Joe L. Lerma Ph.D.

I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Texas A&I University in Kingsville in 1975. I then graduated with an Ed.M. from Harvard University in 1976, followed by graduating with a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1983. Finally, I graduated with a Postdoctoral Master of Science degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology from Fairleigh-Dickenson University in 2002. ERIC Abstracts published my doctoral dissertation entitled Mexican Americans’ Perceptions of Differential Psychotherapist Characteristics in 1983. I am a retired psychologist and psychopharmacologist who established a large commendable and unblemished clinical practice over the span of greater than 20 years in south Texas until an overzealous and possibly corrupt legal and judicial system saw fit to ignore the Gold Standard of clinical practice of the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists that I had faithfully followed and sided with the whims of government insurances to not only destroy my family-run practice but to incarcerate me in a federal penitentiary for over 3 years. This is my first published work of Christian fiction where I attempt to skillfully and empathically capture the concept of loss, misery, and destruction from my own earthly purgatory of the past 10 years. Psychology was more than my beloved profession, as I saw it as my focus in my mission to help others in their journeys through life. As such, I took my training very seriously and I achieved memberships in numerous academic honor societies to include Alpha Chi, Phi Delta Kappa, Phi Lambda Theta, and Phi Kappa Phi. I achieved numerous fellowships, scholarships, academic recognitions and achievements, with the most coveted doctoral fellowships consisting of The Ford Foundation Fellowship, The American Psychological Association Fellowship, and The Pre and Postdoctoral Project for Minorities and Women in Research Fellowship. In addition to having been a licensed psychologist and licensed specialist in school psychology, I also completed my postdoctoral training in clinical psychopharmacology. I progressed up the executive ladder of the Nueces County Psychological Association and occupied the offices of Treasurer, Secretary, President-Elect, and President, the latter office which I was voted into and occupied for three years by my peers. There are numerous other distinctions which I achieved in my professional life which are too numerous to mention and which comprise my Professional Vita of thirteen pages. I will be married to my one and only beautiful wife for the past 40 years, with our celebrating our 40th anniversary on September 29. I married her on this date so as give myself the perfect present on my birthday the following day, September 30th. We have two beautiful children, Brandon and Ashley. My son is also a Summa Cum laude graduate and has a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, and is a rare nuclear pharmacist in charge of his own department. He is engaged to his own beautiful lady, April, and we expect wedding bells next year. My beautiful daughter, Ashley, has given us two beautiful grandchildren, Kirra and Arrik, whom have joyfully been added to the tapestry of our family love.