SAN DIEGO, CA, February 28, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present David Feinstein, Ph.D., with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Feinstein's career spans four decades of achievement in his profession, peppered with innovative publications, pioneering clinical techniques, cutting-edge organizational forms, and a variety of leadership accomplishments. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Dr. Feinstein is a clinical and theoretical psychologist whose contributions include bringing a spiritual perspective to psychology as well as innovative methods for engaging the deeper forces in the human psyche, building on the works of his intellectual heroes: Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Stanislav Grof, Jean Houston, and Ken Wilber. His first book, Personal Mythology (1998), explored the underlying structure of consciousness and how to meaningfully participate in its evolution. The volume's third edition received the U.S.A. Book News Best Psychology/Mental Health Book Award of 2007. Dr. Feinstein's clinical practice has been strongly influenced by the ideas in that book, and he has taught more than a hundred workshops on the topic at centers such as the Esalen Institute and around the world.
Born in Brooklyn, N,Y., as the only child of Sol and Edith Feinstein, the family moved to Southern California when David was four. David earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology at Whittier College. The confluence of his love of science and his love of people were reflected in his having received the Chemical Rubber Company Award as the "Outstanding Freshman Mathematics Student" at Whittier College and, upon graduation, the William James Award as the "Outstanding Graduating Psychology Student." His first academic position was in The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science), where he served on the faculty for seven years. Although he has since worked primarily outside of university settings (he has nonetheless kept a hand in teaching with part-time appointments at Antioch and other colleges), he has continued to maintain strong academic interests, contributing nine books and some 100 articles to the professional and personal development literature.
A conscientious objector during the Vietnam war, his alternative service included two years with the San Diego YMCA, where he helped create one of the country's first youth-oriented crisis hotlines and drop-in centers. Called "Lifeline," the program was the topic of his master's thesis and brought invitations to speak at numerous conferences concerned with better serving the mental health needs of youth in a time of substantial unrest, drug abuse, and alienation from the larger society. After completing his doctorate and then the early part of his career as an instructor and researcher at Hopkins, he moved back to San Diego to take an opportunity to design an innovative "community psychology" program for the San Diego County Mental Health Services, where he served as a Senior Clinical Psychologist from 1975 through 1983. Some of his initiatives there received awards from the California Department of Mental Health for their creativity and effectiveness.
In 1977, he met the soon-to-be renowned healer, Donna Eden. Their marriage led to a collaboration he never anticipated. Her expertise centers on understanding and working with the subtle energies that underlie the functioning of the physical body. These "subtle" energies are known in various ancient healing and spiritual systems as "chi," "chakras," "meridians," and the "aura." The two began co-writing, producing books that would earn nine national awards (including Energy Medicine, The Promise of Energy Psychology, The Ethics Handbook for Energy Healing Practitioners, and the N.Y. Times best-selling The Energies of Love). Together, they founded Innersource, which has become the world's largest organization teaching the hands-on use of energy medicine, with more than 1,500 Certified Practitioners serving thousands of clients and teaching dozens of classes every month around the world. Their books are available in more than 20 languages. In 2013, the Infinity Foundation in Chicago selected the pair as the first couple to receive its annual "Spirit Award" (which typically goes to individuals) for their contribution to "the evolution of consciousness" and its "impact on society."
While Donna's primary focus is on energy medicine, David has taken a leadership role in the field of energy psychology. He authored one of the field's pioneering books (Energy Psychology Interactive, 2004) and has written some of the foundational academic papers as the method has been developing. He received the Outstanding Leadership Award from the Canadian Association for Integrative and Energy Therapies in 2015 and the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology in 2002 and, against tradition, was the first person to receive this recognition a second time, in 2012.
Asked about the people who had the greatest influence on his professional development, he named, in chronological order: Albert Upton, Ph.D., a brilliant English professor at Whittier College who brought David into a profound understanding about the relationship of language and thought; Peg Elliott Mayo, M.S.W., David's first clinical supervisor, lifelong friend, and one of the most effective and colorful therapists he's ever witnessed; Carl Rogers, Ph.D., whom David got to know toward the end of the illustrious psychologist's life and who would with some gravity chide David for worshiping him (Dr. Rogers) too much; Donald C. Klein, Ph.D., a former President of the Community Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association and David's supervisor and close collaborator during the major research project David participated in at Hopkins; Virginia Satir, M.S.W., the pioneering family therapist whose office was right across from David's during the year she was a visiting professor at Hopkins and who invited him to drive her to and participate in many of her East Coast training events; Joel Elkes, M.D., Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Hopkins, who took David under wing and opened many doors for him; and Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., the renowned dream researcher who mentored David during the development of the personal mythology model and who co-authored with David the pioneering book on that topic.
David came into the life of Donna's two daughters, Dondi and Titanya, when they were 8 and 11, respectively, and the four of them now work together closely in building Innersource into a worldwide organization whose motto is "Raising the Vibration of the Planet, One Person at a Time." Through energy medicine and energy psychology, they have impacted millions. Meanwhile David and Donna's grandsons, Tiernan and Sequoia, are the most precious gifts they can imagine.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Dr. Feinstein has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor. To learn more about Dr. Feinstein and his work, visit http://www.innersource.net.
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