The Independent Practitioner has once more changed leadership. It’s under the eyes of Steve Walfish and me now. Ed Lundeen, a most excellent editor and colleague, has officially turned over the keys and passed the mantle.
Ed was exemplary in his editorship. Unless you’ve done this yourself, there’s no way that you can even slightly comprehend the number of hours and decisions spent and made to put an issue in your hands. Steve and I thank him for his untiring work to educate, inform, and excite you with issues and items of interest.
Who are we?
Steve Walfish is in independent practice in Atlanta, Georgia. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical/Community Psychology from the University of South Florida in 1981 under the mentorship of Bill Kinder and David Stenmark. He has a general adult practice where he sees individuals, couples, and completes psychological evaluations. In his current practice he specializes in completing presurgical psychological evaluations prior to gastric bypass surgery, substance abuse evaluations and forensic civil evaluations for civil cases. He completes evaluations in his office practice and also at Ridgeview Institute where he is a member of an interdisciplinary team evaluating professionals for impairment due to substance abuse or mental health reasons.
Steve has also been an Adjunct Professor at the University of South Florida and been a Visiting Professor at both Kennesaw State University and Georgia State University. He has an appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Emory University School of Medicine. He values the scientist-practitioner model of training and has published in the areas of substance abuse, professional practice and training, HIPAA, and crisis intervention. He has co-edited (with Allen Hess) Succeeding in Graduate School: The Career Guide for the Psychology Student and next summer APA will publish Financial Success in Mental Health Practice co-authored with Jeff Barnett.
And I’ve been a long timer in private practice in Quincy, Illinois for the past 35 years. I graduated from Springfield College in Massachusetts and the University of Tennessee. Living in a rural community, my practice has of necessity been broad based. When in a small town, you try to help whoever comes in the door with whatever they present, or send them 90 miles away...which most won’t do. It makes you need to learn to handle all sorts of folks with a wide range of problems.
Now about the IP.
You’ll see your old friends here...Pat DeLeon, Dan Eggli, Stanley Graham, and some new ones as well. It’s our hope to inform, entertain, and make this a thoroughly readable rag that you’ll enjoy and find useful.
You’ll also find references to on-line items. We’re strong believers in the value of our sister place...42 on-line, now under Pauline Wallin’s direction. Old editions of the IP are found there, as well as a host of other useful items that you’ll want to check out.
Comments, commendations or complaints are helpful. Your feedback makes a good bulletin better, and a really good bulletin excellent.
But it’s your willingness to share your ideas and thoughts that makes this publication worth its paper and ink. We’re looking for items that will be of interest and use to today’s clinicians. Long lists of references are not necessary to share a creative idea, a story about a technique that helped, or a point of view that is helpful. Items reflecting your humorous side are always welcome, since we hope not only to inform, but to entertain a little. As Dr. Phil said in New Orleans, his show combines both skill and entertainment to keep his audience tuned in.
That’s what we plan to try to do as well.
