{"id":34357,"date":"2014-11-19T10:38:52","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T14:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=34357"},"modified":"2017-04-11T15:19:43","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T19:19:43","slug":"seeing-double","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/11\/19\/seeing-double\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing double"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Anthony<\/a>

Wright State graduate Anthony D’Souza modeled a counseling center in his native India after the School of Professional Psychology\u2019s Ellis Institute.<\/p><\/div>\n

It has risen in the outer precincts of Mumbai in India \u2014 a clone of Wright State University\u2019s time-tested training ground for professional psychologists.<\/p>\n

Developing an Indian version of the Duke E. Ellis Institute of Human Development was the brainchild of Anthony D’Souza, a Jesuit priest who earned his Psy.D. from Wright State\u2019s School of Professional Psychology<\/a> in 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a center I worked to build over the last 10 years. It is the first of its kind in the country,\u201d said D\u2019Souza. \u201cIf I can train professional psychologists who would get the kind of training I got at Wright State, then we would have many good psychologists available in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ellis Institute<\/a> is a 30,000-square-foot community-based training facility on Dayton\u2019s near-west side that houses Wright State\u2019s doctoral program for mental health professionals while serving as a clinic for underserved residents.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Souza returned to Wright State for several days in early November to meet with six students at the Ellis Institute who are planning to come to India. The students will spend 10 days at the new center, at mental health facilities to understand the challenges and at the homes of families to understand the culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very enthusiastic group,\u201d he said of the students.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Souza said they are interested in learning about the Indian culture and studying issues related to women, children and the gay and lesbian community.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Souza said family life in India is currently being challenged because of economic\/social changes. Many parents who never had a chance to go to a university have become affluent enough to send their children to college. But that has exposed the children to new ways and created a divide with the parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are living in two different worlds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Souza raised $1 million to build the new center, which took about eight years to construct. Called Premanjali<\/a>, which translates as \u201coffering of love,\u201d it sits on two acres heavily populated with fruit trees that produce mangoes and coconuts. It was built without cutting down a single tree.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fell in love with the place,\u201d D\u2019Souza said.<\/p>\n

The three-story building, which was completed in 2012, includes counseling rooms, classrooms, offices, a library, a dining hall and residential space for families who have to travel. It also features one-way mirrors and video recording technology to help the psychologists study and improve their interactions and counseling of clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of theoretical training available in India, but translating the theoretical knowledge into practice is lacking,\u201d D\u2019Souza said.<\/p>\n

He has spent the past two years publicizing the center and has now started to recruit staff.<\/p>\n

He chose Wright State for his doctoral education because he wanted professional training in clinical psychology so he could provide those services in his native India.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could have done my doctorate in India, but I wanted to be a good therapist so I was looking for good supervision,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of the professors at SOPP were very supportive, willing to adjust the program to the needs of the students.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Souza received the doctoral class award for excellence in the practice of clinical psychology and in 2004 was named Outstanding Alumni of the Year.<\/p>\n

Wright State is currently engaged in a $150 million fundraising campaign<\/a> that promises to further elevate the school\u2019s prominence by expanding scholarships, attracting more top-flight faculty and supporting construction of state-of-the-art facilities.<\/p>\n

Led by Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks and Amanda Wright Lane, great grandniece of university namesakes Wilbur and Orville Wright, the campaign has raised more than $107 million so far.<\/p>\n

“There is growing demand and need for psychological services, especially for underserved populations,” said LaPearl Winfrey, interim dean of SOPP. “The campaign support will help us to continue to provide quality service while also providing excellent training and education for our doctoral students.”<\/p>\n

D\u2019Souza has developed an eclectic approach to therapy he uses to counsel children, teenagers, young men and women, couples and families. He has also integrated psychology and spirituality. He travels the world making presentations titled \u201cIntegration of Psychology and Spirituality from an Eastern Perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially it is to empower people to deal with their own problems rather than being dependent upon another person,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Souza said the people he counsels often get stuck in the way they interact with others and won\u2019t change because it makes them insecure. Through inner personal exploration and studying Eastern spirituality, he concluded that people\u2019s egos, or false selves, produce negative feelings when threatened by criticism, etc.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Souza has developed a framework and exercises to deal with one\u2019s negative experiences and live a mindful and choice-filled life of freedom and joy. He has chronicled that in his book \u201cDiscovering Awareness: A Guide to Inner Peace, Strength and Freedom<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wright State graduate Anthony D’Souza models counseling center in his native India after the School of Professional Psychology\u2019s Ellis Institute. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":34358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4299,2060,725,715,2407],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-profile","category-graduate","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-professional-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34357"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34363,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34357\/revisions\/34363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}