Archives: Authors

Joe Bavonese, PhD is a Licensed Psychologist. He maintains a private practice and also is the Director of the Relationship Institute in southeastern Michigan. He is also the Co-Director of Uncommon Practices, which helps healthcare providers create their ideal practice through the study of business and marketing. Joe's specialty areas include internet marketing and creating a group practice. 
 

Benjamin Meyer, LCSW, specializes in helping individuals and couples with learning differences to manage workplace challenges, relationships, and the complexity of everyday life. He has developed expertise in NVLD (Nonverbal Learning Disorder) and was selected as a Social Ambassador for the NVLD Project in New York City, for whom he has published various articles and provided presentations. Benjamin has also earned a certificate in psychodynamic psychotherapy from the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy and graduated from a couples and family therapy training program at the Ackerman Institute for the Family.

Bernard Golden, PhD, the founder of Anger Management Education in Chicago, has been a practicing psychologist for almost forty years. He has clinical experience in a variety of settings including community mental health centers, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, private practice groups, and individual practice. He has worked with children, teens, and adults. Dr. Golden was an Associate Professor at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology in Chicago for twelve years prior to expanding his practice to full-time in 2002.

Dr. Golden is the author of Overcoming Destructive Anger: Strategies That Work (John Hopkins University Press, 2016), Unlock Your Creative Genius (Prometheus Books, 2007) and Healthy Anger: How to Help Children and Teens Manage their Anger (Oxford University Press, 2002), and the co-author of (with Dr. Jan Fawcett and Nancy Rosenfeld) New Hope For People With Bipolar Disorder (Three Rivers Press/Random House, 2002, 2007 (2nd. Ed.). He has also co-authored The Bipolar Relationship (Adams Media, 2009) with Jon Bloch and Nancy Rosenfeld. Dr. Golden blogs about anger for Psychology Today and his website.
 

Bessel A. van der Kolk, M.D., has been active as a clinician, researcher and teacher in the area of posttraumatic stress and related phenomena since the 1970s. His work integrates developmental, biological, psychodynamic and interpersonal aspects of the impact of trauma and its treatment. His book Psychological Trauma was the first integrative text on the subject, painting the far ranging impact of trauma on the entire person and the range of therapeutic issues which need to be addressed for recovery.

Dr. van der Kolk and his various collaborators have published extensively on the impact of trauma on development, such as dissociative problems, borderline personality and self-mutilation, cognitive development in traumatized children and adults, and the psychobiology of trauma. He was co-principal investigator of the DSM IV Field Trials for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. His current research is on how trauma affects memory processes and brain imaging studies of PTSD.

Dr. van der Kolk is past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University Medical School, Medical Director of the Trauma Center, and Director of the National Complex Trauma Treatment Network at Justice Resource Institute in Brookline, Massachusetts. He has taught at universities and hospitals across the United States and around the world, including Europe, Africa, Russia, Australia, Israel, and China. His latest book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma was published in September 2014.

He is currently teaching though an intensive online Certificate Program in Traumatic Stress Studies.  Click here for information.

Beth Ravich Smith, PsyD, has worked as a therapist for over 20 years. Trauma work has been the focus of her career, with specific expertise in support of survivors of domestic violence, child witnesses of domestic violence and dual diagnosis with a focus on chemical dependency. She worked for Hazelden Betty Ford for over 13 years in the outpatient mental health clinic, where she assisted in the development and implementation of a successful integrated model for treating opiate addiction that included group therapy, medication assisted therapy and individual therapy. She also provided lectures and clinical training videos supporting that integrated model for treating opiate addiction.

Dr. Angelea Panos, holds a Ph.D in Clinical Psychology. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist and clinical social worker, and has more than twenty years of experience in traumatic stress treatment dealing with war refugees, domestic violence, victims of rape, and child abuse.

Anin Utigaard, MFT is Clinical Director of the Pacific Institute, and one of four founding chairs of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association. She was a faculty member of the Person-Centered Expressive Therapy Institute for over 10 years, a program developed by Natalie Rogers, and she has presented workshops on her unique approach, blending the creative language with the person-centered philosophy, worldwide.