Consulting Professionals
Dr. Jennifer FauntLeRoy
Dr. Dean Mooney
Beatrice Birch, Hauschka Artistic Therapist
Dr. Jennifer FauntLeRoy
Dr. FauntLeRoy has been the treating psychiatrist at Spring Lake Ranch Therapeutic Community since 2006. She sees residents at the Ranch every Wednesday, and residents in the Rutland program every Thursday. She is also available to staff by phone at any time, day or night.
Education and Experience
Dr. FauntLeRoy received her undergraduate degree in 1969 from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, and graduated from New York University School of Medicine in 1978. After five years in General Practice in rural Southern Illinois, she returned to St. Elizabeth's Hospital of Boston to complete a residency in Psychiatry. Dr. FauntLeRoy was an APA/Mead Johnson Fellow in Community Psychiatry in 1985. She received Board Certification in Psychiatry & Neurology in 1988.
She worked as a staff Psychiatrist at Tri-City Community Mental Health in Malden, Massachusetts, and concurrently worked as a private practice psychiatrist in Boston until 1997. Dr. FauntLeRoy came to Rutland, Vermont in 1998 to become Medical Director of the Psychiatric Services Unit at Rutland Regional Medical Center, where she was responsible for inpatient work, clinical care, program development, supervision, and crisis coverage. In 2005, she opened up her own private practice while continuing to provide on-call crisis coverage at Rutland Hospital. Since 2006, Dr. FauntLeRoy has been the sole provider of psychiatric services for Spring Lake Ranch in Cuttingsville and in our Rutland program.
Professional Presentations
- A Developmental Model of Personality Disorders
- Use of Contracts in Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder
- Geriatric Psychopharmacology
- Problems with the Usual Research Designs and Complex Causality in Psychiatry
Memberships
- American Psychiatric Association
- Vermont Psychiatric Society
- American College of Community Psychiatry
- National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
- Physicians for a National Health Plan
- Vermont Head Injury Association
Philosophy & Values by Dr. Jennifer Fauntleroy
My model is developmental; that is, I think of people's problems coming from getting "stuck" at different points along the road to true maturity, that depend on the age at which the incorrect thinking, or inability to regulate emotions, began. Therefore I do not have a "one size fits all" approach to therapy. I believe that mental illnesses and associated difficulties are caused by a combination of heredity, environment, and belief systems.
Recovery is possible, and the goal of therapy and medication, but hard work and commitment are required.
No one seriously expects to learn a second language by taking a pill or putting a speaker under the pillow. This takes real-life practice, study, drill, and time. Likewise, recovery will not take place overnight. Patients who come for eight weekly sessions and then quit, saying "it's not working" misunderstand the process, or are only seeking support for a time-limited crisis in the first place (time-limited crisis support can be very effective, but is not to be confused with long-term psychotherapy).
The cure is in the person, not the pill.
The purpose of medication is to help regulate mood, "damp down" distracting and draining "brainstorms" such as mania, psychosis, bottomless despair, or dissociation. Managing these "storms" by will power alone requires massive amounts of psychic energy, which are then not available for inner growth, connecting with other people, or having healthy fun. A refusal to include medication in the treatment plan has resulted in many people settling for a life well below their potential and hopes for themselves. In many cases "self-medication" with drugs and alcohol leads to a downward spiral.
Happiness comes from competence.
As soon as a baby learns to roll over, its one goal is to master its world, both internal and external. Specific adult competencies that need to be the goal of any therapy include:
- Self-mastery, emotional self-regulation
- Good self-care
- Ability to take unselfish interest in others
- Getting pleasure from being a productive member of a community (please note "productive" doesn't mean here bringing home a paycheck; there are lots of ways disabled adults can "pull their weight" in their families and communities)
Mental illnesses are brain diseases.
People coping with mental illness and their families and therapists need to fight stigma whenever possible. Many illnesses readily recognized as "medical" - for example, emphysema - have social impact and "behavioral" components. To claim that mental illnesses are somehow unique in this respect is nonsense.
