My interests in psychology and spirituality go back a long way. I started studying hypnosis in high school, which was also the time I read everything I could find about spiritual healers, such as Edgar Cayce and Ambrose and Olga Worrall. My high school experiments with hypnosis began being transformed into hypnotherapy in college, as friends and acquaintances requested help for a variety of problems, including learning more quickly and easily and overcoming fears.
As an undergraduate in college, I completed a double major in English literature and rhetoric and a split minor in psychology and sociology. My interests in these subjects continued in graduate school. My Master’s paper was titled, “The Influence of Left-wing Protestant Thought on Eighteenth-Century Literature,” and my doctoral dissertation was titled, “Consciousness as Disease in Early Nineteenth-Century English Literature.”
After graduate school, I spent approximately the next 30 years teaching graduate and undergraduate classes at the University of Florida at Gainesville and at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. For most of my academic career, I taught Business Communication and related courses, including Report Writing, Persuasive Writing, Business Publicity and Public Relations, and Communication Technology. I was fortunate to be able to teach classes in a variety of formats in addition to traditional classroom settings. I have taught large lecture classes, workshops, video-based distance learning classes, and Internet telecourse formats. During much of this time, I maintained an active consulting practice, teaching communication skills and team effectiveness in businesses both large (Fortune 500) and small.
Along the way, I became interested in Neurolinguistic Programming. After a lot of reading and learning from video tapes, I began formal study with the co-developer of NLP, Richard Bandler, and John La Valle, President of The Society of NLP. I earned Master Practitioner status in 1997 and became a Licensed Trainer of NLP in 1998.
My interest in Energy Medicine and spiritual healing was renewed when I started working with Debra in 1999. Debra and a number of others from the Holistic Alliance in St. Joseph, Michigan, were in my first group of NLP students to earn certification. Along the way I earned Reiki Master Practitioner/Master Teacher and became certified in hypnotherapy. I am a member of The Society of NLP, Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals, and The American Board of Hypnotherapy. The SCS training program meets or exceeds the standards of each of these professional organizations.
In 2005, I accepted early retirement from Western Michigan University to contribute to the development and success of SCS Matters. Early in our work together, Debra and I recognized the way in which combining Energy Medicine with NLP strategies and the subtle communication of hypnotic language patterns amplified healing possibilities and other personal enhancements. SCS had students and clients scattered throughout the United States.
In addition to co-presenting workshops with Debra, Joel’s principal responsibilities for SCS included materials creation and Web site maintenance.
Joel was active in martial arts, studying Uechi-Ryu Okinawan karate, at the Okinawan Karate Academy in Kalamazoo, advancing to the rank of San Dan (3d degree black belt).