Mental Health Professionals: Dr. Rick McQuistion, Ph.D., LPCC-S

Rick has worked in the mental health field since 1988. He holds a doctorate in Counseling from Kent State University and is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor/Supervising Counselor and ordained minister. His expertise includes marriage and family therapy, parenting, men's issues, male sex addiction, child and adolescent counseling, Asperger Syndrome, ADHD, mood disorders, and grief. In addition to the individual, couple, and family counseling that he does, Rick conducts a weekly group for men struggling with sexual addiction. He also teaches for Malone University, has been professionally published, and has spoken around the country. Rick loves his wife and son and enjoys music, whitewater rafting, football, and teaching Jr. High kids at his church.

What Does It Mean to be a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor?

Good question! In a nutshell, in the late 1980's, the State of Ohio formed a governing board to regulate the practices of counseling and social work. They set standards professionals have to meet as far as taking graduate coursework, getting supervised in the field, meeting ethical standards and keeping up with new developments. These can be viewed at their website: www.cswmft.ohio.gov. Ohio is one of the most stringent states in regulating this field.

All of our counselors at Gentle Shepherd Counseling Center have either masters or doctoral degrees and have fulfilled the state's requirements for diagnosing and treating mental and emotional disorders. We have also had thousands of hours of experience while being supervised by someone who is already licenced before we earned our own licenses. And we all must continue our eduation by taking 30 hours of advanced training every two years.

What is unique about our counselors is that we have all had training on how to integrate our theology into psychology. We continue to work on this in our daily lives as well as in weekly team meetings. We are experts at looking at problems with the knowledge that the study of psychology affords through the lens of faith in God, meeting each client where he or she is on his or her own faith journey.