CURRICULUM VITAE
• Founder and President of The Human Development Company – 1997 – present
• Creator of the Continuum Theory™ of Human Development - 1988
• Executive Director of Impact On Hunger, Inc. (non-profit) – 1979 - 1986
• Founder and Co-director of Creative Aging, Inc. (non-profit) – 1979 - 1984
• Teacher of Children with Retarded Mental Development – NYC Board of Edu. - 1970-1975
• Sensitivity Trainer for the NYC Police Dept. - 1968-69
• Gestalt Psychotherapist - Presently
Project l – 2008 till present
Study involving professionals from the fields of psychology, psychotherapy, philosophy, counseling, etc. Thousands of professionals received an e-mail questionnaire asking them their definition of self. The study found that every one of the respondents had a different definition of self. Purpose of the study is to highlight the problem of communicating within these fields regarding – self-esteem, self-support, self-destructiveness, self-awareness, etc. Second phase of the study will be to start a dialogue by suggesting a new, functional definition for the self based on my theory.Project ll – 2003-2004
The Project’s goal was to examine a reason for the high divorce rate with a hope of finding some new information that has not been implicated before.We interviewed over 260 married couples regarding the reasons they got married. We analyzed results and determined that that were 7 main reasons people marry. Determined that the overwhelming majority (90 plus percent) of married people experienced getting from the marriage what they originally expected. If we define satisfaction as ‘getting what one expects’, we can unequivocally state that there should be a high satisfaction rate. Therefore, based on the results that individuals attained what they expected from marriage, which is equivalent to being satisfied – the divorce rate should be much lower than it presently is.
We further theorized that one way to explain the high divorce rate, in view of what the satisfaction rate should be but isn’t, is that there is yet another component of marriage that people are expecting to get, which they are not aware of and evidently don’t. This component must be vital enough to cause the breakup of the marriage even though the conscious reasons given for marriage were satisfied. We hypothesize the reasons as being – 1. Couples assume that marriage automatically brings with it unconditional love – which they realize soon enough is not the case. This causes major disappointment, lots of blame, lots of pain, 2. Couples enter marriage in pain from childhood and adult experiences – and believe that the marriage itself heals – they will be able to put it all behind them. Only to find out that the marriage exacerbates the pain.
Our theory for successful marriage is – that the need individuals have but are not aware of – is not the 7 things people expect, but the opportunity to help each other heal and grow – which is the one variable not given any attention in a marriage – and our belief is that the lack of opportunity to find healing in the marriage causes the high divorce rate.
Project lll – 1996-1997
We interviewed over 350 adults 60 years and older with regard to which years of life are most suitable to: 1) learning, 2) making an impact on society, 3) loving unconditionally 4) developing potential, 5) the start of decline.Overall we were interested in what vision is motivating the senior population. Our hypothesis is that vision or context determines choices. Seniors do not have a context that suggests that the years after 60 are for developing potential although they do feel that learning is possible. In actuality most people confused learning new things like computers or golf, with developing potential. Therefore their choices are self-limiting, as is their view of the possibility changing the world or making a difference in society.
Education
• BA in Philosophy (minor in Physics) – Hunter/Lehman College - NYC 1970• Graduate work in Movement Therapy – NYU – 1973
• Completed 3 years of Gestalt Therapist training – June 2009
• Presently working on Imago Couples Certification
Professional Associations
• Member of Society for Research of Adult Development• Member of Society for Philosophy and Psychology
• Member of the Society for Positive Psychology
• Member of the Gerontological Society of America
• Member of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (AMA sponsored)
• Member of the Society for the Study of Human Development
• Member of AFTRA - 1976 till present
• Former Member of Equity and SAG
• Lehman College Alumni Ass.
• Brooklyn Technical High School Alumni Ass.
Articles, Publications
• Aging Well – April, 2010• 50 plus Senior News – Long Island
• Parenting - New York City and Long Island
• Creations Magazine – Northeast
• Newsday – Long Island’s daily newspaper – editorials
• Websites – Expert for LongIsland.com – parenting, aging, marriage, relationship
• LIWeddings.com – pre-marriage enrichment counseling
Radio Program 2001 till present -
Produced and hosted over 100 hour-long radio specials on human development. Guests included authors, holistic healthcare professionals, Directors of senior centers, Ex. Directors of: Women's Groups, Child-care facilities, non-profit organizations like the Girl's Scouts, Singles’ organization, etc. The format is as a live call in show. Besides delivering valuable information on various subjects, hundreds of people have called in with questions and issues seeking advice and counseling.
Areas of Expertise
• Marriage enrichment Expert for - LongIsland.com
• Relationship Expert for Singles – LongIsland.com
• Aging as Development Expert – LongIsland.com
• Child Development Expert – LongIsland.com
• Marriage Enrichment, Couples Counseling Expert – Wedding Pages, LongIslandWeddingPages.com,
• Marriage Enrichment, Couples Counseling Expert – NewYorkMetroWeddings.com
• Marriage Enrichment, Couples Counseling Expert – LIWeddings.com
On-going - Workshops, talks, couples counseling, parent's trainings, individual coaching -
• Marriage Enrichment workshop series produced by The Human Development Company - 2-3 times a year
• Mastering Relationship series - twice monthly for single adults - 30-50 attend each workshop
• Workshops for senior centers – example: Sandel Senior Center
• LifePros™ - talks at libraries about aging – example: the Commack Library, Rockville Senior Center
• Worked with child-care centers like Tutor Time in Far Rockaway and Montessori in Huntington - gave workshops in staff development, child-development workshops for parents, etc.
• Individual and couples counseling - adults study and learn to apply the Continuum Theory tenets to personal growth as well as to career objectives, health, weight, money, marriage, relationships, etc.
Conference Participation –
• Society for Philosophy and Psychology – Philadelphia, PA – 2008
• Society for Research of Adult Development – Denver, CO - 2009
• SCIENCE AND NONDUALITY CONFERENCE – San Rafael, CA – 2009
• The Conference on Human Development, Fordham – NY, NY 2010
• Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration – Florence, Italy - 2010
Presentations –
• Society for Research of Adult Development – Denver, CO - 2009
• 2010 - A multi-layered developmental approach to couples’ counseling uses the brain’s neuroplasticity to achieve permanent results.
• May 2009 – Colloquium Presentation to trainers at the Long Island Gestalt Institute with an emphasis of incorporating theoretical elements from my theory into Gestalt Therapy – it was well received.
• June 2009 – Presented my theory to Harville Hendrix, founder of Imago Couple’s Therapy – paraphrasing Harville...”Congratulations…it seems you were tapped by the cosmos to reveal the secrets of the Universe in a useful and communicable form.”
• March 2010 – Conference on Human Development – Fordham U. – NY, NY