Joann Peterson

Personal and Professional Development

Born premature and abandoned at birth, she struggled with physical developmental challenges as a child; she experienced chronic, unrelenting pain every day of her adult life. Rather than succumb to a passive life of victimhood, she worked with her challenges, and excelled academically. Her own experiences of suffering gave her particular insight and empathy for others with difficulties, and she was known as a caring, empathetic counsellor and teacher. But she was also disciplined and rigorous, and expected her students to embrace personal responsibility without complaint, as she had done.

Career

Peterson earned a B.A. at Willamette University (1956), M.S.W. at University of Washington (1958), Dip.C. from the Haven Institute (1990) and Ph.D. from the Open International University (2000). She did some of the pioneering work in the field of child sex abuse in San Diego, CA. Later, she was a key figure in the development of mental health services in Bellingham, Washington. She left private clinical practice to assume the position of Director of Education at the Haven Institute on Gabriola Island, B.C. Canada in 1990, and held this position until her death in early 2007. Peterson developed and led a wide variety of groups for The Haven. She collaborated with Bennet Wong and Jock McKeen for over thirty years. She facilitated personal and professional development seminars throughout North America and Southeast Asia . Her last book was translated into Chinese in Taiwan.

Child Sex Abuse

Abused in her adoptive family, she had a special affection and ability with youngsters who were undergoing physical, emotional or sexual abuse. She wrote about her experiences, and contributed much to the field in this domain. She taught seminars for individuals and couples in the area of human sexuality.

Family Therapy

Her clinical work focused on families in crisis. She served as a consultant for agencies and trained professionals in psychology and social work for over 40 years. She authored numerous articles, and wrote many research grants in the field of child abuse prevention.

Responsible Anger

Peterson authored two books and a DVD about responsible anger expression. Based on the Anger, Boundaries and Safety workshop she developed and led over 15 years, her writing on anger emphasizes the benefits to physical and mental health, and to relationships, of the non-violent, boundaried expression of anger.

Human Dialogue

In her work, she was always focussed on helping individuals and families to come into human dialogue with each other, overcoming the distances created by objectification. She wrote and taught about separation and loss, mirroring, boundaries and depression. She designed an experiential workshop entitled "Disengaging Depression" which was based on her staunch belief that people can overcome psychological and physical difficulties through courage and personal responsibility.

Violence abounds, both at the micro and macro level. In relationships, and in communities and countries around the world, people are living out violence and naming it anger. This is evident in the blatant, abhorrent behaviors that are intended to be retaliative, to do harm, and to control. In this violence people are turned into labels, roles and objects, and contact with the person is lost. An enemy is created. Paranoia grows, and our humanity suffers an erosion at the level of the soul. Ultimately we distance from our evolutionary energy of human connection. And in this disconnection we experience an acute, pervasive loneliness and isolation.

Publications