Title: Practical Dharma

Gender: Male

Age: 58

Sun Sign: Pisces

Chinese Sign: Metal Rabbit

Location: Charlotte, North Carolina

I copied most of this from a shameless piece of self-promotion.  I suppose the obvious question is:  Do I think I am the work I do?  The answer is, for the most part, yes.  I am very blessed to have the opportunity to spend as much time as I do engaged in dialog and interaction, helping people who want to change for the better.  I learn from their triumphs and failures, and sometimes I even help then to change in the direction they choose.

            Pat is a Licensed, Health Service Provider Psychologist in Concord (Charlotte), North Carolina.  His first job in applied psychology was in 1974, and he has been doing it since that time.  He has experience in a wide variety of applied settings, including private practice, community mental health, state hospitals, a community hospital, and corporate health promotion.  He received his B.A. in general psychology from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1973.  He received his M.A. in clinical psychology in 1983 and his Ph.D. in behavioral psychology in 1988 (both) from Georgia State University in Atlanta.  His area of specialty is Applied Behavioral Psychology.  He is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Behavior Analysis, the American Public Health Association, and various state and local organizations that promote the application of behavioral science to solve human problems.  In addition, Pat has a long-standing interest and practice of Buddhist Psychology including over 30 years of Meditation practice.  Pat has a special interest in how western scientific psychology can be combined with the practice of the Buddhist Dharma (the Path to Enlightenment.)  This is what he presumptuously calls the Practical Dharma.

            Pat is currently a psychologist in a private practice affiliated with a 500-bed Community Hospital in Concord, NC.  Pat provides services to patients in the hospital on both the medical floors and a specialized psychiatric floor.   He also sees a wide variety of patients in the outpatient clinic including children, young adults, and geriatric adults.  His therapeutic techniques are based on scientifically validated psychological principles that include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy, and Behavior Modification all informed by a Buddhist Philosophical approach.  He is also active in psychological evaluation of personality and ability to help determine the most effective therapeutic approach.  He provides services in several areas of health promotion, as well as providing direct clinical services to many different types of clients. 

            Early in his career, Pat treated severely disordered behaviors in the “back wards” of state hospitals.  This was, in part, a practice of compassion, but it also provided a lesson in the nature of human behavior.  These activities included residential services to developmentally disabled children and adults and to those with severe and persistent mental illnesses.  He also worked for many years in a Community Mental Health Center (CMHC), helping people change through outpatient therapy.  Often people seeking help from a CMHC’s have financial, social, or other external stresses that make change difficult.   Applied practice in all the areas listed above shaped the ideas of Practical Dharma.  It is the application of Behavioral and Buddhist principles in the real world of everyday life. 

For fun I like working on making my Triumph Bonneville into a really bad cafe racer (oh - and riding around looking really cool  - this is the dharma practice called “selfish attachment”.  I also enjoy sailing on Lake Norman and other places when I get the chance.  I am involved with men’s Work through a group called the Mankind Project.  Another thing I enjoy is developing ways to use my Treo 650 as a tool for personal development and productivity.  I use my Palm to keep track of the goals and objectives listed below.  I turn these into ToDo’s for each day and keep track of the categories in which I am actually spending time and energy.  Of course, I also use my Palm to read fiction, listen to music, talk on the phone, etc.

Member Since: Friday, January 20 2006

Last Visit: 735 days ago.

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