About Edd

Edd is a family therapist who for more than twenty years has worked to bring the skills, knowledge and expertise of several psychotherapeutic disciplines into non-traditional settings in addition to his work as a private practitioner.

A vital part of his practice also has involved coaching individuals who work and live under enormous pressure and excel in highly stressful settings - hi-tech companies in Silicon Valley, international law firms, non-profit organizations, federal agencies and philanthropic foundations. He focused his efforts on helping these stellar performers implement successful strategies for developing the emotional clarity and critical thinking essential for effective action. Edd has also designed and implemented leadership development programs for young emerging leaders in public-benefit organizations, as well as social-emotional intelligence and compassionate listening trainings.

Prior to developing his consulting practice, Edd worked in the performance psychology field helping elite athletes and their coaches manage the many stressors - both on and off the field - that came into play as they prepared for major competitions. These clients included several world champion professional athletes, Olympians, All-American collegiate athletes, and younger competitors and their families in a wide variety of athletic and other performance settings.

Edd was also a contract writer for the Chevron Corporation, headquartered in San Ramon, California.  While taking on a wide variety of writing assignments for their Government Affairs and Public Policy Division, he wrote primarily about corporate responsibility and philanthropic initiatives, especially those in West Africa.  Additionally, Edd has co-authored several articles about emotional intelligence in the workplace for The Annals, a quarterly publication of the American Psychotherapy Association.  

Currently, Edd resides in Philadelphia where he is a member of the Planning Committee of the Philadelphia Interfaith Walk for Peace and Reconciliation where he maintains their website and blog. Edd is also collaborating with noted sociologist of religion, Dr. Katie Day, from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia on an on-going ethnographic study, Faith on the Avenue, that is documenting the transformation of commercial space into sacred space on Germantown Avenue, a major avenue in the city that dates to colonial days. 

Recently, Edd joined the advisory board of See Change, an innovative evaluation firm that allows philanthropic and public benefit organizations to distill their visual ethnographic findings into usable knowledge and see the change they are creating in the world.

In 2006 Edd was designated a Fellow with The Whitman Institute in San Francisco, California. In that capacity he convened monthly "Funder Reflections" - a dialogue process he designed and implemented in which Bay Area philanthropists, program officers, and board members come together to engage a deep, long-term dialogue focused on many of the underlying emotional aspects of mindful philanthropy.

Before joining the Council for Relationships, Edd was a Clinical Supervisor in a foster care agency that serves abused and neglected children and their families throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. Over the course of his practice, he has worked with both teenagers and adults who have survived significant traumas in their lives.

Edd completed his undergraduate studies in Philosophy at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland, and his graduate work in Counseling Psychology with a dual emphasis in Family Therapy and School Counseling at San Francisco State University. His training also included a year of post-master's studies in Family Therapy at the California School of Professional Psychology in Berkeley, California.