While all are common phrases in the world of parenting, they are less so for mothers whose histories of poverty, neglect and abuse have landed them in the charge of the Department of Child and Family Services and resulted in their children’s placement in foster care. Typically, DCFS requires that families remanded to its supervision complete parenting training before being reunited with their children. In Chicago, such parents are often referred to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), a program run by The Chicago School Forensic Center.

Stephanie Agost (right) coaches student Kristina Lenz through a PCIT description.

The program’s goal, says project coordinator Stephanie Agost (M.A. ’08), is to alter the negative patterns of interaction between parents and children while enhancing the parent-child relationship and decreasing parenting stress and child behavior problems. Working under the supervision of faculty and staff, students coach parents or caregivers through the process of learning positive communication strategies with their children. They use the acronym PRIDE (praise, reflection, imitation, description, enthusiasm) to teach mothers—and the occasional participating dad—to break the cycle of negative reinforcement and abusive practices that has been passed down, sometimes for generations. Student coaches observe client interactions through a one-way window and communicate with the parents through a bug-in-the-ear technology system.

“PCIT combines behavior therapy principles with traditional child play therapy skills and translates these aspects of intervention into a mode of working with families to bring about healthy, nurturing relationships,” says Dr. Laura Benton (Psy.D. ’98). A Chicago School alumna who returned as a faculty member in the forensic psychology department, Dr. Benton is one of three who train and supervise students in PCIT.

Together, they help parents master the skills that can take a potentially volatile exchange between an ill-tempered child and an exasperated mom or dad and turn it into a carefully orchestrated give-and take that helps the parent remain calm while teaching the child about limits and consequences.

“The strongest advantage that this program has over other parenting programs is that the therapy is conducted with the parent and child in the room together,” Dr. Benton says. “It’s much more powerful when they can witness the changes actually taking place in their relationship with their child.” National data gathered by the U.S. Administration for Children and Families offers evidence of PCIT effectiveness. According to the ACF website, physically abusive parents who participate in PCIT are far less likely to have re-reports of child abuse (19 percent as compared with 49 percent who had not been referred to PCIT).

Pride in Parenting

The Chicago School’s program typically serves between eight and 12 families a year, each through individual appointments. Parents and children show up for weekly sessions, which are held in a cozy, toy-filled room in the Forensic Center. For the kids, it’s a time to have mom’s undivided attention while coloring or reading stories. But it’s also time to learn the rules. Tantrums don’t elicit attention, but good behavior brings praise and hugs. When a parent’s patience starts to run thin, the reassuring voice of a student coach—coming steadily through the unobtrusive earpiece she wears—reminds her not to raise her voice, to turn negative statements into positive, and to tell her children how much she enjoys spending time with them. As kids respond positively, so does mom, demonstrating confidence in her own parenting abilities.

Both Agost and Dr. Benton were trained in PCIT—Agost as a student and Dr. Benton as a new member of the Forensic Psychology faculty—by Dr. Tiffany Masson, who introduced the program to The Chicago School when she joined the faculty in 2006. When launched, it was the only program of its kind in the area, but as empirical evidence became available to validate the program’s efficacy, the use of PCIT has expanded rapidly. It is now taught and practiced at universities and family counseling centers throughout the country, as well as in several countries in Europe and Asia.

Ralph Barrera was a sergeant in the Los Angeles Police Department when a bullet changed his life.

Fired in the line of duty in accordance with his training and police department regulations, the bullet took the life of an offender—but it also took a toll on Barrera, who embarked on a decade-long battle with post-traumatic stress disorder and eventually confronted the reality that it was time for a career change.

Ralph Barrera (M.A. '10)

As a PTSD patient, he says, he began to think about the role that mental health issues play in law enforcement—issues that affect not only the offender, but victims and police professionals as well. It was this new perspective that led to the next chapter in his life—leaving his 14-year LAPD career, returning home to Florida, earning a master’s degree through The Chicago School’s online Applied Forensic Psychology Services program, and becoming a youth advocate and court liaison.

“Having been diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness myself, I have a great deal of insight into what my clients are going through,” he says.

“When I advocate for a defendant in Felony Mental Health Court, my goal is to find a balance between the need to keep the community safe and the need to find the appropriate placement of my client back in the community.”

Barrera’s Chicago School degree brought together a growing interest in psychology with his extensive police experience, which included years as an undercover officer and assignments to vice and anti-gang units. In his current job with Archways Mental Health Inc., in Broward County, Fla., he advocates for youth who have committed felonies, makes sure his clients “don’t fall between the cracks” of the legal and mental health systems, and works with Archways’ eight case managers to recommend and follow placements for the youth assigned to him.

