A Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person: Integration of Psychology and Mental Health Practice

William J. Nordling, Ph.D., is Professor and clinical supervisor at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences (School of Psychology) at Divine Mercy University. He is one of the co-founding faculty members of the IPS (DMU) and for eighteen years served as Chair of the Department and then as Academic Dean. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and is licensed as a clinical psychologist. He also holds the credential of Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor through the Association for Play Therapy. His areas of expertise include child, marriage, and family therapy, and he has conducted over two hundred training workshops and presentations in these areas. He is widely recognized as an expert in the area of play therapy, and is co-author of the award-winning textbook Child Centered Play Therapy: A Practical Guide to Developing Therapeutic Relationships with Children. Prior to coming to the IPS in 1999, Dr. Nordling served as Clinic Director and Director of Certification Programs at the National Institute of Relationship Enhancement (NIRE). Dr. Nordling currently holds training faculty appointments in a number of training institutes around the world, including NIRE, Play Therapy Australia, and Child PlayWorks (New Zealand). Dr. Nordling was a founding board member and served as president of the Catholic Psychotherapy Association. He was a founding board member of the Maryland Association for Play Therapy. He also served on the board and as president of the national-level Association for Play Therapy.

Craig Steven Titus, S.T.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Integration at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences and Director of the Department of Integrative Studies at Divine Mercy University, where he has worked since 2002. He received his Doctorate of Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. His areas of expertise include virtue theory and the psychology of virtue; the integration of psychological sciences, philosophy, and theology; the nature of the human person; practical reason and moral character; and marriage and family life. He previously worked at the University of Fribourg as Researcher, Instructor, Vice-Director of the St. Thomas Aquinas Institute for Theology and Culture, and Vice-Director of the Servais Pinckaers Archives.

Paul C. Vitz, Ph.D. is Senior Scholar and Professor at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, at Divine Mercy University. He is a co-founder of the IPS and has been an active part of it since its founding in 1999. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University, where he majored in personality theory and experimental cognitive psychology. For many years he was Professor of Psychology at New York University, where he is now Professor Emeritus. He also was a professor at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, in Washington, D.C., from 1991 to 2001. His primary areas of interest and research are personality theory and its integration with Catholic theology and philosophy; the nature and historical origin of human consciousness; the importance of fathers for the family; how men and women are equal in dignity but different and complementary; the psychology of atheism; the psychology of the virtues; identity; and hatred and forgiveness. He has recently returned to some of his early work in cognitive psychology, such as models of sequential pattern learning, and the study of perceptual images and their drawings.