About Marlene

I have had a full life, not without struggles and tragedies to overcome. Yet I pretty much “sang” my way through it. Singing began by studying voice at the Indiana University and the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. And after moving to Columbus, Ohio, I continued to study voice at Capital University and the Ohio State University.

After all my children were in school, I decided to get serious about a career and an interesting and varied career journey began. At first I thought I would be a music therapist. Then that changed to teaching Literature which led to a deep interest in psychological interpretations of Literature. Finally, my interests merged into the fields of creativity, Psychology, Counseling, Literary Psychotherapeutics, the Arts in Psychotherapy and particularly to Poetry Therapy and Life-Writing.

Through these interdisciplinary studies, I launched myself on a career of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Having had therapy as a young woman myself, I knew how essential counseling was to a full and rich life. I practiced for many years in downtown Worthington. Then when my husband, the love of my life, died sixteen years ago, I moved my practice into my home, where my clients say they enjoy the very private, comfortable, welcoming atmosphere of my periwinkle blue house.

Thirty years of practice has reinforced my belief in the value of counseling and therapy for many people and many problems. I’ve had the privilege of witnessing lives grow in meaning and joy as I help people on their journeys toward finding their own voice and learning to “sing” with their life.

Finding one’s voice is a journey of active discovering, uncovering. We may not like what we discover from time to time, but in the end, it is what we need to do, in order to find the treasures inside us that make us unique and precious.

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
you know what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.

~ Mary Oliver

My Qualifications and Credentials

By education, training, and law, I am competent to engage in the independent practice of the following:

1. Individual, couple, family, and group counseling and psychotherapy


2. Diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorders, such as major   depressive disorders, anxiety and phobic disorders (PTHD)


3. Treatment of mental and emotional conditions not attributable to mental and   emotional disorders, such as personal, social, relationship issues,
     developmental, situational crises, women’s issues, gender-fair and non-sexist   counseling.


4. Testing and Evaluation.


5. Literary Psychotherapeutics, such as developmental or clinical Bibliotherapy,   Poetry therapy, dreamwork, therapeutic creative writing, Life Writing


6. Distance Counseling, via telephone or e-mail


7. Supervision, Consultation, Referral, Advocacy

Education

The Ohio State University, 1977

B.A., with Distinction in Comparative Literature. Second major in social sciences. Honors thesis: “A comparative psychological study of Euripides’ Medea, and Robinson Jeffers’ Medea

Wright State University, 1980

M.A., (4 point) in mental health counseling. Master’s thesis: “A feminist perspective on the history of violence and the ‘unknown quantity’: the wife assaulter.”

The Ohio State University, 1988

Ph.D. (Interdisciplinary) in Counseling, Psychology, Women’s Studies, and Literary Psychotherapeutics. Dissertation: “A comparative study of feminist group psychotherapy and poetry therapy as an adjunctive treatment to increase self-actualization on the personal orientation inventory.”

Professional Credentials

Professional Clinical Counselor, PCC. Ohio License No. 000E1490; includes Supervision endorsement

Distance Counseling Certification, DCC No. 681 from a CCE accredited program, ReadyMinds, an affiliate of NBCC

To verify my Ohio license, number 000E1490, contact:

Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board
50 W. Broad St. Suite 1075
Columbus, OH 43215
Phone: 614-466-0912
Website: http://cswmft.ohio.gov
Email: cswmft.info@cswb.state.oh.us