Paul Korn, Professor

Paul R. Korn, PhD

Professor
Department of Psychological Services

Phone: 617.573.8226
Fax: 617.227.3685
Email: pkorn@suffolk.edu
Office: 73 Tremonth St., Rm. 510

Education

• PhD, University of Connecticut

Biography

As I am completing my thirty-fourth year with the Suffolk University Counseling Center, I am well aware of the yin and yang of my work. There is so much that is familiar -- comforting and predictable -- and there is so much that is new, exciting and challenging. And I like it that way. At times, I can rely on the familiar; and, at other times I can seek the unexplored. These are sentences written by someone whose life is bracketed by Abbot and Costello’s "Who’s on First?" and the Wii video games.

The University Counseling Center, my colleagues, and the students here have been both my work site and the foundation for my own learning, development, and maturation. That’s not to say that I don’t have a life outside my job. It just seems important to start by saying that I am happy and nurtured by what I do as a psychologist at our school.

The Smiling Juggler is a metaphor for how I live my life. I’m not one of those intense performers, gritting his teeth to keep an astounding number of odd objects in the air, demonstrating both prowess and determination. Nope. Juggling is for fun, for focus, and for rhythmic meditation, paying attention to how I feel and moving with comfort and balance, while I remain curious and interested in getting things done.

If I have learned nothing else over the years, it’s the lesson from Baba Ram Dass that therapists and teachers can be helpful only as much as they’ve helped themselves. Ram Dass also warned (to paraphrase): Half of what I say is brilliant and half of what I say is B.S., and I don’t know the difference; so be very careful.

My work as a professor of psychological services and a staff psychologist at the UCC is my first and only full-time job, after holding multiple part-time positions through and directly after graduate school at the University of Connecticut. I was an undergraduate on the banks of the Genesee at the University of Rochester. I’ve been pulsing to the education rhythm of the year since nursery school.

What I am currently doing will let the reader know something about my interests and my latest juggling act. The clinical clients I have worked with over the past years range in age from 18 to 52. They include: a first year law student, a Latina, who is the first of her family to get an advanced degree and is suffering from the pressure to succeed; a freshman struggling with questions about the impact of reporting her abuse as a child; an African American who has ADHD and is also battling health problems and depression; a Muslim student, dealing with a raft of phobias as well as financial problems; and a student who is struggling with sexual identity and worries about what is normal.

As we complete another school year, I am looking forward to September. I am eager to develop a working supervisory relationship with one of the three graduate interns arriving in August. I am continually updating the training seminar that I teach, helping our interns develop skills in outreach, training, and consultation, including more focus on co-leading workshops and learning hands-on consultation skills. I am continuing my work with a committee of people from throughout the university to create a series of training sessions for the Safe Zone program which provides information and education about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. I am working with my colleague at the Center, Lynda Field, in the fifth year of the Suffolk Samaritan Awards Program, which will grant up to $1000.00 to three applicants who develop community-based activities that address student depression. This award program is part of the ADAPT program, Action for Depression Awareness, Prevention, and Treatment, which we have been running for the past seven years.

I will continue my 20-year involvement with the Society Organized Against Racism in Higher Education (SOAR), a regional network of professionals and students, which, among other programs, is offering regular meetings to students from member campuses to discuss racism, discrimination and anti-bias activities. I am serving on one of the college committees to develop improved criteria for courses that fulfill the undergraduate diversity requirement.

This year, I am teaching for the umpteenth semester a psychology course, "Introduction to Counseling Skills," a skills-based course that is always a pure joy. I will also be teaching another fulfilling course in the spring, "Leadership Skills for a Diverse Society."

Finally, I am just finished reading The Son of the Circus, by John Irving and am ready to begin on Unbowed: One Woman’s Story, by 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai. I have planted our annual vegetable garden at our home in Gloucester. I am adjusting to the distance I feel from my sons who are growing up and away from me; I am loving the 6 AM walks on the beach with my beautiful black dog, Sheba; and I am working, playing, and dancing with my wife, Sue, who is an independent organization consultant and professional writer.

And all the time, what’s important is keeping my balance and not dropping any balls as I juggle, but choosing which ones to put down temporarily, as I continue on my merry way.