I practice empirically based psychotherapy. I earned my Ph.D. within a therapy research team, and know the origins and theories of therapies, how they are tested, how psychotherapy compares with and complements other treatments, and how best to flexibly practice therapy with each client.
I have sat on the other side of the couch. I believe in a traditional model of training which indicated that a professional should have received therapy to practice therapy. I cannot imagine receiving a swim or basketball lesson from a coach who never received a lesson, and believe a similar principle applies to psychotherapy. A proponent of the psychologist as expert-technician model could counter that it is not a requirement that a brain surgeon has received brain surgery. Point conceded. The model of a healthy technician treating a sick patient makes sense for surgery. However, psychotherapy is a meeting of two equals, engaged in collaborative exploration. Thus, having sat in the client’s seat helps the therapist grow as a person, and helps their future clients.
I have experience outside of psychology. I have a degree in economics and an MBA, and worked for three years in a startup in Silicon Valley. I collaborated with engineer, finance, and marketing types. As I transitioned toward psychology, I also worked as a certified personal fitness trainer for three years. I continue to exercise regularly, but it appears I also like eating.
I am quite serious about scholarship and ethical practice, but I use a good deal of humor in life and therapy. I do not use memorized jokes. I improvise, riff, or comment on what is occurring within the room or within your stories, pulling in references from all media and society. I enjoy self-effacement and find it can reveal that all of us humans are muddling through. Even in sessions that deal with some of the dark parts of living, there are times when a shared moment of humor is uplifting.
I have been lucky enough to travel fairly widely, including solo month-long trips to places such as Cambodia and Guatemala, as well as a volunteer stint teaching math in Spanish in Nicaragua. Practicing on the Main Line of Philadelphia since 2020 means that I have now lived in the West for childhood, the Midwest for a Ph.D., the South for my wife to earn tenure, and now Philadelphia to continue her career and expand my practice. I believe my background and life experiences are an asset to understanding many types of people.
Books by Weibel
Beyond Me: Practices for Expanding Compassion provides a detailed case for how too much self-focused thinking causes us suffering, and then offers practices to help us boost perspective taking, empathy, and compassion. This version of compassion is not limited to empathy when someone is suffering; wider compassion is closer to universal love and includes happiness about someone else’s thriving. Boosting compassion can lower anxiety and depression while increasing happiness, meaning, and purpose.
Excerpts from Beyond Me by Weibel
Mindfulness & Visualization Audio Tracks
I created seven relaxation and stress management audio tracks with my own scripts and voice. The tracks include Mindfulness, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Visualization, Lake Meditation, Mountain Meditation, Autogenic Training, and Loving-Kindness Meditation. Some of my colleagues have brought the audio tracks to treatment settings across the country.
Mindfulness, Relaxation, & Loving-Kindness audio tracks
Citation in Magazine
I was cited in an article about how to overcome setbacks.
Handouts for Clients
I created various handouts that cite and summarize existing literatures and techniques. You might be offered one of these handouts as a supplement to your therapy.
Academic Papers·
· Double trouble: Therapists with low facilitative interpersonal skills and without training have low in-session experiential processes·
· Does loving kindness meditation reduce anxiety? Results from a randomized controlled trial.
