Discover the Heart of Healing
Meet Dr. Joseph Pirone
Dr. Joseph M. Pirone
M.A., Ph.D., M.A.
My Inspiration
On Children
by Kahlil Gibran
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls’ dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
Professional Summary
In addition to my dedication to teaching for 5 decades I have done Pro Bono counseling and coaching along with testimony for fathers and mothers who now benefit from the spate of works on collaboration in pre and post-divorce family life, as ways of reducing the psychiatric and at times spousal spiritual and physical abuse that often produces Parent Alienation Syndrome (PAS).
More recently, I am working with the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Christian Churches and their bible studies, more specifically St. Matthew, in creating awareness of the Nakba, the suffering of the persons in Gaza and throughout Israel. The work is accomplished as a cooperative cross-cultural team of Sufi Muslim, Christian, and Jewish souls to bring at this very moment awareness on our video screens of the horrendous ongoing trauma and suffering on the ground. The work is done in both small groups and Zoom.
Our cross-religious and cross cultural groups bring awareness of the background of this suffering by using the text The Wall Between by Jewish and Islamic authors, Jeff Wilkensen and Raja Khouri. For those who wish a deeper encounter, they are invited to experience Nakbasociodrama, a spiritual form of transpersonal based depth psychodrama.
My former pro bono work in this area is done in gratitude to Judge Bernard Stanger, Family Court of Rockland County, New York for the intellectual courage and wisdom he shared with my young students in Psychology of Divorce: A Compassionate Transition at SUNY Rockland Community College.
Educational and Training
2024 -2023
Extensive dialogue and encounter groups with persons of Jewish and Palestinian backgrounds who are experiencing the suffering directly. Extensive communication with Christian and Islamic Peace Organizations and their leaders, seeking advice on approaches to justice and peace resolutions. Ongoing Interaction with Fellowship of Reconciliation, Quaker Peace Groups, and direct Video interaction with persons in Gaza
2018 – National Institute of Complexity Consciousness, Networked with proactive game design researchers to create virtual reality-based Co-operative Parenting Post Divorce Family Life Therapy Games
2017 – 2014 – Rachael’s Vineyard Post Abortion Forgiveness Healing
I took the training to be a counsellor working with priests in the spiritual psychiatric healing of abortion related trauma. Supervisor, Cheryl Riley, Archdiocese of Newark, Family Life. Participated in the retreats working with priests.
2014 – Izabel Gatto Method IGM Healing Field Training.
This method allows for the practitioner to release through acupressure like fields emotional body held traumas.
2010 – 2006 Certification and Training from the Hellinger Institute USA
for the 3-year training. My focus was in transforming historical and ancestral hatred with the descendants of religious and political perpetrators and victims , focusing on how personality style manifests in self-shame or Other Rage and Terror
2010 -1999 – Certification and Training with The Enneagram Institute and Hurley Donson Institutes in creating more precise healing methods based on personality style and defense structure, applying it to sociodramas for reducing trauma in general and PAS in church and college workshop groups. Five Certificates from these Institutes.
2005 – International Enneagram Conference San Francisco,2005
Facilitating Morphic Resonance in Family Constellations through Enneagram and Psychodrama
Presentation and performance of my integrated trauma healing theory and process that synthesized the fields of Psychodrama with its affective catharsis, the Enneagram with its levels of spiritual through dissociation state defense structures and the Hellinger work with its transpersonal psi field healing processes.
1989 – Qualification as Expert Family Court, Rockland County, State of New York Honorable Judge Bernard Stanger
1984 –Ph.D. Psychology – Fordham University. Thesis: Reducing State Anxiety in Test Taking in Community College Students Through Curriculum Design
1975 – 1980 – The Moreno Institute of Psychodrama
Leading and participating in training recreating and catharsis, political, racial, and family trauma, focusing on healing Parent Alienation Syndrome in divorcing families and creating advanced methods of releasing through catharsis the rage, shame, and fear under its symptomatology.
1974 – Certificate in Counseling and Psychotherapy – Alfred Adler Institute in New York. Awarded Faculty Teaching Position, Child Development and Psychotherapy, and Psychodrama
1969 – School Psychologist, State of New York, Licensure
1969 – MA Degree Clinical Psychology, Fordham University
1966 – Critical Occupation Draft Status, National Defense Fellow, Russian Language Teacher.
1965 – MA Degree – Institute of Contemporary Russian Studies Russian Language and Literature, National Defense Foreign Language Fellow,
President, Russian Honors Society, Dobroe Slovo.
1964 – Awarded National Defense Scholarship in Russian Language
1964 – BA Degree – Fordham College Egregia Cum Laude, Honors Program – Russian and Philosophy
1964– Phi Beta Kappa Elected to Membership
1960 – Diploma – Fordham Preparatory School, Graduated with High Honors.
