Fred L. Barnes, Ph.D. is the current Director of the Student Counseling Center. He is a Licensed Psychologist in both California and Washington state. He has been a practicing psychology since earning his Ph. D. from the University of Washington in 1975. Prior to his Doctorate, he obtained a Master of Social Work from the University of Washington, a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Seattle University, and an Associate of Arts from Southwestern Christian College.
At Otis College of Art and Design, he is responsible for the administration and coordination of Student Counseling Services in the providing of mental health diagnosis and treatment, individual and group counseling, referrals to health and psychiatric professionals, and the planning of staff development workshops. He has also provided clinical supervision for Masters and Doctoral-level psychology interns. Prior to Otis, Dr. Barnes worked at Pepperdine University where he worked in a similar role as the Director of the Student Counseling Center and a Staff Psychologist. Between both colleges, he has worked with students since 1990 and has learned ways to reach the student population through therapeutic interventions in order to improve their academic, social, occupational functioning and overall quality of life. His philosophy is: The best is yet to be!
Dr. Barnes’ clinical skills include mental health diagnosis and treatment, individual and group counseling, and mediation. He has expertise in the areas of marital, parenting, and conciliation counseling; children in crisis, custody and visitation issues, attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity, learning disabilities, academic and vocational counseling, and psychological evaluations ad assessments. Dr. Barnes has also conducted program development including needs assessment, evaluating college and university counseling centers for accreditation, student service satisfaction evaluations, policies/ procedures/ methodologies, administration, lecturing, training and teaching. Additionally, he has also conducted staff development programs, in-service workshops and seminars, and has conceptualized and implemented student, parent, and faculty outreach activities.
Like the students he works with, he continues to grow and learn by attending workshops and lectures on various issues in order to enhance his work including couples counseling, motivational interviewing, clinical supervision, promoting mental health and preventing suicide at colleges, psychological assessment, substance abuse, cultural competence, and law and ethics.