About Us
Finding Inspiration in Every Turn
Meet The Team
Dawna Peterson has an MEd in Mental Health Counseling from the University of Virginia. In addition, she has specialized training in Brief Strategic Therapy from the Family Therapy Institute, and Relationship Enhancement training from the National Institute for Relationship Enhancement. Additionally, she is a certified child-centered play therapist. She has been a licensed Professional Counselor for the past 35 years, in two U.S. states as well as overseas. She is currently working as an academic advisor at Miami University.
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She has worked with diverse populations both in the US and abroad. As a contract therapist for the Community Services Association in Ma'adi, Egypt, she developed many skills and strategies to help individuals, couples and families suffering issues of trauma, alienation, and anxiety caused by relocation overseas. She also provided workshops for couples and families in Relationship Enhancement skills. While in Egypt she worked with refugee families as a leader in developing a peer-to-peer counseling program called Sadaka ("friend") for the Sudanese refugee population.
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Throughout her adult life Dawna has had an avocation as Religious Educator and Family Life Minister for her various parishes. She has led youth through sacramental preparation, taught religious education classes, and provided workshops on parenting skills, communication skills, marriage enrichment and relationships enhancement.
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While serving in the youth and family ministry at St. Mary’s Catholic Church and Campus Ministry Dawna attended workshops on Principles of Catechesis, Formation of Youth through Ministry, Theology of Marriage, and Catholic Social Doctrine at Atheneum’s Mount St. Mary’s School of Theology.
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Coming upon 40 years as a Catechist and Marriage and Family Therapist I decided to write a book and take my ministry to a larger populace of married couples.
Co-author Mark Peterson is a university professor of social science. He is the author of two nonfiction books and one textbook. He has published more than 40 academic articles. Prior to his academic career, he was a journalist in Washington, DC. He published more than 400 news articles and feature stories. He was trained in the To Have and to Hold Marriage Preparation Ministry by the Archdiocese of Washington in 1994
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Dawna and Mark are committed and practicing Catholics who have been married for almost 40 years. They are members of the Catholic Family Life Association
