Archived News | Return to News Center

March 25, 2010

ULM welcomes Keeney to therapy faculty as endowed professor

The University of Louisiana at Monroe’s College of Education and Human Development recently welcomed Dr. Brad Keeney, holder of the Hanna Spyker Endowment Chair.

Keeney previously worked as a professor of doctoral studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and as part-time supervisor of clinical cases at the Center for Children and Families in Monroe.

The endowed chair is housed in the School of Marriage and Family Therapy and is responsible for expanding the program through service, research, or teaching.

Keeney intends to introduce his improvisational-oriented “creative therapy” approach to students, which blends brief therapy with the performing arts, giving the therapist and the client the ability to energize sessions through drawing upon a wide array of creative resources.

“Creative therapy is always changing and evolving, ready to utilize what both client and therapist bring to the table,” said Keeney. “It calls for the transformative presence of a therapist’s (and client’s) unique personal resources and talents, imagination, unpredictability, spontaneity and improvisation.”

With experiences at a variety of respected psychotherapy institutes, including the Ackerman Institute, the Karl Menninger Center and the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania, Keeney brings years of experience in the education and psychotherapy fields to ULM.

Author of numerous psychotherapy texts, including Creative Therapy: The Art of Awakening a Session, Improvisational Therapy, Resource Focused Therapy (with Wendel Ray), and Mind in Therapy, Keeney is also co-editor of the biographical study, Milton H. Erickson, M.D.: An American Healer, awarded Best Book in Psychology for 2006 by Spirituality & Health magazine.

More information about Keeney and his “creative therapy” program can be found at his Web site, http://thecreativetherapist.com.

PLEASE NOTE: Some links and e-mail addresses in these archived news stories may no longer work, and some content may include events which are no longer relevent, or reference individuals and/or organizations no longer associated with ULM.