Dr. Dean Mooney
We are pleased to welcome Dr. Dean Mooney to the Ranch community. Dr. Mooney - an expert in Nonverbal Learning Disabilities, Asperger Syndrome, and High Functioning Autism - provides psychotherapy on-site to some of our residents.
Dr. Mooney is the founder of Maple Leaf Clinic in Wallingford VT, which provides neuropsychological, educational, psychological, speech and language, and social thinking assessments of children, adolescents, and adults. Therapy for people of all ages is provided. Their services also include social skills development (utilizing Relationship Development Intervention® and the Think Social! model), educational or clinical consultation, and professional development.
Maple Leaf Clinic is also proud to sponsor Camp Maple Leaf, a summer camp that caters to
the social needs and relaxation skills of campers with Nonverbal Learning
Disabilities, Asperger Syndrome, and High Functioning Autism.
Dr. Mooney
is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist - Doctorate, and a Licensed School Psychologist
in the state of Vermont. In addition, he is a Nationally Certified School
Psychologist.
He is co-author of Nonverbal Learning Disabilities: A Guide to School Success (May 2006), Nonverbal Learning Disabilities: A Guide to School Success - The Teacher's Manual (September 2007), A Train Ride to Grandma's (With NO Chocolate Donut!) (September 2009), and A Snapshot of Me - A Student with NLD (Spring 2010).
Dr. Mooney has lectured on the topic
of Nonverbal Learning Disabilities for local and national organizations
throughout the United States, Canada, and England. He is proud to be a member
of the Health Advisory Board of the Turner Syndrome Society of the United
States. Additionally, Dr. Mooney serves on the Professional Advisory Board for The
College Internship Program at The Brevard Center, (Melbourne, Florida), and The
Berkshire Center (Lee, Massachusetts).
He lives in beautiful Vermont with his wife, daughter, son, and two
golden retrievers.
Beatrice Birch
Spring Lake Ranch has recently added Hauschka Artistic Therapy, under the direction of Beatrice Birch, to its program offerings.
"The therapist's role is to guide, to facilitate. The individual through his/her own will takes up the challenge and a process begins. The patient is never in the position to say, "You have healed me." One has healed oneself through one's engagement with one's own artistic process."
Beatrice Birch began her career as a teacher in Waldorf/Rudolph Steiner schools. In 1986 she completed her full-time, three-year Hauschka Artistic Therapy training in Gloucestershire, England. Since then she has worked with Anthroposophical and Homeopathic medical practices and schools in England and the United States, with both adults and children suffering from physical as well as psychological conditions. People struggling with a great variety of conditions such as cancer, heart disorders, asthma, depression, migraines, insomnia, chronic fatigue, M.S., and infertility have been helped significantly through this artistic therapy.
Why Art?
Growing to recognize the interrelationship of our own soul breathing with that of nature around us is a healing, re-uniting experience. To discover through painting with watercolor the color moods of nature, the breathing reflected in the unfolding of a day from sunrise to sunset, and in the seasons, kindles wonder, love, and joy. The Soul is nourished through the luminous colors. To create a particular form in clay and to metamorphose that form into another calls firstly upon a depth of concentration and imagination, and secondly upon the inner flexibility to let go and be again in the process of becoming. Through the black and white dynamic-stroke drawing, an inner rhythm is established which harmonizes our breathing and blood circulation. A sensitivity for the relationship between light and dark and thus the subtle nuances of life develops. Such opportunities for soul-engagement strengthen our immune system/life force, empowering us to embrace and work with the challenges before us.
How Can Hauschka Artistic Therapy Help?
By working with watercolor, clay modeling, or dynamic-stroke drawing in this unique way, we are making a bee-line to the Soul, thus gradually reawakening and harmonizing that which has become silenced/out of balance. Initially, one requires guidance, not free expression, otherwise the illness may be simply perpetuated. The Soul is nourished through the artistic process. Therefore, it is this process and not the end result which counts. One need have no previous artistic experience.