Gary W. Reece, Ph.D. received his doctorate in clinical psychology and a masters degree in theology from the graduate school of clinical psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1978. He has twenty five years of teaching, training, consulting and clinical work in the private sector. Here are just some of his activities. Dr. Reece designed the emergency and trauma response program and trained the emergency responders for Pasadena-Hollywood-Burbank Airport. He has authored a recovery manual for substance abuse, and recently published The Hero's Journey, a course on Self-Esteem. He has consulted with numerous local hospitals in the area of staff development and professional burnout prevention. He conducted Work Place Stress seminars for the Veterans Hospitals in Sepulveda, and Bakersfield, California campuses. He has also taught psychology and done clinical supervision at Azusa Pacific University. The Palm Springs Girl Scout bus crash and Chino Hills Murder afforded Dr. Reece the opportunity to gain valuable experience and knowledge in the area of Community Disaster Intervention. He was also member of the Charter Oaks Hospital Disaster Response Team for whom he did many community critical incident debriefings.

In addition to these numerous opportunities to work with victims of disasters, trauma, and abuse, he is himself the survivor of traumatic bereavement. He and his wife lost a 6 month old daughter because of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. These experiences have left him with a special knowledge of trauma and have resulted in devoting his professional life to the study, research, and development of effective recovery programs for a broad spectrum of individuals with life crises.

Currently Dr. Reece is finishing his next book, which is designed to help people survive and recover from traumatic and life changing experiences. He also writes a monthly column for L.A. Steps For Recovery, a widely distributed publication for the recovery community. As the founder and executive director of the Stepcare Institute, Dr. Reece has built a distinguished career as therapist, author, educator, lecturer, and consultant. He is noted for his sense of humor, relaxed presentation style and skill in facilitating learning experiences.