“I monitor the case of every defendant, tracking his progress through the system, and alerting the judge when I see a placement isn’t working out as planned,” he says. “I’m not there to take sides, or to work for a conviction or to have the case thrown out of court.

Whether my client is a 23-year-old billionaire arrested for possession or an indigent alcoholic who thinks he lives in the Eiffel Tower, I’m just there to make sure that everything that’s supposed to happen happens.”

He credits The Chicago School’s online degree program with giving him the confidence to reinvent his career in a way that took advantage of his experience and interests, and provided him with the skills to combine the two.

“In some ways, it’s not so different from what I did as a police officer,” he says. “It’s a softer approach to helping people.”

To his parish in the Hispanic Chicago neighborhood of West Humboldt Park, he is known as Father Tom. But to patients at Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center, where he works with cancer and AIDS patients as coordinator of the Supportive Care Program, he goes by Doctor Tom.

The different monikers underscore the dual roles that the Rev. Dr. Thomas N. Pelton balances as a priest and psychologist.

Rev. Dr. Thomas N. Pelton (Psy.D. '91)

Named the 2011 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year at The Chicago School’s Commencement Ceremony on June 10 for embodying the values of engagement, diversity, and social justice, he reflected that his two divergent professional paths have helped his practice as a “wounded healer.”

“In both professions we practice the healing arts and disciplines, albeit wounded ourselves,” he said. “Mysteriously and powerfully, many of us discover that the healing of others takes place in parallel with our own healing, that our wounds can become a blessing as they inspire our wisdom and compassion for the wounds in others.”

Dr. Pelton’s own path to religion began while growing up in a strong faith-filled family on the Southwest Side of Chicago. He was ordained by the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1966 and has served in 10 parishes around the city, from East Englewood on the South Side to East Rogers Park on the far North Side to his current position at Maternity BVM Parish on the West Side, where he has been for 15 years.

But a desire to increase his options and become more independent—along with conversations with fellow priests and Chicago School alumni Rev. Drs. John Keenan (Psy.D. ’83) and John Lynch (Psy.D. ’82), and the first dean Allan Rosenwald—led him to pursue a Psy.D. in clinical psychology and join the school’s founding class in 1979. “I had a drive for more self-understanding and more understanding of what was going on in the world around me,” he said.

After graduating in 1991, he worked at Loretto Hospital’s Addiction Center and completed his post-doctoral internship at St. Elizabeth Hospital. For the past 17 years he has worked at Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center, where he focuses on palliative care.

“It’s not just end-of-life care though,” he said. “We’re dealing with patients from the onset of diagnosis. That fits well with ministry. Some patients are desirous of a religious component and others are not. In the parish, I’m able to do referrals for psychological services, so my work has broadened both professions.”

With his parish confronting issues like immigration, gang violence, and affordable housing, Dr. Pelton draws on his deep social justice roots to work with nonprofit organizations to help meet the needs of the community—he cofounded the precursor to the Interfaith Leadership Group of Cicero, Berwyn, and Stickney; walked in the Equal Rights March; protested the segregation of the Lewis Towers swimming pool in the 1960s; and has participated in several other demonstrations and rallies through the years.

But Dr. Pelton doesn’t always find it easy to navigate between his two worlds, with patients, colleagues, and parishioners. “If I go into a room (at the hospital) with a drug patient who has HIV, he’ll turn away from me. But if I tell him I’m a priest, it can open him up. It works the other way too. Both have powerful projections.

“Historically, there was a great antipathy between the two professions,” he adds.

“Psychologists thought religion and spirituality were delusional and pathological. And it can be, but in more contemporary times, there are groups in both professions that see an affinity between the two.  However, there are still people in the field who don’t have trust in the other.”

He also encounters many people who believe the two professions fit well together and ultimately values the axiom that “grace builds on nature.”

“To live a fuller psychological life, one needs to deal with the eternal questions and universal energies and relationships,” he said. “To live a fuller spiritual life, one needs to deal with one’s psychological demons and potentialities.”

Dr. Rubenstein addressed graduates as the 2010 Distinguished Alumnus.

