About Me

Each of us is unique and special in the universe. Everyone. Words and pictures can only offer a shallow reflection of the depth of our lives. All of our lives. And yet, words and pictures are the best we can do to explain how, why, what and who we are. So, while I would really prefer to avoid this part, as I am an introvert and enjoy my private space, I think it is fair and useful to know a little bit about me.

In almost every measure, I seem average – average height, build, abilities, family, work, income. I am an older white cisgender male living in the midwest. While I may seem average, my life has not been average. But maybe more on that later.

 There are four things about me that stand out:

1) I have ADHD. As a child I was very hyperactive, stuttered and had speech difficulties. I did not take medications for my ADHD until I was 30 years old. I took it for about two years to be able to focus on a complex task, specifically of writing and illustrating a children’s book. [Turtles into Butterflies]   

2) I love identifying problems or things in life that just don’t seem to be working right. Or, as my son once said, “Dad, you hate to follow stupid rules.” In trying to identify and solve problems, I’ve improved my skill to distinguish between dysfunctional and discomfort. Discomfort is not always dysfunctional.

3) I’m non-judgemental and appreciate all aspects of life and embrace diversity. My personal interest and experience are varied, from badminton to gardening, drawing to unicycling, massage to writing.  

4) My very creative curiosity outweighs my fears often. That is, I’m willing to think inside and outside the box to discovery and provide the highest quality most effective mental health services.

If you summed it up as acting like a happy hyper two year old running around asking “Why” about everything from bull shit to rainbows, that would be me, except I’m a bit older now. But still asking “Why” often is what lead me mostly into the mental health profession.

I’ve always enjoyed empowering others and myself, starting as a empathic, hyper child, so the mental health field seemed like a good fit. I attended the University of Minnesota, getting a BA, with a double major in Child Psychology and Social Welfare, while working my senior year as a live–in nanny of three young children. Graduated and immmediately went to Univeristy of Michigan, Ann Arbor, School of Social Work graduate program, but unfortunately ran out of money after one year and before I could finish my MSW degree. Life happened.

I floundered for several years with odd jobs and trying to figure out my life. It is fair to say that basically I was just surviving and not going anywhere. In 1986, while living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I met someone special. In 1988, I married her. Together we worked to create a wonderful life and had two beautiful children. Life slowly started to get a bit more stable, yet I continued to struggle with finding my life purpose.

While working for American Express as a training coordinator and freelancing as a copy editor for the University of Minnesota, several professors encouraged me to return to school and finish my Masters of Social Work. I applied and was turned down. The admissions said it was because of me having a “B” average grade as an undergraduate. I was disappointed, especially since I couldn’t change my past or my undergraduate grades. Never mind that I lived on my own starting at 18 and had struggled with just getting through college.

The professors I worked with, they were also kind of shocked that I didn’t get in. One professor,  Dr. Jerome Beker, ( Interim Program Director, and Editor of Child & Youth Care Forum”)  had written, “Dane has shown himself to be not only a highly competent writer and editor, but also an unusually imaginative thinker and a knowledgeable sensitive colleague in the social welfare domain. He demonstrates not only that his intellectual ability is top-notch, but also the unusual ability to return manuscripts in a form at once more readable and more powerful.”  Adding, “His talents are harness to a sophisticated appreciation and understanding of the social welfare enterprise as well, which (along with his educational and employment background in related areas) led me to recommend that he apply for admission to a social work graduate program at this time.”

Instead of getting angry or quiting, I took a class at the Univerisity of Minnesota and the following year, I applied for and was admitted to the graduate social work program. I graduated in 1995.

I worked various social work jobs, and obtained my LICSW in 2003. I worked about two years as a supervisor and therapist, and started developing my own approach to mental health, incorporating DBT, EMDR and other therapeutic modalities. In 2005, my employment agency went bankrupt due to political shifts in mental health funding. At that point, I decided to open a non-profit clinic to provide specialized mental health therapy services for mentally ill, lower cognitive functioning adults with inappropriate sexual behaviors, or the term often used was DD, MI sex offenders. Working with this population, as well as doing other group and individual therapy, I continued to develop my own approach to mental health therapy that I started calling BCA Holistic. I ran the highly regarded and successful mental health clinic for ten years. It was closed in 2015, not due to services, results or finances, but by questionable county politics of refusing to allow anyone to provide day treatment mental health services to mentally ill, low income clients.

In 2016, I transitioned to a community medical clinic and focused on just providing individual therapy and further refining my BCA Holistic approach to mental health therapy. I left my direct practice in late 2020 to take time to begin writing down my BCA Holistic approach to mental health therapy. These efforts is what has lead me to creating this website to put out the ideas and interventions of the BCA Holistic Mental Health Therapy and see what happens next.

Just the basics facts:

Education:

Work: