A
therapist, author, consultant, and public speaker, Dominic Herbst,
M.S., M.A., Certified Psychologist, is a nationally renowned figure
in the fields of juvenile justice and family therapy.
While serving as the Chief Adult/Juvenile Probation
Officer for Snyder/Union County (17th Judicial District of Pennsylvania),
Herbst recognized the need for a comprehensive community-based program.
Based on his desire to bring healing and restoration to youth and
their families, Herbst founded the Bethesda
Day Treatment Center in 1983. In 1985, he assumed
full-time directorship of the program. He also established the Bethesda
Alternative Education Program for troubled youth who were failing
in the public education mainstream. There are now ten day treatment
program centers throughout Pennsylvania serving 19 counties and
60 school districts.
Herbst's highly successful work with troubled
youth and their families has achieved national recognition for Bethesda
from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the
Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges Commission, and the U.S. Department
of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
(OJJDP). Bethesda Day Treatment Center has been recognized as a
multi-year national model by the U.S. Department of Justice and
received the Gould-Wysinger Award "for exceptional achievements
in Juvenile Justice" in 1992. Herbst and Bethesda were also
featured in four national television documentaries: Victory
Over Violence, produced by Arnold Shapiro Productions and
narrated by Walter Cronkite; Sticks
and Stones, produced by George Rivera Productions; and Breaking
the Cycle of Violence, produced by the National Educational
Service Foundation. Bethesda's Parenting Program, which Herbst developed,
was the focus of a one-hour made-for-television Father's Day Special
titled BAD DADS and narrated
by George Foreman, which aired on the FOX-TV network in June 1996.
Herbst also received the title of "visionary" after being
selected, along with Bethesda, for inclusion in the PBS documentary
series Visionaries, which highlights
the work of individuals and organizations who "inspire positive
social change" in the world.
In July 1995, Herbst established and became president
of the not-for-profit corporation Bethesda Family Services Foundation.
Committed to healing hearts and changing lives through the replication
and dissemination of Bethesda's treatment methodology outside of
Pennsylvania, Bethesda Family Services Foundation was initially
funded by the U. S. Department of Justice. The Bethesda model is
currently being utilized in the following states: Florida,
Indiana,
Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia,
and Washington in a variety of venues, ranging from prisons to
churches. Herbst's work is expanding even more, as he is
currently working with the National Basketball Association to assist
with resolving player conflicts that seem to be escalating in recent
years.
Herbst's greatest work is his development of the
Relationship
Sequence, a pictorial model which provides an understanding
of how past relationships influence current behaviors. This model
shows that as one inserts his past memories of pain, he is able
to connect that insight with those behaviors that need to be changed.
The Relationship Sequence contains the "Four
Steps to Emotional Healing,"
a journey to victory, restoration, and emotional healing. It has
been described as simple in method, but profound in impact. All
of this is encompassed in Bethesda's comprehensive Relational Healing
Manual, an instructional blueprint designed by Herbst to instruct
therapists in the implementation of his healing model.
Herbst has been instrumental in the formation
of a variety of community volunteer organizations. He has also served
as a member of the Juvenile Advisory Committee of the Pennsylvania
Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the Pennsylvania Council of
Chief Juvenile Probation Officers, the Board of Directors of the
National Right to Read Foundation, and the Editorial Board of Reaching
Today's Youth: The Community Circle of Caring Journal. Herbst
was named 1997 Volunteer of the Year by the U.S. Penitentiary in
Lewisburg and has been a presenter for numerous national and governmental
conferences. He has also written a variety of articles for national
publications, including Emotional
Healing for Aggressive Youth, published by The
Education Digest; The Doorway
To Freedom: A Four Step Process for Healing Troubled Youth,
published by Reaching Today's Youth;
and Fathering From Prison: Common
Struggles and Successful Solutions, co-authored by Phillip
Magaletta, Ph.D., and published in The
Journal of Psychology.
Herbst graduated with a B.A. in Psychology
from West Chester University, an M.S. in the Administration of Justice
from Shippensburg University, and an M.A. in Counseling from Liberty
University. He was certified as a psychologist on March 31, 2000,
by the Northamerican Association of Masters in Psychology.
For more information on Bethesda Family Services Foundation,
feel free to e-mail us
today or call (570) 523-0605.
