ABOUT

This is my third foray into blogging. Several years ago (2004 and again in 2010) I had a blog called Prodromal Sublimation, partly out of curiosity and partly as an experiment of sorts. I have always been fascinated by the internet and online social media and communication. I remember being exposed to the internet for the first time in graduate school when it was text based (orange text on a black background on a 12 inch monitor). I was initially content just to browse baseball box scores and to play the game Zork. Then I progressed to America Online and the sounds of a fax modem dialing with hopes that the screeching sounds would not be met with a busy signal. I can remember waiting minutes for a single image to download and thinking that I was master of the World Wide Web. Now we can surf the web almost anywhere without wires and get quite miffed when there isn’t quality Wi-Fi or 5G coverage.

Following my retirement from a position within a community mental health center, I decided that I had time to try blogging again. I have often debated the idea whether others would be interested in what I have to write or in what interests me but I keep having encounters and conversations that suggest I may have something to share that at best could be meaningful or entertaining to others or at worst (hopefully) just a mild nuisance.

I have held a rather interesting job for the last twenty five plus years (I’m a clinical psychologist for those of you who don’t own the home version of the game). On a very basic level, my job worked essentially like this: People came to my office and shared some of the deepest, darkest things about themselves that they don’t typically talk about and told them to a stranger (me) whom they knew very little about and then waited for that stranger (me) to make what they hoped would be profound, insightful, comforting, or encouraging comments that would start the process of healing. I’m often asked how one does this all day long, listen to people at their worst and be expected offer some sort of hope. The short answer is that I was no good at the family business of auto body repair; the long answer is much longer. Since I have spent many of my days these last twenty five plus years sharing things with people that may or not have been helpful to them, I figure I might as well keep doing it, just in another medium. If nothing else it will keep me in practice and possibly it might even give you something to do for a few minutes.

I have named my latest blog Certifiable with Dr. Jeff Drury. A main focus of my clinical practice was in forensic psychology where I conducted competency to stand trial and criminal responsibility evaluations (sometimes certifying people as not guilty by reason of insanity). I am also licensed (or certified) to practice as a clinical psychologist, a role in which I sometimes certify people as having mental illness. The title of my blog is a fun play on words.

It is my plan to share my various ramblings, rants, and reflections on life. I will also be sharing and highlighting some of the creative things you can do with Artificial Intelligence such as poems, stories, songs, and images.

I currently live in Maysville KY with my lovely wife (Cathie) of 33 years. We are empty nesters with sons in Florence and Lexington KY. My sons have way cooler jobs than I ever will as our oldest, Zachary, works for a minor league baseball team and our youngest, Nicholas, helps run the day to day operations of an airport. Although I am technically a retiree, I continue to provide clinical supervision, clinical consultation, and teaching to those in and entering the mental health field.

I was born and raised in Lawrenceburg KY. In addition to Lawrenceburg, I have lived in Lexington KY; St. Louis MO; Memphis TN; Mayslick KY; and Maysville KY.

I am a graduate of Anderson County High School, the University of Kentucky (B.S.), and Saint Louis University (M.S. and Ph.D.). I completed a year long doctoral internship at the Memphis VA Medical Center where I received specialty training in neuropsychology, health psychology, and consultation-liaision psychology. My senior honor’s thesis, master’s thesis, and doctoral dissertation each explored the application of the five factor model of personality with respect to personality disorders, academic achievement, and malingering respectively. For the initiated, I am high in O, high in C, low in E, moderate in A, and low in N.