I'm a recently retired clinical psychologist and licensed marriage and family therapist from private practice with Pitts and Associates in Birmingham, AL.  My bachelors and doctoral degrees are from Baylor University in Waco, TX.  For over 25 years I was in practice with my twin brother, Bob ( also an author as well as an expert on Japanese gardens and bonzai trees).  Until she died March 2014, I was married to Susan over 42years and we have two grown sons ( Paul and David) two sweet daughters-in-law  (Christina and Jennifer), and five delightful grandchildren (Fritz, Jack, Mari Carmen, Berin and Rowan). I was Susan's caregiver for 15 years as she grew increasingly disbled from little strokes. I have long been passionate about music and about marriage.  I play mandolin, mandola, clawhammer banjo, harmonica and hammered dulcimer in a bluegrass/bluegrass gospel band, Shades Mountain Air.  I have specialized in marriage therapy over thirty years and finally found a way to combine these interests in LOVE LYRICS: THE MUSICAL MARITAL MANUAL.  It began as an attempt to write songs for the band, until I realized they were all about marriage.  I then concentrated on writing song lyrics/ light verses that taught about how to make and sustain a healthy marriage.  I don't offer them as musical masterpieces or poetic gems, but as entertaining, light-hearted presentations of the key concepts I've learned in doing marrige therapy and being married myself.  While these lyrics are primarily designed to educate couples, and people who work with couples, I also hope they may inspire more gifted song-writers, poets, playwrights, and script writers to create works that give healthier and more accurate notions about relationships through our entertainment mass media.  Therapists and marriage educators may find them useful to give to their clients or students, as I did mine, since humorous, emotional, and more aesthetic experiences can often be more easily accepted, learned and remembered. I used the same format in my second book, CAREGIVER CAROLS: A MUSICAL, EMOTIONAL MEMOIR, written to help other caregivers better manage their feelings based on my own emotional struggles.  Some of the emotions I deal with are tough, scarey, embarrassing, sad and not real pretty and I think my format makes it easier for people to identifiy with the feelings, absorb the material and apply the suggestions to their own lives.

I am a past president of the Alabama Division of the American Association of Marriage & Family Therapists and was also an Approved Supervisor with AAMFT.