Because our counselors are professional, licensed, and ordained, the confidentiality of all counseling is insured through two legal avenues:
the guarantee of counselor-client privilege covers all counseling sessions
the guarantee of pastor-parishioner privilege covers all counseling sessions
Dr. Joseph B. Kennedy, Sr. Director, CrossRoads Counseling
Marriage and Family Therapist, Licensed by State of California 1964
Ordained minister (Elder), United Methodist Church 1963 (Retired)
Certified and commissioned Stephen Minister and Trainer
Certified Forensic Examiner
Clinical Member of AAMFT - American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
Certified Diplomate American Psychotherapy Association
Charter member of The American Association of Christian Counselors
Life Member of California Marriage & Family Counseling Association
National Board of Cognitive Behavioral Therapists
Former Chaplain, Alpharetta Police Department
Former Chaplain Consultant, Montezuma Police Department
Former Director, Greater Atlanta Psychological Services
Dr. Kennedy has been actively involved in Pastoral Counseling form 1964 to the present. He was ordained Deacon 1957 in the Western North Carolina Conference and Elder 1963 in the California-Nevada Conference. He is now honorably retired in teh California Nevada Conference, and no longer in the active ministry as a Methodist pastor.
Dr. Kennedy has been the Clinical Director of the Area Medical Center, Mississippi; Christian Counseling Center, California, and the Counseling Center, Medical Center, California. He was director of the Area Medical Center in Lodi, California and The Counseling Center in Salinas, California. He was in private practice in Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling in San Diego, California. he also served The Clinic Farthest Out, where Dr. Carl and Will Meninger from Kansas, were consultants.
He has also served as National Chairman of the Methodist Youth Fellowship, as National Chairman of Worship and Evangelism, and as Organizing Secretary for the World Assembly of Youth (W.A.Y.) for the United Nations.
While serving many years in China, he was consultant to four U.S. Presidents on China and the Middle East; founder and director of the U.S.-China Education Foundation; as well as an international consulting firm. Dr. Kennedy was the founder and director of Lifeline, Inc., the first crisis intervention telephone service in the United States, now called "Contact," where he trained 250 telephone counselors. He served on the board of directors of Victory Home Rehabilitation Center, Helping Hand, Inc. a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center.
He attended the University of Alabama, Birmingham Southern University (B.A.) 1951; Emory University (M.Divinity) 1955; University of the Pacific for Child Psychology; Pepperdine University 1967 for Marriage Counseling; and University of Seattle 1995 gaining more hours toward a third doctorate. He holds additional doctoral degrees: Pol.D. (Doctor of Politics) from Chung-Ang (Central) University 1978 Seoul, Korea and Litt.D. (Doctor of Letters), Virginia Tech 1982.
Dr. Kennedy continues to attend sessions, seminars, and programs to remain current in the developments in his field. Seminars include Masters and Johnson "Counseling Sexual Problems," and seminars for physicians and counselors in hypnotherapy. In 1996 he studied with Dr. Edwin Friedman, author of Generation to Generation. In 1997, he studied with Dr. Dave Hilton (M.D., FAAFP) in "Healing and Wholeness in the Ministry of the Church." Dr. Kennedy gave the Distinguished Pritchard Lectures at Victory Home Rehabilitation Center in northern Georgia in 1997. The sixteen lectures dealt with "Positive Addiction," using his mentor Dr. William R. Glasser's book by that name.
"Of all the education I have received, studying the life and methods of the
Greatest Counselor, Jesus Christ, has been the most helpful and rewarding."
- Dr. Joseph B. Kennedy, Sr.
