The author of the Language of Power© is an accomplished youthworker who received a BA in Psychology from Drake University and a Masters in Social Work from the University of Iowa. He has devoted his entire career to teaching and helping parents and educators to deal with the entire range of teenage problems. He prefers to use the moniker "Country Joe College" for several reasons. He believes that worthwile endeavors should stand on their own merits and not be associated with factors that may take away from the actual substance of a topic. Working with a wide diversity of serious problems as Country Joe College does, necessitates extreme confidentiality in the social work profession. Additionally, he shies away from any degree of notoriety as he sees it as a distraction to his life's work. For those interested, Country Joe College's complete resume may be reviewed at any time. A summary is included below.
His first professional job was as a Child Welfare Worker and he has also worked as a Juvenile Parole Agent and Unit Supervisor at the Iowa Boys Training School (Eldora).
He is the former administrator of two Pennsylvania institutions for juvenile delinquents and is the founder and CEO of CCI, a private social services agency specializing in delinquents and their families. He was also the founder and CEO of Choctaw Ridge Academy (1996-2009), the first and only alternative school for disruptive teenagers to operate as a Therapeutic Community (TC).
He is co-founder and past president of the Youth Services Alliance of Pennsylvania (YSAP), and was the founder and long-time president of the Interagency Youth Coalition (IYC). Country Joe College is the father of two and grandfather of five. He and his dog live somewhere in the Pennsylvania woods.
Professional Credentials:
▪ ACSW The Academy of Certified Social Workers
▪ BCD Board certified in clinical social work
▪ CMFT Clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and
Family Therapists
▪ CFC Certified Forensic Counselor
College Curriculum Vita:
B.A. Psychology, Drake University
Des Moines, Iowa
Child Welfare Worker
Johnson County, Iowa
Masters in Social Work,
University of Iowa
Iowa City
Juvenile Parole Agent
Des Moines
Unit Supervisor and Family Therapist
Iowa Training School for Boys
Eldora, Iowa
Professional Certifications:
▪ Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW)
▪ American Association of Marriage & Family Therapists (AAMFT)
▪ Licensed Social Worker (LSW) PA
▪ Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work (BCD)
▪ Qualified Clinical Social Worker (QCSW)
▪ Certified Forensic Counselor (CFC)
Publications:
▪ "Families Come to the Institution: A 5-Day Experience in Rehabilitation," Federal
Probation Quarterly
▪ "A Community Approach to Juvenile Rehabilitation," The PAPPC Quarterly
▪ "Searching for the Magic Answer to Juvenile Delinquency," Federal Probation
Quarterly
▪ "Of Honor Systems and Juvenile Justice," YAP Quarterly
▪ "The Concept of Integrated Intervention," YAP Quarterly
▪ "Child Welfare System Reform: Climbing out of the Abyss," The Forensic Therapist
Workshops and Seminars:
▪ Family Therapy and Group Therapy various presentations...
▪ "Introduction to Metaphysics"
▪ "Belief Matrix Therapy"
▪ "Control Your Thoughts and Change Your Life," a 10-week course in positive
thinking taught at the Bucks County Prison
▪ "Self Responsibility Training for Adolescents," Pennsylvania Council of Children's
Services, Fall Conference, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
▪ 13th Annual Children's Interagency Conference, State College, Pennsylvania
▪ Professionals for Children, Youth & Families Annual Conference,
Allentown, Pennsylvania
▪ "Teenagers and Power"
▪ The 2008 PA National Association of Social Workers convention,
King of Prussia, PA
▪ The 2009 Annual Conference, Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth and
Family Services, Harrisburg, PA
▪ "The Alternative School as an Instrument of Delinquency Prevention," The
Pennsylvania Conference on Juvenile Justice, Harrisburg, PA
Awards:
▪ Distinguished Service Award, Youth Services Alliance of Pennsylvania
▪ Distinguished Service Award, Bucks County Juvenile Court, for excellence
in service to Bucks County youth
▪ The John F. Kennedy-Robert F. Kennedy Public Service Award (for Bucks County)
Assistant Director, Youth Development Center
Loysville, PA
Director, Youth Forestry Camp,
Aitch, PA
Founder and President, Community Commitment, Inc.
Doylestown, PA
Founder and President, Free Spirit Seminars
Point Pleasant, PA
Founder and President, Choctaw Ridge Academy
Doylestown, PA
The Forum is a meeting place for everyone who has received the Language of Power training to take the next step -- learning to use the Language of Power© in our everyday dealings with teenagers. Of course this will come after you have started on your communication pathway and received specific online answers from Country Joe based on your own individual situation.
It's a given that -- "One swallow doesn't make a summer" and "Rome wasn't built in a day," etc. The beauty of the approach is that it is cumulative - the more we practice using the 11 principles with teens the more proficient we become! The Forum is an interactive online communication system in which we share our struggles to penetrate the mysterious world of adolescents as we learn the
"new" language.
A Program To Help You Deal Effectively with Teen Problems
What is the online
Parent Forum?
Help is here if you need it!
A note from the author
As the founder and creator of this model, I will be ever present to address specific questions and offer encouragement. Most of my learning came not from advanced degrees but from my own kids as they painfully moved through their teenage years. Both were arrested for unlawful behavior and both became certified juvenile delinquents. Both survived and prospered, and have given me five great grandchildren. And although it was sheer agony at the time, I could not have asked for better "teachers."
Country Joe College
Why Country Joe College
Upwards of 10 years dairy farming has left me with a deep respect for those of us who do physical work for a living. Rain or shine, whether sick or well, they must always answer the bell. How many of us office-type folks could do this day in and day out?
Back then the counterpart to the often derisive term "Joe Six Pack" was the equally derisive "Joe College" reference to (usually) educated city and suburban folks.
So I wish to honor the learning I received from my 24/7 boiling-hot-in-summer and freezing-cold-in-winter barn, silo and milk house days by assuming the internet name of Country Joe College and I hope you might be persuaded to humor me by using it too.
And I am saddled with having been raised up to follow the very old fashioned belief that you don't go around blowing your own horn but rather let your actions and accomplishments speak for themselves. And as they say, "old learning dies hard".
Pete Stollery aka Country Joe College
Who created the Language of Power program
