Retirement Speech from the Valley Pastoral Counseling Center

I first want to thank and recognize my most personal supporters and encouragers, my family, for being here this afternoon and caring for me through the years. I next want to recognize my therapist brother who started out as a pastoral counselor. I am further happy to have here today two groups of our life long friends--the Big Chill group and the A Team group. 

Others who have been great supporters through the years are here as well:

My psychiatrist friend and colleague who is also a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. 

And my long time friend and colleague who has traveled a similar path to mine. He began in pastoral ministry, moved to pastoral psychotherapy, then to psychoanalysis and finally neuropsychoanalysis. 

I thank you all for being here today to celebrate with me and for our long and continued history together!

The next groups I wish to recognize and thank for being here are first: My fellow therapists at the Valley Pastoral Counseling Center.  I have known some of you for almost twenty years. Second: The Interns and Residents I supervised over the years. You taught me almost as much as I taught  you. Third: The Boards of Directors over the years. We could not have accomplished the Mission of the pastoral counseling center without your oversight and fundraising. Fourth: Office staff and volunteers. You worked behind the scenes to keep the Counseling Center functioning smoothly from within which allowed us as therapists to  reach out to the community. 

As I thought about what I might say today, two questions came to my mind. The first one was, " Why did I come to the Valley Pastoral Counseling Center?" That one was pretty easy to answer. I needed a job! Which was true, but more seriously, I had just graduated from the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care with my Certification in Pastoral Counseling and additional training to become a LPC. And, at the age of 40 I was wanting to transition out of the pastorate and into the pastoral psychoanalytic psychotherapy. My long time friend who was then the executive director here at Valley Pastoral, was kind enough to create a position for me as a staff psychotherapist. I was very grateful to be here!

The second question I asked myself was, "Why did I stay at Valley Pastoral until retirement"? That question was a little harder to answer. One reason I stayed was the work itself. Thanks to our expanded Mission Statement  staff therapists could do not only therapy, but also supervision, education and consultation. So , I got to do right here much of what I loved doing! I got to do psychoanalytic therapy--1100  patients over these  30 years  for whom I am most grateful. I got to do psychoanalytic therapy supervision--14 students who taught me almost as much as I taught them. I got to write--two books, several articles,  100 Blog posts, and  " The History of the Valley Pastoral Counseling Center". I further got to give numerous talks/lectures in the community on subjects I enjoyed.  I also got to lead the Counseling Center  through 12 years as the Executive Director  and a number of years as  both Clinical Director  and Training Director. I further got to continue my education through the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, the Virginia Psychoanalytic Society,  the American Psychoanalytic Association, and the International Neuropsychoanalytic Society. And I also got to travel-- one trip being a sabbatical to the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna, Austria!

And, through all of these various roles, I was able to care for, teach, and lead  so  many different people-- patients, supervisees, and community members --in all these different ways.  So I now had to ask," Why would I have NOT stayed here until retirement?"

But I stayed for another reason as well. And that was because of you all here today-- the Valley Pastoral community-- the historical community of the Valley Pastoral Counseling Center. You have been my community throughout all these years. You as fellow psychotherapists, residents, interns, Board members, office staff, and volunteers. It is our relationships that kept me here. Our relationships we forged as we worked side by side fulfilling the Mission of this Center. I have valued our relationships, both past and present. And believe me, it is my  relationships with each of you in this room that I will take with me into this next chapter.