I developed the LifeCourse Effective Action Program (LEAP) while I was conducting marital, family, and individual therapy as a minister in the United Church of Christ, and later as a psychotherapist in private practice. I wanted my clients to know about the Adlerian principles I used in therapy, which I believed would make it easier for us and save time and money. I created hand-outs which became brochures which became booklets which became parts of my first book on Adlerian psychology, Changing Course: New Directions for the Journey of Life and then The LifeCourse Effective Action Program and the LEAP Notebook, a 300-page large 3-ring binder of material to help people explore their major patterns.

A little about me, if you're interested:

I was born in 1938, in Rugby, North Dakota, "the geographical center of North America." My parents lived in Dunseith, near the Canadian border, where they ran "The Keeling 5 and 10 cent store" and my father also worked at the tuberculosis sanatorium while also beginning pursuit of his doctorate.

I remember vividly at around age 2 1/2 standing n the store doorway and seeing a little boy come riding by in a metal pedal car. I decided I wanted one, and for Christmas, 1941, I got my own little red pedal car!  We then spent several years in which my father taught one year at small schools in various town. In 1942 we moved to Colorado where my father taught at a junior college and I started kindergarten. 1943 saw us moving to Minnesota where we lived three years and my father taught high school and finished his doctorate. We lived the next year in Wisconsin, where my father was the first state director of distributive education.

In 1947 we moved to Valley City, ND, where my father taught at the college and we lived until I graduated college (1958) and left for graduate theological school near Boston. After five years and two Master degrees (M.Div. and S.T.M.), I served churches   in the United Church of Christ in Massachusetts and New Hampshire before coming to Connecticut, where I served four more UCC churches. As a minister I cam to see the need for specialized training in counseling, so I returned for five more years of graduate school at the University of Connecticut, for my M.A. and Ph.D.

It was at UConn (Go Huskies!) that one of my professors introduced me to Adlerian psychology. (He became one of my doctoral advisors.) I immediately knew I had found the psychological and counseling approach I needed.

I became enthusiastic about Adler's ideas, and wrote brief explanations of them for my clients, so they'd know what I was doing and why. I expanded them to brochures, then booklets...and finally to my first Adlerian book, Changing Course: New Directions for the Journey of Life. By this time, in addition to counseling part-time, I was the director of Connecticut's state-wide child abuse hot line. When it was taken over by the state department of children and youth, I went with it.

I spent more than a dozen years with DCF in emergency services, assisting three directors of protective services, and working with subsidized adoptions. I retired in 1997, to devote my time to counseling and the LifeCourse Institute.

Among highlights of the past ten years, I started attending NASAP conventions, I wrote a number of other books and materials for various uses (including for people who want to conduct LEAP, for clergy who want to increase their effectiveness as clergy, and for couples who want to use LEAP and Adlerian ideas to strengthen their relationships), and I conducted a live, weekly one-hour call-in television program on Adlerian psychology. My focus right now is on improving this web site and getting people to stop by to learn about Adlerian psychology...and to work with local groups of clergy to increase their effectiveness in pastoral counseling.

To contact me and the LifeCourse Institute:

860-345-3204

lifecourseinst@aol.com