Consultant

To Schools

When I began my work in schools, psychologists were only involved with problems and psychopathology. Often kids and families experienced shame or dread when asked to meet with a psychologist. So much has changed for the better in the ensuing years! Today, schools recognize the importance of emotional regulation and its impact on learning and they work openly to promote skills to support it.

Mental health and social-emotional learning have become extraordinarily important priorities. Helping students with developmentally-grounded and strategic plans requires that faculty and administrative staff be sensitive and thoughtful about their students in ways beyond discrete educational goals. Psychologists and other mental health professional are called on to work hand in hand with educators to meet these needs of their students.

For many years I have been the Consulting Psychologist to two independent schools for boys, the Allen-Stevenson School and Saint David’s School. In these schools, I developed programs to assist parents, teachers and administrators to respond to the emotional and psychological needs of students and to address topical issues that impact them. Talking through difficult moments of everyday life, or earth shattering one’s, has become a regular part of a school’s agenda.

Our programs have enabled us to meet as working communities, especially in times of upset and upheaval, to tackle in supportive, psychologically-informed and innovative ways, difficult issues such as bullying, illness and death of classmates and teachers, the 9/11 attack and the pandemic.

To Business

Consulting with businesses on behalf of their human resources needs has become much more common in recent years as interpersonal and personality issues in the workplace have become an increasing concern to companies of all sizes. My experience in this area includes evaluations for employee fitness, work efficiency and organizational issues, strategic planning and refinement and implementation of CEO vision.

Partnering closely with advertising and marketing experts is another area of interest. Branding, rebranding and developing new campaigns all benefit from psychologically-based input. Using my understanding of human psychological development and functioning, I helped create developmentally-informed, culturally-relevant strategies for children’s television, iconic American beverages and soups and other consumer products.

To Training Institutions

Finally, training new generations of clinical practitioners and researchers has been a part of my professional life for a long time and I have been fortunate to have held faculty and supervisory positions at a variety of institutions throughout my career. Most recently, I have founded with my colleagues a small working group of independent school psychologists focused on the unique issues presented by raising and educating children in today’s academic milieu.