Dr. Richard Formica, Ph.D.

I am a psychologist, psychotherapist, and pioneer in the field of Parent Counseling. As a psychologist licensed in both New Jersey and Oregon, I am an expert and specialist in Parent Counseling. In my clinical practice, I specialize in treating patients who struggle with family and personal relationships, parenting challenges, and career issues. In addition to being an expert in Parent Counseling, I have developed innovative problem-solving methods for treating adults whose relationships cause pain and misery rather than satisfaction and joy.

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Recently I have written a short book for parents, “Parenting With Wisdom and Skill: A Practical Guidebook,” which offers concrete guidance to parents on how to raise psychologically healthy children.

 

Previously, I created, for 25 continuous years, a public service offering in which I conducted extensive, experiential, free-of-charge workshops for literally thousands of parents. These parents developed a comprehensive set of parenting skills, summarized in my earlier book, “Growing As A Parent,”  which they applied in their homes. In the research we conducted, we demonstrated that this parenting program led to positive changes in the lives of both workshop parents and their children.

 

In addition, after receiving my bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame University and my doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University, I obtained advanced, post-doctoral training in interpersonal and cognitive-behavioral methods. This advanced training enabled me to offer integrative psychotherapy to adults who were experiencing problems in family relationships and careers.  I also developed a unique Structured Problem-Solving Process. Using this active process has enabled me to integrate all of psychological knowledge in the service of helping people solve problems of living and problems in relationships.

 

Moving from Columbia University in New York City to Bergen County, NJ, to follow my wife’s career, I established a private practice in Teaneck, NJ. In my private practice, I developed an integrative, problem-solving approach to both parent counseling and psychotherapy with adults. In addition to helping parents and to treating patients for psychological problems, I created and provided to all Bergen County, NJ, residents a free-of-charge, 40-hour, experiential Parenting Workshop Program.

 

I returned to Columbia University to train counseling psychology graduate students to lead parenting groups in whatever clinical settings they found themselves. Additionally, I trained hundreds of volunteer parent group leaders to offer the parenting programs I developed. I also guided and supervised these group leaders as they offered my program to thousands of parents. These programs formed the basis for the development of my unique approach to teaching parents the skills they need to create an effective Rational Discipline Approach in their homes.