Gibbs A. Williams, Ph.D.

past work

Gibbs A. Williams. Ph.D. is a licensed psychoanalyst practicing in New York. His choice of profession is an outgrowth of three major interests - philosophy, depth psychology, and spirituality. He received a B.A. from Columbia University, majoring in philosophy; an M.S. in psychology from Yeshiva University; and a Ph.D. in vocational rehabilitation counseling from New York  University. His dissertation topic studied the relationship among male heroin addicts, selected treatment programs, and ego weakness.

He continued his involvement with addiction, working with a number of New York substance abuse programs. He was the Assistant Director of Odyssey House, a therapeutic community. His duties included planning, developing, and coordinating therapy; participating in overall policy decisions and patient evaluations; administering and interpreting psychological tests; leading and supervising individual, group, and marathon therapy sessions; giving lectures and conducting educational seminars; participating in, coordinating, and leading family and marital therapy groups; organizing and administering a group home (''the pressure cooker'') for thirty addicts. Other substance abuse programs included Samaritan Village (formerly known as The Samaritan Half-Way Society) as well as the female program run by the New York State Narcotics Control Commission. He was the primary care consultant for The Lowell Institute, an outpatient program for substance abusers (drugs and alcohol).

He received a certificate in psychoanalytic psychotherapy from The Greenwich Institute in 1980 and went on to become an instructor and supervisor in the same institute. The courses he taught there included Ego Strength/Ego Weakness; Ego Psychology; and Transference/ Countertransference. He taught a course on crisis intervention to incoming interns for ten years.

Additionally he has taught at other colleges and learning centers in New York. These include New York University, The New York School For Social Research, Adelphi University, The  Discovery Center, and The Open Center. 

Other courses he has taught include: Psychopathology and Mental Health; The Addictive Personality; Psychoanalysis and The Occult; Decoding Meaningful Coincidences: Spirituality And The Agnostic Addict; Coping With Hard Times (stress management), Crisis Intervention and Psychoanalysis, and Striving For Wholeness: Preventing Substance Abuse in Pre-Teens.

writings

He has written the following papers: “The Demystification and Use of Meaningful Coincidences (Synchronicities)”; ''Spirituality and The Agnostic Addict''; ''Seeking The Golden Thread: The Evolving Self, Meaningful Coincidences, and The Creative Process''; and ''Multiple Uses and Limitations of Imagery and Imaging in the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of a Patient Suffering from Schizophrenia and Bulimia''.

He has collaborated with his brother, Herb, in writing a ground breaking resource manual; ATTITUDE-SHIFTING in aiding mental health professionals and interested lay persons to help people effectively manage their anxiety, stress, depression, and frustration without the use of medication. 

He has investigated the perplexities of meaningful coincidences (synchronicities) for the past forty years. His original non-Jungian, non-mystical/magical theory of synchronicities is found in his recently published book: DEMYSTIFYING MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS (SYNCHRONICITIES): The Evolving Self, The Personal Unconscious, and The Creative Process.

Additionally he has written a published book about his experiences at Odyssey House entitled: SMACK in the MIDDLE: My TURBULENT TIME TREATING HEROIN ADDICTS at ODYSSEY HOUSE. He has also kept a personal unpublished journal for thirty five years called: ''Oedipus From Miami Beach'' Searching for My Spiritual Father. Currently he is working on a book tentatively named: Climbing Mountains in Inner Space: The Logic of Experience - A Defense of Long-Term Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy; and  FIFTY ARROWS and a QUIVER: Transformative Sessions in Psychoanalysis.