A member of the Clinical Psychology Department faculty since 2005, Dr. Rubenstein was known for the passion with which he blended his areas of expertise—psychology and the expressive arts—and the enthusiasm with which he mentored students. His influence, inspiration, and energy were described repeatedly at an on-campus memorial service and in a memorial blog that was launched the week after his death. Dozens of colleagues, friends, and students shared the memories of the difference he had made in the school and in the department.

“When I think of Ted, I think of the purest kind of energy, and of love, laughter, compassion, and creativity,” said Dr. Barbara Kelly, former chair of the Clinical Psychology Department. “I think of his seemingly inexhaustible willingness to take on more, as if life would not be long enough to do all he needed and wanted to do to repair broken lives, heal wounded hearts, and make this world a better place.”

Among Dr. Rubenstein’s most visible accomplishments was the Home Again Family Reintegration Project, which he and his students developed in partnership with the Illinois National Guard. The project uses art, drama, and music therapy to help the children of returning soldiers cope with the feelings of anxiety, fear, and confusion that accompany a parent’s deployment. In the past year, Home Again has been implemented in towns throughout Illinois. Its success has drawn the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense, which has asked that the project be expanded to other states and with other groups of military families. New versions are currently in development and will be implemented with families of fallen soldiers and those who are facing imminent deployment.

Dr. Rubenstein was the 20th graduate to be honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Presented by Alumni Council Chair Susanne Francis-Thornton (Psy.D. ’03), the plaque recognized his scholarly and humanitarian efforts to broaden the school’s impact through the Home Again project. “I’ve had the great honor to build this program,” Dr. Rubenstein said in accepting the award. “Through the use of art and storytelling, we invited these children to someway express their feelings, convey their fear, to play again, to breathe again, and if necessary, get angry again. In short, it was time for kids to be kids again.”

Dr. Rubenstein also cited fellow faculty members who had been an inspiration to him during his days as Chicago School student. “He talked about the professor who inspired calm in the middle of turmoil, but Dr. Rubenstein was that professor to me,” Clinical Psy.D. student Heidi Schilling wrote on the memorial blog, “I feel the world has been robbed of so much more he had to offer.”

The case—in addition to bringing her together with her future husband, who was an impressed anesthesiology resident in the room—illustrates the mantra she coined after graduating from The Chicago School in 1987: All pain is in your head because your brain is in your head. “I use a biopsychosocial approach,” she says. “In the nervous system, there is a noxious component to pain. There’s also an emotional component and a learned component. I treat the whole person for pain.”

Dr. Pimental’s focus on treating the mind, body, and spirit of each patient is a cornerstone of her Carol Stream, Ill., practice, Neurobehavioral Medicine Consultants, Ltd., which has specialized in neuropsychology, behavioral medicine, multidisciplinary pain management, and rehabilitation psychology since 1991, a year after U.S. Congress dubbed the forthcoming decade as “The Decade of the Brain.” Research had begun to yield major insights into diagnosing and treating brain disorders and head injuries.

The idea of collaborating with multiple practitioners to treat patients—of using an integrated approach—was also catching on. As patients sought Dr. Pimental’s treatment of their sports injuries, behavioral issues, stress, post-injury rehabilitation, and more, she often worked with a team of specialists to treat them. “A multidisciplinary team can make a huge difference in treating any disorder,” she says. “It’s like a pie. Each piece of the pie helps you in a different way, but we’re all working together to make this pie and no one is more important than the other. When done correctly, patients feel like they have a team.”

In her 23-year career, Dr. Pimental has pursued several other neuropsychology-related interests. The same year that she started her practice, she launched a neurobehavioral medicine program at nearby Glen Oaks Hospital. A passion for political issues led to her presidencies at the Illinois Psychological Association and American Board of Professional Neuropsychology, and she continues to serve on committees of several professional organizations. She is also a published researcher, writer, and editor, and delivers lectures at conferences.

Throughout her career she has taught and mentored numerous externs and for the past eight years, taken post-doctoral fellows from The Chicago School, fostering such a close-knit group that many return for an annual holiday reunion at a local crepe restaurant near her practice.

To her students, she makes a point of passing on advice that Dr. Nancy Newton, professor of clinical psychology, gave her when she was a student at The Chicago School: “In order to be a good specialist, you have to be a good generalist.” “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” Dr. Pimental says. “Discover your talents, gifts, and passions. If you do that, the patients, doctors, professionals, parents, and consumers who you’re working with will see that spiritual energy emanating from you, and that’s who they will want to be around for treatment.”

