Introduction Program Audience Program Concentrations Degree Requirements Course Offerings Primary Faculty Akamai Home Page PROGRAM CONCENTRATIONS Professional Psychology Community Psychology Domestic Violence Counseling Social Psychology Chemical Abuse Counseling Rehabilitation Counseling Jungian Psychology & Counseling Counseling Ex-Offenders Career Counseling Spiritual Psychology Tobacco Cessation Specialist Certificate Welcome to the Center for Psychology and Counseling Alarmingly, throughout the world, the burden of mental illness on health has long been underestimated. Data developed over the past decade by the massive Global Burden of Disease study conducted by the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and Harvard University, has revealed that mental illness, including suicide, accounts for over 15% of the burden of disease in established market economies, such as the United States. This is more than the disease burden caused by all cancers. Mental disorders are on the increase and expected to represent a major problem of epidemic proportions as the new century progresses. Depression, anxiety, withdrawal, adjustment disorder, bipolar disorder in later life, dementia, delirium, post traumatic stress disorder, personality and delusional disorders are expected to be among the more common afflictions. These disorders, largely brought on by the aging process among an evolving older population, as well as increasing societal stress, grave personal and family difficulties, drug or alcohol abuse and physical health disorders continue to complicate an already difficult situation. According to the Global Burden of Disease study, major depression ranked second only to heart disease in magnitude of disease burden in established market economies. Depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are among the leading causes of disability worldwide (especially for persons age five and older and among women). Obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder also contributed significantly to the total burden of illness attributable to mental disorders. These projections show that with the aging of the world population and the conquest of infectious diseases, psychiatric and neurological conditions could increase their share of the total global disease burden by almost half, from 10.5 percent of the total burden to almost 15 percent in 2020. National Institute of Mental Health researchers warn in projections published in the September, 1999 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry that the number of elderly people with mental illness, estimated to be 15 million in 2030, could strain the nation's health care system over the next 30 years. Counselors, consciousness researchers, psychotherapists, and neuroscientists are called upon to explore the vast reaches of the human mind for more improved techniques of professional intervention. The emerging methodologies of meditation, dream analysis, hypnosis, drugs, biofeedback, free association, and even brain imaging devices must be better understood and applied within the community and clinical arena. If we are to protect the quality of life and assure continued growth and peaceful development of the global community, psychological research, both clinical and theoretical, must continue to identify more effective methods of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of mental diseases. Return to Top Program Audience This Center is designed to serve the needs of professionals currently in, or wishing to enter, and benefit from the field of psychology through the following professions: Clinical psychologists in counseling centers, independent or group practices, hospitals, or clinics. Counseling psychologists in counseling centers, hospitals, and individual, family or group practices. Community psychologists, single parent counselors, counselors of at-risk youth and families, domestic violence counselors, Counselors of Returning Offenders Transpersonal psychologists, contemporary shamanic practitioners, Jungian counselors, archetypal psychologists, mind-body practitioners Organizational psychologists Social psychologists, developmental psychologists Spiritual psychologists, spiritual Counselors and pastoral counselors Rehabilitation counselors Employment, career and vocational counselors Mental health counselors Experimental or research psychologists, practitioners of contemporary research design, qualitative studies in psychology, and psychological theoreticians and researchers interested in fields such as Jungian Studies, Spiritual Psychology, mind-body relationships, energetics and intuition, psychology of women, mysticism, noetic and gnostic studies, and other contemporary specialties. Other counseling specialties include multicultural, or gerontological counseling Return to Top PROGRAM FACULTY Faculty Bios Primary Faculty David Johnson, Ph.D. Joann S. Bakula, Ph.D. William F. Bellais, Ed.D. Carmen Carsello, Ph.D. Michael Cohen, Ed.D. Daniel Eckstein, Ph.D. Claudine Jeanrenaud, Ph.D. Christopher K. Johannes, BA, MA, M.Ed. Ph.D., D.Sc. DHM H. Alan Kesten, Ph.D. John L. Laughlin, Ph.D. Lisa Mertz, Ph.D. Jim Morningstar, Ph.D. Anthony Payne, N.M.D., Ph.D., M.D. (honorary) Peggy A. Thayer, Ph.D. Janice Walton, Ph.D.