Being heard strengthens.
Hearing others inspires.
Connecting transforms the journey story.
Brad Bull
Ph.D., M.Div., Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
I am an outdoor enthusiast and award-winning amateur photographer. (This website features some of my favorite photos.) Indoors, I love great film and playing Scrabble. I started my career as a minister before transitioning to university professor and now full-time therapist, writer, and speaker.
My goal is to be well-informed and down-to-earth. My training includes a BA in psych with a minor in creative writing, a seminary degree in pastoral counseling, and Ph.D. in child and family studies. Practical experience came from working on my grandparents’ farm. One summer during college, I worked 12 hours a day pulling steel from a 1500-degree furnace. Wild Jerry and Big John the Welder taught me much and toughened my previously delicate ears.
Mission Statement
and
Objective
By objective measures, most dictators start out as successful national leaders. They garner followers, create jobs, and strengthen their nations’ economies and defenses. However, they are not people of excellence.
In myself and others, I seek to nurture not mere success but excellence. Excellence exhibits and fosters personal virtue, local vitality, and global wellbeing.
I seek to accomplish this mission by engaging in counseling, writing, public speaking, and audio-visual productions consistent not merely with passive education but fulfilling edu-ACTION.
What is edu-ACTION?
I define edu-action as: Active and applied learning that is grounded in ancient wisdom, informed by modern data, fueled by spiritual and social connection, enhanced by creativity, tempered by down-to-earth humility, and driven for practical transformation that leaves the world better than we found it.
Counseling
Maps are great–but guides are better. — Paraphrase of Jimmy Allen
“You’re educated but you don’t sound like it.” In graduate school I heard a helping professional say that was the highest compliment he ever got. Likewise, as a therapist, I strive to be both well-informed and down-to-Earth. If we go to Mars, I’ll be down-to- Mars. For now, let’s make the most of where we are by learning from those before us, living fully in the present, and creating a better future.
Writing
We write because we cannot NOT write. — Jeff Daniel Marion
Context, Characterization, Plot, Imagery. “During our nature walk around the nearby orange-leaf-covered college campus, I led all but one of my fellow first-graders in chanting ‘Vote for Nixon!’ Mrs. Akard, in her pencil skirt, starched white blouse, and black-frame glasses that matched her bouffant hair, looked at me disapprovingly but did not suppress our free speech. Back in our classroom, she distributed handouts on long versus short vowel sounds. I inhaled the pungent aroma of the still-moist ditto. It was the smell of spring after nuclear winter.”
Speaking/Storytelling
Maybe stories are just data with a soul. — Researcher/Storyteller Brené Brown
(How many speeches can you identify?)
Four score and seven years ago, I wasn’t yet alive. I have a dream that one day I won’t be able to say that, having lived to age 87. If fortune helps me reach that ripe old age, I hope I am still learning new things and communicating them in ways that prompt us to ask not what our country can do for us but “What thoughts do I wish to create?”
(There are four allusions.)