Work History
2024 -2021 Family Life Center, Roman Catholic Church, Archdiocese of Newark, Newark, New Jersey
This work integrates the release of Rage, Shame, and Fear through defense transformation in spiritual biblical forgiveness context thru
therapist/priest/minister teams. Most of the work has to do with incestuous familial and gender perpetrators
Milford Bible Church, Milford, Pa.
Christian awareness of contemporary Injustice issues. Here as in other churches I continue to educate in bible study how the Peace of Christ is not possible without Justice and that at times Christian consciousness regarding Palestine needs be reevaluated.
2021 – SUNY Rockland
Continue to teach Social Psychology 206 and Life Span Development in which urgent contemporary issues and changes in family dynamics and gender relationships are focused upon.
2020 – March Retired from full-time Honors Program after 25 years in SUNY Rockland and moved to South Bend, Indiana, intending to teach at KROC Peace studies Center at Notre Dame and purchasing farmland figuring on creating Victory Gardens as my Plant Pathologist father did at the New York Botanical Garden.
2015 -2021 – Pro bono virtual expert and counseling for fathers’ rights in joint custody of children…workshops for divorcing parents to keep kids out of crossfire.
2015 -2010 – Purchased land in Pennsylvania and built a Log Cabin. Studied at Rodale.
Organic Gardening
2007-2005 Purchased a cabin in the Adirondacks and studied Organic Gardens with Local farmers
2004 -2002 –Built survival camp in Hancock, New York
1997 –National Council for Children’s Rights Presentation
Church-based Cooperative Strategies For reducing PAS in the Divorce transition.
1996 – Board of Directors of the New Jersey Council for Children’s
Rights Recognized for my work counseling fathers the mothers whose children were in the psychiatric spectrum.
1995 – 1995 I began working with local churches and ministers and priests in group
guidance of church-going parents in the divorce transition.On campus created Christian,Muslim, Jewish, Atheist Club for cross values education ,given the unfortunate degree of conflict and misunderstanding on campus.
1998 –1995 “The Children of Divorce Speak’
ACOD (Adult Children of Divorce) Divorce Education Presentations were created each term from selected students in my Divorce: A Compassionate Transition class .Their powerful testimony of their PAS experience was shared at local mediation and church conferences .Presentation title :The Children of Divorce Speak.
2000 -1995 Created and taught the new course Psychology 207 – Divorce: A Compassionate and Cooperative Transition . In that course Rabbis, ministers and priests and The Judge of the Family Court Co-taught content that centered around avoiding the tragedy of parent alienation syndrome, focusing on Domestic law transition to mediation and joint custody.
1984 – Promoted to Full Professor of Psychology, and mentor in the Sam Draper Mentor Talented Student Program
1969 – Counsellor and Professor of Psychology – the State University of New York, at Rockland Community College – focusing on cognitive and emotional child Development and family trauma.
Papers and workshops:
Family Legacy: Cleaning up Broken Family Dynamics Before the Death Event: A Hellinger Perspective on the Role of the Birth of Grandchildren and Family Wounding Transformation.
Co-operative co- parenting in the Divorce Transition for positive post -divorce family life(PDFL): A Spiritual Community Support Program
Reducing Parent Alienation Syndrome in Jewish and Christian Divorce Psychodynamics:
Protecting parents from dangerous spousal regression.
Residential 12 step programs and the Ennea Hellinger integration: a new approach to Tough love in programs that are successful.
What Dr. Pirone's Students are Saying!
“I had the distinct honor and fortunate opportunity to work closely with Dr. Pirone. he is a man of intense curiosity, creativity, and passion, and his energy is infectious to those around him. He served as a teacher, mentor, and employer to me in the year I spent at the Mentor/Talented Students Honors Program at Rockland Community College. His conscientiousness with his students led me to quickly volunteer to work with him outside of the classroom. I helped him on several research projects and assisted him in transferring much of his material into interactive websites. Working with Dr. Pirone is a distinct pleasure, and I credit him with a significant role in driving the success I have had in the years since we worked closely.”
Justin L.
“Dr. Pirone, known as Uncle Joe to me, is an amazing human being. Although I’ve never had the good fortune to take enroll for his classes, I have seen and heard firsthand the energy this educator brings to his classes. Dr. Pirone’s personality allows him to not only build a business, educator/student relationship, but also a personal bond. He always finds positive and inspiring words to keep you motivated. If you get the chance to see Dr. Pirone at RCC, stop by and say hi. He’ll be the professor with a set of headphones (listening to classical music or the next great lecture) and a smile on his face.”
Javier R.
“Dr. Pirone was my personal mentor. He is one of the most insightful people I have ever come across. As a mentee, Dr. Pirone has the unique ability to understand you better than you understand yourself; with this he can help you understand yourself better, accept who you are and make better life decisions. His approach is unique and definitely not typical; if you are looking for typical there are thousands of other professionals to choose from but if you are looking for results choose Dr. Pirone.”