organizes strategic actions against psychiatry. In 2005, Don chaired a panel during two days of public hearings on electroshock in Toronto City Hall organized by CAPA; he co-drafted its report titled "Electroshock Is Not a Healing Option". He is a co-founder and board member of the Psychiatric Survivor Archives Toronto, as well as a member of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) which honoured him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. In 2003, he was also honoured with the Social Justice Activist Award by the Metro Network for Social Justice; in 2007, he was one of four recipients of an Award in Advocacy presented by the Mental Health Legal Committee in Toronto. In March 2008, he was a keynote speaker at a conference titled Are We Mad?: Critical Perspectives on the Canadian Mental Health System held at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. In 2010, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award by OCAP. Don has also been a guest lecturer in the Mad People's History course in the Critical Disability Studies Department of York University. For over ten years, he was host and producer of “Antipsychiatry Radio” on CKLN in Toronto. In 2011, he gave a series of public lectures on antipsychiatry at the Free University of Toronto. Don is currently writing a book about his activism. He continues protesting against electroshock and other forms of psychiatric oppression, and advocating human rights for psychiatric survivors and other oppressed people.
Piet Westdijk, MD ~ Psychiatry: Dr. Piet Westdijk, born 1953 in Holland, is a child and adult psychiatrist, systemic therapist and supervisor (Heidelberg school), in private practice in Basel Switzerland for 14 years. Before he trained in medicine and psychiatry in state hospitals in Switzerland during 6 years. As assistant director he helped to lead a private evangelical clinic near Basel during 8 years. Later he dissociated himself from the evangelical teachings. As basics of his work as medical practitioner he mentions: helping patients to leave the traditional psychiatry systems informing about and unmasking psychiatric diagnoses and drugs simply by admitting one does not know much about queer human behaviour, by personal encounter on Bubers level of „I and Thou“, also searching for reasons and goals. Dr. Westdijk’s experience ranges over following fields of psychiatry / psychotherapy:
* Psychoactive Substance Use, Schizophrenia, Phobic Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Adjustment Disorders, Somatoform Disorders, Personality Disorders
* Forensic psychiatry. Within his training he worked during 2 years as prison psychiatrist, where he trained to write forensic expertises. Now he likes to write second opinions to forensic expertises.
* Workplace and School Bullying
* Couples and Family Therapy
Barbara Harris Whitfield, RRT CMT ~ Author: Barbara Harris Whitfield had a profound near-death experience in 1975 that turned her life into a search for answers. She went back to school and became an ICU respiratory therapist which led her to write and lecture on "The Emotional Needs of Critical Care Patients." She was one of the first in the Respiratory Care field to take seriously the emotional needs of critically ill and dying patients. Next, she became a researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine looking at the psychological, emotional, energetic and spiritual aftereffects of people who have had a near-death experience, especially those whose prior religious beliefs were in conflict with their present spiritual experiences. She taught classes on these after effects at Rutgers University's Institute on Alcohol and Drug Studies for 12 years calling her classes "When the 12th Step happens first." Barbara is in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia with Charles Whitfield, MD doing individual and group psychotherapy for adults that were repeatedly traumatized as children. She is the author of six books. For more information go to www.barbarawhitfield.com.
Charles L Whitfield, MD ~ Addiction: Dr. Charles Whitfield is a physician and psychotherapist specializing in working with people with addictions and adults who have been traumatized as children. He has a private practice in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a consultant at the CDC, and was a faculty member at the Rutgers University Summer program for 23 years. He is on the editorial boards of several professional journals and since 1993 has been voted by his peers as one of the Best Doctors in America. Dr. Whitfield has appeared on several national TV shows as a guest expert. His bestselling book, with over 1.5 million copies sold, is Healing the Child Within (1987). He has written 8 additional books including The Truth About Depression (2003), and The Truth About Mental Illness (2004).
Peter Wright ND ~ Counseling: Dr. Wright is a licensed naturopathic physician who was first drawn to herbal, nutritional, and homeopathic health care through concerns about the side effects of psychiatric medications. He earned a biology degree from San Francisco State, graduated from Seattle's Bastyr University in 1989, and has focused on counseling since 2007. He has studied body centered psychotherapy (which integrates elements of Focusing and Internal Family Systems work with Hakomi Therapy), Systems Centered Therapy, existential psychology, attachment theory and trauma healing, as well as Empathic Therapy. long the way he's managed to cultivate a 40+-year marriage; raise two amazing sons to adulthood; work as a gardener, courier, medical assistant, editor and editing instructor, handyman, bookseller; maintain a home, and cook a lot; play music and sing; take part in a vibrant spiritual community; sustain sobriety, and find moments of luminous clarity. His website is peterwrightcounseling.com.
