Popular Culture in Counseling, Psychotherapy, and Play-Based ...

Contributors xix
Recent books include Skills and Tools for Today’s Counselors and Psychotherapists:
From Natural Helping to Professional Counseling and Promoting
Student Learning and Student Development at a Distance: Student
Affairs Concepts and Practices for Televised Instruction and Other Forms
of Distance Education. He also is an independent practitioner and consultant.
He lives near the Lafayette River with his wife, dog, and john-boat.
Deidre Skigen, LMHC, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who
maintains a private practice in Miami, Florida, providing individual,
family, and group psychotherapy, workshops, and seminars. She has also
worked in the Dade County Public School System with severely emotionally
disturbed children and their families, was one of the founding group
facilitators for the Children’s Bereavement Center, assisting children and
their families through the grieving process, and has also served as an adjunct
professor of psychology.
Laura Sullivan, MS, is a Licensed Marital and Family Therapist currently
in a private practice of 12 years in Mooresville, Indiana. With two children
of her own and over 20 years of experience in social services assisting
individuals and families in distress, she recognizes the value of playfulness
in work and life. As a faculty member, she incorporates play into
her facilitation of adult education in psychology, sociology, and critical
thinking at the University of Phoenix in Indianapolis. She enjoys writing
stories for kids and inventing games as creative expression in her work.
Heather Trepal, PhD, LPC, is an assistant professor in the Department of
Counseling and Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at San
Antonio. She received her doctorate in counseling and human development
from Kent State University. Her research focuses on self-injurious
behaviors, at-risk youth, women’s issues, gender issues in counseling, and
the use of technology in counselor education and supervision. She currently
serves as a trustee on the executive board for the Association of
Creativity in Counseling (ACC).
Ryan Weidenbenner, MS, the Senior Sexuality Therapist working with
children with sexual behavior problems at the Onarga Academy, holds
two master’s degrees from Illinois State University, one in Psychology and
one in Counseling, as well as a liberal arts degree from Wabash College.
These creative infl uences are readily apparent in his therapeutic work
with the Onarga clients, and his lifelong appreciation of comic books,
role-playing games, and movies has been instrumental in developing creative
therapeutic interventions at Onarga. In 2007, he coauthored “A
Super Milieu: Using Superheroes in the Residential Treatment of Adolescents
with Sexual Behavior Problems,” a chapter in Lawrence Rubin’s
2006 publication, Using Superheroes in Counseling and Play Therapy.