@johnrayfowler (M.A. '09)

When a simple keyword search for a company on LinkedIn revealed a shared connection with Julie Bechtold, The Chicago School’s director of career services, Fowler contacted her to set up an informational interview. After their conversation veered from how she got into career coaching to his interest in LinkedIn as a powerful networking tool, she offered him the opportunity to create a workshop for students.

He developed a webinar and an in-person workshop to educate students about how to use the site, which allows anyone to post a résumé and to search for and connect with professional contacts. He soon realized that the product could both further his own job development and be useful for businesses and individuals who wanted to use social media to build their brands. “I use the quote, ‘Facebook is like my home, LinkedIn is like my office, and Twitter is like a cocktail party,’” he says.

Facebook is like my home, LinkedIn is like my office, and Twitter is like a cocktail party.

Fowler launched JR Consulting and has since conducted social networking trainings at other schools such as Argosy University, Harrison College, and DePaul University. With nearly four out of five Internet users visiting a social networking site at least once a month, it’s no surprise that the need for such training is on the rise.

He specializes in LinkedIn and Twitter. “LinkedIn is more trusted. You have to have a commonality with a contact before you can share messages,” he explains. “Twitter is more open and global, so you can fire when you want. It’s easier to have access with knowledge leaders in a particular industry.”

@johnrayfowler's Top 5 Tips for Building Your Online Professional Brand

Fowler advises clients on how to approach both sites—users should determine their goals, develop a strategy, and spend time wisely—as well as pitfalls to avoid. “If you don’t develop a strategy and know what you’re doing, you’re wasting time and putting your reputation at risk,” he says. Fowler also recommends not relying solely on social networking for a job search. “I view social media tools as platforms for initiating and establishing relationships. It’s not a replacement for the face-to-face, but it’s a way to find the right people.”

He took his own advice and kept up with his contacts, including a classmate who helped him land a contract job as an organizational consultant with the management consulting firm Vincent Associates. He continues to provide social media training on the side.

Fowler’s interest in psychology developed while working as a manager at Enterprise Rent-a-Car, where he was learning how to run a business, but also becoming intrigued by the recruiting process. This led him to enroll in an industrial and organizational psychology class at a nearby community college. “I realized that I could marry my business expertise with my love for psychology,” he says.

Fowler moved from St. Louis to Chicago to enroll at The Chicago School. “I went into it with the mindset of becoming an organizational consultant,” he says. “The skills I gained were related to talent management—how to attract, retain, and develop talent.”

While he now works in his chosen field, Fowler continues to reap the professional benefits of social networking. A few months ago, he was reading a book called Networlding, found the author on Twitter, and tweeted his interest. “The next thing I know, she contacted me to collaborate on her next book,” he says. “Twitter allowed me to have access, to interact with her, and by including a link to my LinkedIn profile on my Twitter page, she assessed my skills and background and determined that I would make a good partner.”

The book’s title? Graduate to LinkedIn: Jumpstart Your Career Support Network Now.

Follow him on Twitter @johnrayfowler.

* A hashtag (#) is a mark that Twitter users place before a word or phrase that indicates a topic of interest, for example: The New Path to Career Success is #SocialMedia. This allows other Twitter users to search easily for the same topic.

Lt. Col. Tracy Dillinger (Psy.D. '94)

“It can be a pretty intense experience, particularly when you’re working on an investigation that has so much public attention,” she says. “But it’s a good example of the kind of unique role that a psychologist can play in the military.”

Dr. Dillinger’s Air Force career, which began as an intern and progressed to her current assignment as manager of safety culture at NASA, has also represented her evolution from a clinical to an organizational psychologist. Although she completed her Psy.D. with the intention of pursuing a career as a clinical practitioner, her focus changed as she moved through the ranks and posts of Air Force life.

The progression just happened as opportunities presented themselves, she says. Although she maintains her clinical licensure as a link to the direct service career that is now part of her past, she admits that there are some parts of that life—like middle-of-the- night trips to the emergency room when a client is in crisis—that she doesn’t miss.

“In some ways, organizational psychology isn’t that different, though,” she says. “It’s just that your patient is an organization. You still need to assess strengths and weaknesses and figure out how to treat it. It’s about changing your perspective.”

The daughter of two psychologists, she decided early in life that she would follow in her parents’ footsteps. Although she began working as a crisis center volunteer at 18, she deliberately slowed her academic pace, completing a master’s degree before enrolling in The Chicago School’s five-year clinical Psy.D. program.