Robert E. Wubbolding, EdD ~ psychologist, counselor: Robert E. Wubbolding, EdD, psychologist, counselor, director of the Center for Reality Therapy in Cincinnati, Ohio and professor Emeritus Xavier University served as director of training for the William Glasser Institute 1988-2011. He has authored 13 books on reality therapy, 140 articles and essays and 25 chapters in textbooks. His book Reality Therapy for the 21st Century is the most comprehensive book on the theory and practice founded by William Glasser, MD. Bob has taught reality therapy in Europe, Asia, the Middle East as well as North America.
Robert L. Wyckoff, M.D., J.D.~ Psychiatry: Robert L. Wyckoff received his B.A. from La Sierra University 1949; J.D., University of Colorado 1952; served as Deputy County Counsel for County of Kern for two years before attending Loma Linda University, School of Medicine , M.D., 1958. After a rotating internship in Glendale, California he took a post graduate year at Yale University in legal medicine with Professors Fowler Harper and Jay Goldstein. He researched “The Effect of Medical Malpractice Cases Upon Physicians in Connecticut” which was published in the Journal of the A.M.A. and the Belli Year Book of Tort Law. He taught medical legal courses at Loma Linda for ten years while also doing general practice of medicine. He took a residency with the State of California for a five year program at Patton State Hospital making him board eligible in psychiatry. He did not apply for boards. He has engaged in legal matters in malpractice cases, commitment cases and as consultant to courts in psychiatric matters. He has worked as a psychiatrist for the State of California in the Department of Mental Health and in the Department of Corrections for 30 years. He was active in the Prohibition Party and its candidate for Governor 1962. He is semi-retired in Nevada where he is preparing a lecture series titled, “Clinical Psychiatry for Lawyers” designed to prepare lawyers to apply pertinent psychiatric knowledge that will assist them in their law practices. The subtitle is, “Psychiatry: Odd, Awed, Flawed or Fraud (omg).”
Ginger Ross Breggin ~ Administration, Public Relations and Reform: Ginger Breggin has co-authored two books with her husband Peter Breggin: the bestseller Talking Back to Prozac and The War Against Children of Color. She also co-edited Dimensions of Empathic Therapy with her husband and educator Fred Bemak, PhD. Ginger is now the Executive Director of the new reform organization she and her husband have cofounded: the Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy, Education & Living. Since the Empathic Therapy Center was founded April 2010, she has launched a new monthly E-newsletter, is organizing the first Empathic Therapy Conference for April 2011, and has created the social and educational network: The Empathic Therapy, Education & Living Network for professionals, individuals, survivors, families and advocates. For more than a decade Ginger Breggin was director of the Center for the Study of Psychiatry, informally known as the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (ICSPP), where she developed and organized the annual international conferences, newsletter and membership of that organization. She also conceived and cofounded the scientific journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, and served as its first managing editor.
Peter R. Breggin, MD ~ Psychiatry: Dr. Peter Breggin is Founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy, and a psychiatrist in private practice in Ithaca, New York. Dr. Breggin has been called "the Conscience of Psychiatry" for his efforts to reform the mental health field, including his promotion of caring psychotherapeutic approaches and his opposition to the escalating overuse of psychiatric medications, the oppressive diagnosing and drugging of children, electroshock, lobotomy, involuntary treatment, and false biological theories. Dr. Breggin's new reform organization brings together professionals and laypersons concerned with a critical analysis of biopsychiatry but with additional special emphasis on effective empathic approaches in mental health and education (www.empathictherapy.org). A Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former full-time consultant at NIMH, Dr. Breggin's private practice is in Ithaca, New York, where he treats adults, couples, and families with children. He also offers consultations in clinical psychopharmacology and often acts as a medical expert in criminal, malpractice and product liability suits. He is the author of many scientific articles and books including, Toxic Psychiatry (1991), Talking Back to Prozac (1994 with Ginger Breggin), Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry, Second Edition (2008) and Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide and Crime (2008). Dr. Breggin was honored in 2009 with the biography The Conscience of Psychiatry: The Reform Work of Peter R. Breggin, MD, a compilation of over 100 essays by colleagues as well as excerpts from over 50 years of media coverage of Dr. Breggin's reform work and other accomplishments. Dr. Breggin also founded and directed the Center for the Study of Psychiatry for over thirty years (1971-2002). In April 2010 Dr. Breggin and his wife Ginger withdrew their support from their old organization and decided to found the new Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy, Education & Living.
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