James Weaver,PhD

I am a Clinical Psychologist licensed in the state of Maine. In my 30 plus years of professional practice I have worked with and helped countless adults and adolescents with issues ranging from life problems and internal exploration to ongoing emotional conflict and self-limiting behaviors. Working with many couples over the years, I have assisted them in improving their communication and understanding of each other, working out difficult conflicts and enriching and enhancing their relationships. Leading numerous groups, from ongoing weekly groups to weekend retreats, to new insights and more productive interpersonal interactions has been most rewarding. I have also supervised numerous mental health professionals and been the director of two internship programs for doctoral candidate psychology students.

ORIENTATION:

My therapeutic approach is eclectic and integrative, drawing on many theoretical approaches with a strong emphasis on the humanistic theories. I have broad training and exposure to many schools and methods over my many years of practice. I have worked to continually broaden my theoretical and experiential foundations and to refine many treatment strategies using methods and techniques from a number of orientations when they seem to be the most appropriate and helpful. My most extensive post-doctoral focus and training has been in Gestalt Therapy . My approach is heavily grounded in Gestalt theory with its emphasis on the now and the making of meaning by doing. I focus on how we disrupt our connections with our selves, others and our environment in the present moment, the ongoing consequences of such interruptions and innovative solutions to these challenges. I emphasize what is happening for the client here and now, so that, together, we can elicit and resolve unfinished and debilitating issues and thereby achieve a new self understanding, a regeneration of energy, purpose, enjoyment and a realization of one's full potential.

I strive to engage in a collaborative treatment process that, on one level, weighs alternatives to find more productive and satisfying solutions to specific problems and on a deeper level, brings to awareness those ingrained and largely unconscious patterns of thought, feeling and action that habitually result in painful, self-defeating and unproductive behavior. I endeavor to find the creative and transformational resolutions needed to integrate these new awareness of ourselves and others, with renewed joy in what is and what is possible, with increased flexibility in mind, body and spirit and an expanded capacity and willingness to act.

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE:

I received my doctoral degree from the University of Tennessee in 1975 with extensive practicum training at the University of Tennessee Psychology Clinic, the Oak Ridge Mental Health Center, Eastern State Hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee and New York University Hospital in New York City. I did my Internship at Camarillo State Hospital and Santa Barbara Mental Health Center in California. I served as the Program Director and Clinical Supervisor at Tri-County Mental Health Services, Lewiston, ME from 1972 to 1978. I completed the 2 year training program at the Gestalt Institute of New England in 1979 and have been attending ongoing Gestalt Training Group sessions on the average of three weekends a year for the past 20 years. I also completed the 2 year training program at the Massachusetts Institute of Neuro-Linguistic Programming in 1981. I continually participate in a wide variety of professional seminars and do extensive reading to stay current with the very latest developments in the field. I have also been the Director of Doctoral-level Psychology Internship Programs at Tri-County Mental Services and at Psychological and Educational Services where I am currently Executive Director. Over the years I have taught a number of psychology courses at the graduate and undergraduate level. I have published articles in the Gestalt Review and produced and directed educational films on mental health issues and Gestalt Therapy. I have been in full time private practice since 1978