Santa Barbara Graduate Institute is proud of its distinguished faculty—a diverse group of scholars and practitioners who convene to create a remarkable graduate education experience. Our faculty is comprised of seasoned and committed psychotherapists who bring their clinical experience alive in the classroom, as well as experienced researchers and educators who are known leaders in the fields of clinical psychology, health sciences, social work, and education.

Core Faculty | Adjunct Faculty | Research Faculty | Contributing Faculty

Dyrian Benz-Chartrand, Psy.D., Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, 1982

Dr. Benz-Chartrand is SBGI’s Director of External Programs and a core faculty member at SBGI. In addition, he is an adjunct faculty member at Antioch University in Santa Barbara. Dr. Benz-Chartrand founded GroupField, a systems based method for facilitating groups and teams in which he leads trainings internationally. He also conducts professional trainings in Hellinger Constellation Family Therapy in the US and Europe. A former faculty member of the International Professional School of Bodywork, he is a founding member and former senior trainer at the Hakomi Institute, and the originator and moderator of the psychology conferences through Santa Barbara City College. Dr. Benz-Chartrand has authored numerous publications in both German and English, including To the Core of Your Experience.

Areas of Expertise: Somatic Therapy; Marriage and Family Therapy; Clinical Skills; Hellinger Family Constellation Therapy; Hakomi; Transpersonal Development; Health Psychology; Group Process

Marti Glenn, Ph.D., Educational Administration (Emphasis in Counselor Education), University of Florida, 1982; MHS (Master of Health Science), Counseling, University of Florida, 1976

Dr. Glenn, SBGI co-founder with Ken Bruer, serves as the Institute’s Dean. She has been a pioneering psychotherapist and educator for over 25 years. Her current research interest is in the neuroscience of psychotherapy, especially as it relates to young families, and she is currently engaged in infant brain development studies with Dr. Allan Schore. Dr. Glenn is a board member of the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health and has been chair of three of their past International Congresses. She has also chaired numerous conferences, most notably Neurons to Neighborhoods: Preventing and Healing Trauma in Children and Adults, and has facilitated trainings and seminars all over the United States and in Europe. She is the founding Clinical Director of the Center for ReUniting Families, where she implemented leading-edge prenatal and perinatal therapy and trauma resolution techniques with adolescents and their families. Pacifica Graduate Institute’s founding academic dean, Dr. Glenn is a member of the Santa Barbara City College Continuing Education Advisory Council.

License Earned: Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT), State of California

Areas of Expertise: Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology; Somatic Psychology; Gestalt Therapy; Psychotherapy with Adults, Families and Children; Clinical Supervision; Group Psychotherapy

Rae Johnson, Ph.D., Education, University of Toronto. 2007; MA, Education, University of Toronto, 2003; MA, Lesley University, Interdisciplinary Studies with a Specialization in Somatic Education, 2000

Dr. Johnson, Chair of the Somatic Psychology Department at SBGI, is a somatic psychotherapist, somatic educator, and social worker who has taught and practiced in the fields of somatic psychology and somatic education for over twenty years. She is a former Director of the Body Psychotherapy Program in the Somatic Counseling Psychology Department at Naropa University and the founding Coordinator of Student Crisis Response Programs at the University of Toronto. As the President of the Ontario Society of Psychotherapists, Dr. Johnson was instrumental in the early development of a coalition of mental health professionals who successfully lobbied for provincial government recognition and regulation of the practice of psychotherapy. Through her involvement with various professional associations, she has taken leadership roles in developing an alternate route to accreditation training program for the Dance Movement Therapy Association of Ontario, organizing conferences through the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association and developing bylaws for Ethics and Standards of Practice for Somatic Psychotherapy for the Ontario Society of Psychotherapists. Her research interests include the somatic dimensions of oppression, embodied critical pedagogy, and feminist somatic research methods.

Licenses: Registered Somatic Movement Therapist® (ISMETA); Registered Social Worker (OCSWSSW)

Areas of Expertise: Somatic Psychotherapy; Somatic Movement Education; Gestalt Therapy; Somatic Research; Embodied Critical Pedagogy

Richard Kelliher, Psy.D., Clinical Psychology, Illinois School of Professional Psychology, 1988; MA, Psychology, Bradley University, 1975

Dr. Kelliher is a psychologist in private practice at Center for Cognitive Therapy in Santa Barbara and serves as psychological consultant to Sanctuary Psychiatric Centers and New Beginnings Counseling Center. He is also adjunct faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute and Antioch University, Santa Barbara. He has published several papers and presented at major conferences on the effects of cognitive-behavioral interventions on coping and strain.

Licenses Earned: Clinical Psychologist, State of California

Areas of Expertise: Psychopathology; Research; Assessment; Chemical Dependency

Jill Allison Kern, Ph.D., Organizational Behavior, Yale University, 1995

Dr. Kern served as Santa Barbara Graduate Institute’s Director of Research for five years. The academic positions she has held include that of research associate at the Institute for Social Research in Ann Arbor, MI, teaching fellow at the Yale School of Management, instructor for the Yale University Summer and Special Programs, and assistant professor of management at Iowa State University’s College of Business. Dr. Kern has served on the editorial board of Gender & Society. She researched, wrote, and edited portions of The War for Talent (Harvard Business School Press, 2001), Legacy: Best Practices of Successful Family Companies, and Children of the Boat People: A Study of Educational Success (Univ. of Michigan Press, 1992). She is co-author of the Conflict Management Institute’s “Mediation Skills Training Manual.”

Areas of Expertise: Research Design and Methods; the Art and Craft of Scholarship; Psychoanalytic Theories; Group Dynamics; Intergroup Relations; Gender and Race Relations

Bobbi Jo (“B.J.”) Lyman, Ph.D., Clinical Psychology (Health Specialization), Fielding Graduate University, 2000

Dr. Lyman is a core faculty member and was SBGI’s Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Department chairperson for the past five years. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. In 2002 she was awarded the “President’s Distinguished Instructor Award” by City University, Seattle. She is passionate about research in the area of early development and has published several articles on the topic. In addition, Dr. Lyman has presented her original research at the Association of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health Congress and at the International Society of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine Congress in Europe. She is the author of Prenatal and Birth Memories: Working With Your Earliest Experiences to Help Your Life Today (2007). She has worked clinically with families, children, couples and adults for the last 15 years.

License-Eligible: Clinical Psychologist, States of California and Washington

Areas of Expertise: Research; Child and Family Psychotherapy; Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology

Wendy Anne McCarty, Ph.D., Education (Emphasis in Counseling Psychology), University of Southern California, 1986; MS, Family Studies and Human Development, University of Kentucky, 1979; BS, Nursing, University of Kentucky, 1969

Dr. McCarty is the founding chairperson of the Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Programs at SBGI. She has worked with families for 25 years as an obstetrical nurse, childbirth educator, psychotherapist, prenatal and birth therapist, educator, and consultant. Her more than two decades of research on consciousness provide the foundation of her work which integrates mind-body-spirit. She is the author of Being with Babies: What Babies are Teaching Us and Welcoming Consciousness.

Licenses Earned: Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT), State of California; Registered Nurse, State of California

Areas of Expertise: Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology; Therapy with Perinatals, Children and Families; Transpersonal Psychology