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Professional Experience:


Robert Silverman graduated in 1969 from Centennial High School in Champaign, Illinois. In 1977, he finished a bachelor's degree in Product/Cross-Cultural Design, emphasizing equipment for profoundly disabled children, followed by a 1982 master's degree in Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling, both from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. In 1987, he added a Master of Fine Arts degree (M.F.A.) in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio.


An Illinois Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) and a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC), Mr. Silverman has worked in the field of behavioral health for multiple decades.

Mr. Silverman completed his graduate school internship in the winter semester of 1979-80 with psychiatrist Raymond Robertson, M.D., in Westmont, Illinois. Dr. Robertson (1922-2007) served as Director of the Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago, as special assistant to the Director of the Illinois Department of Mental Health, then becoming Clinical Director of the adolescent unit at Riveredge Psychiatric Hospital, Forest Park, IL. Mr. Silverman feels fortunate to have been one of Dr. Robertson's many interns when intensive therapeutic work was still being done with individuals and families. Ray (as he liked to be called) was also a Gestalt therapist (Gestalt2) with a private practice assisting clients develop what psychologist Abraham Maslow termed "Self-Actualization." Dr. Robertson was a master therapist. Having been a student of Frederick (Fritz) Perls (Perls2), he utilized the self-awareness methods of Gestalt therapy not only with individual clients, but especially in his multiple, weekly therapy groups and group therapeutic weekends. After completing his graduate school internship with Dr. Robertson, Mr. Silverman received further training in the self-awareness methods of Gestalt Therapy and today uses these, along with cognitive-behavioral therapeutic methods, in his own counseling practice.

In 1992-93, five years after receiving his Master of Fine Arts degree (M.F.A.) in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University, Ohio, Mr. Silverman was acepted into the first year of the Arad Arts Project, Israel. In 1995, accepted as an interviewer for the oral history project: USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive, Mr. Silverman became part of this nonprofit organization established in 1994 to collect and preserve the testimonies of Holocaust survivors. After shadowing interviewers and videographers in the Chicago area, he was assigned interviewees in Central and Southern Illinois, as well as in Indiana. For a number of years, he was a speaker for the Holocaust Education committee of the Champaign-Urbana Jewish Federation. Two other significant Holocaust education projects with which he had involvement was the Mahomet Poptabs, a project at the Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School, Mahomet, Illinois, during the Spring Semester, 1997. Two 8th grade teachers helped their students collect over 11.5 million poptabs, bringing the world's attention and becoming the ABC National Nightly News story of the week. At the end of the Mahomet Poptabs project, Mr. Silverman helped connect the 11.5 million symbolic poptabs with New York artist Jeffrey Schrier who created the Wings of Witness.

From 2003-2006, Mr. Silverman was a member of the Board of Directors of The Whirlwind Project with its mission to gather "people of many faiths and traditions to explore sacred stories through music, dialogue and the arts, fostering mutual respect and understanding in our community." Each year a different theme was picked to explore, beginning with the Book of Job.

In 2005, Mr. Silverman was recruited to become a Military Family Life Counselor (MFLC). His first assignment was at a "Purple Camp," for children and teens whose parent(s) had been deployed, disabled or killed through military service. During the next four years he worked many weekends with National Guard and Reserve units across Illinois, as well as other Midwestern states at their pre-deployment and reintegration events, marriage enrichment retreats, and Yellow Ribbon events. In 2009, he closed his counseling practice and, over the next years, worked numerous 60-90 day assignments on Army, Air Force and Marine installations around the world. These assignments were in Germany, Belgium, Mainland Japan, Okinawa Japan, Greenland, England, Turkey, as well as in Virginia, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Hawaii and Alaska. The MFLC program is currently managed by MHNGS and Magellan.

Behavioral health counseling is about the development and integration of self-awareness. With professional degrees in counseling, creative writing and design, Robert Silverman integrates multiple therapeutic modalities and creative self-expression skills into his counseling practice.


 

Copyright © 2004 Robert S. Silverman. All rights reserved. Champaign, IL