“I didn’t want to hang a shingle out at 24, she says. “Psychology is not a novice’s profession. There’s a lot that goes into being a good therapist and managing a patient load and I wanted to make sure I was really ready. I was much more comfortable entering the profession at 30.” Her decision to join the military came in response to a tragedy—the suicide of a friend who had battled PTSD since his return from Vietnam.

“It was a personally motivating event for me. I decided right then and there that I wanted to be in the military, as a practicing psychologist, so that I could help identify people who were suffering and do something about it before it was too late.” Her choice was reinforced, she says, as she watched international problems escalate and saw the need for good professional psychologists in the inner circle of government and military leadership. “You can’t dictate change from the outside—I wanted to be on the inside where I could be part of helping leaders make good decisions.”

Susanne Francis-Thornton (Psy.D. ’03)

Efforts to realize these goals will include networking events, career advancement lectures, and philanthropic opportunities. A Student Ambassador program will allow four students to participate in all council activities and have voting rights. She will also work to expand membership to include representatives from all program areas.

“The better we are at representing all constituencies of the school, the better we are able to give back to up-and-coming students,” she says.

Assistant Director of Alumni Relations David Miller (M.A. '07)

Miller is a graduate of the Industrial and Organizational Psychology program and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership. He worked for RAJ Associates from 2007-09 as a consultant specializing in management training, team building, and individual coaching. Miller returned to TCSPP in May 2009 to become an admissions counselor for online-blended programs.

Funerals are never easy, even when it’s part of the job. For the Rev. Stan Bosch, a Catholic priest working the gang-ridden streets of Los Angeles, the hardest part of witnessing hundreds of gang-member burials was seeing that things never improved—until recently, that is, when he went back to school at California Graduate Institute (CGI), earned a 2009 Clinical Psy.D. from The Chicago School (which had recently acquired CGI), and began putting his newly acquired psychotherapy skills into practice.

“In my 23 years as a parish priest working in some of the toughest areas of L.A., I can’t honestly say that I saw changes in gang members’ lives,” says Dr. Bosch. “But in just the past couple of years doing therapy, it’s amazing the transformations I’ve witnessed.”

As he labors out of a small charter school attended by “the worst of the worst” (as described by the head of the nonprofit organization that runs the school), his work is never-ending. With more than 400 street gangs and 40,000 gang members—resulting in some of the nation’s worst youth-on-youth violence—Los Angeles has the dubious distinction of being the gang capital of the U.S.A.

Dr. Bosch, who was featured on the front page of the Los Angeles Times in August, is part of a relatively new anti-gang program called Gang Reduction and Youth Development, or GRYD. The program focuses on a dozen gang-reduction zones, neighborhoods where gang violence is at least four times the citywide average. Dr. Bosch, 54, oversees two of those zones, supervising 12 intervention workers and four case managers.

A primary goal of GRYD is to stop retaliations that often follow shootings, says Dr. Bosch. He supplements law enforcement efforts with counseling and wraparound services, and counsels families and gang members afterwards. Rumor control is also emphasized— addressing rumors about what gang is responsible for a specific incident. Because one shooting can result in as many as 10 retaliation shootings, the goal is to have a gang interventionist on the scene.

A Chicago School alumnus with a clear agenda, Dr. Bosch has already begun working with TCS-Southern California to provide practicum and community service opportunity for students.

“I want them to get a taste of the gang way of life, where so many kids are simply trying to survive from day-to-day,” he says. “Violence is diminished in neighborhoods where people are connected and know each other by their real names. It’s amazing what can be accomplished with proper training coupled with genuine caring and love.”

Many of our kids don’t know what they feel, and nobody asks them.

His passion is to get at the psychological hurts, wounds, and scars that inner-city kids have, which often lead them to join gangs and commit horrendous acts of violence on each other. He believes that urban gang members, above all else, need to be listened to and loved.

“It’s bringing kids together to put words to feelings,” he says. “It’s dealing with what’s called ’alexithymia’ in psychodynamic terms, the incapacity to put words to feelings. Many of our kids don’t know what they feel, and nobody asks them.”

People act out what they can’t talk out, because nobody’s really listening about how they feel, Dr. Bosch explains.

“It’s complicated with the socio-economic environment where people are in survival mode. I think kids get lost. That’s why they join gangs, a surrogate family, to be able to be recognized by others who ’will know me, call me by a name, die for me’,”

He refers to “ the chasm between the inner city and the outer city,” as a “structural sin” that needs addressing and urges people to “come forward in love and touch these kids, and be touched.

“These kids are hungry to be listened to and share their hurts,” he says.