FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Joanna Gerber Smith
Director of Public Relations & Communications
Phone: 310.578.1080 x119
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The LGBT Specialization in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University Receives Generous Donation of $20,000 to Establish the Sandra Golvin Memorial Scholarship Fund

Culver City-June 12, 2007--The LGBT Specialization in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University has recently received a generous donation from the Johnson Family Foundation to establish the Sandra Golvin LGBT Studies *Scholarship Fund for students enrolled in the LGBT Specialization in Clinical Psychology at the Master of Art's Program at Antioch University. Antioch University alumnus Paul Hokemeyer, J.D., Ph.D., (cand), who serves as an Advisory Trustee to the Johnson Family Foundation, has been instrumental in securing this grant. These funds will be awarded to LGBT specialization students enrolling in Fall 2007 based on academic achievement and LGBT community service.

The grant provides $20,000 for scholarships in 2007, plus $10,000 for fundraising efforts in 2007 and 2008. An additional $20,000 matching grant for scholarships will be provided if the Specialization can raise an additional $20,000 from other sources during 2007.

"This fundraiser will honor Paul's contribution to the area of LGBT mental health," says Dr. Douglas Sadownick, director of the specialization, licensed psychotherapist and award-winning author.

"It will also honor Sandra's help in launching the specialization, which we believe to be the first LGBT counseling program in the country. I am especially grateful to Paul and to Sandra for understanding how important psychology is to gay liberation, and to the Chair of the Psychology Program, Dr. Joy Turek, whose vision birthed this specialization."

Adds Paul Hokemeyer, "My experience at Antioch, being a student of Sandra's, helped me transform my view of non- hetero normative sexuality--I came to much more fully appreciate it as an expression of the richness and authenticity of the human soul. I am personally and professionally grateful for the opportunity to have studied with such a devoted and evolved human being and to Antioch for its commitment to honoring this visionary work by teaching students (gay and non-gay) to become LGBT-affirmative therapists."

A Fundraiser/"Teach-In" to raise matching funds and commemorate Sandra Golvin's lesbian activism as well as the specialization's first complete year is scheduled for Sunday, September 16, 1-3 p.m. at a home in Silver Lake. For more information on this contact
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The LGBT specialization began officially last year in July 2006 and has attracted a lively and diverse student body and has offered courses in the leading edge of LGBT affirmative theory and practice. It has provided community forums, roundtables and Performance art events. An Advisory Board of thirty individuals made up of community leaders in mental health, activism, entertainment and spirituality, and which includes Paul Hokemeyer, has been created to support the specialization's development and develop outreach with groups such as the Gay and Lesbian Center, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Minority AIDS Project,
Van Ness Recovery and Bienestar. Additionally, "Founder" Group of instructors meet regularly as a "think tank" for developing LGBT affirmative practice and curricula.

"We have been working for almost a decade to develop this specialization," adds Joy Turek, Ph.D., Chair person of Antioch's Clinical Psychology Program. "We hope to sensitize all our students to LGBT issues and thus enhance our overall curriculum, as well as to train student therapists, as well as licensed psychotherapists, how to work with the LGBT client community in affirmative and effective ways. Students will graduate with a skill set that will be invaluable to the community."

Antioch University President and Clinical Psychologist Dr. Neal King is excited about the new program and its ability to contribute back to the LGBT community. "It is an important development in the gay liberation movement for an institution of higher learning to seek to train student therapists how to become competent LGBT-affirmative therapists." says King, who will be inaugurated in October 2007. "By doing this, Antioch is sending a message to the community at large that LGBT liberation can be a progressive force for social change for all individuals."

Douglas Sadownick is a longtime instructor at Antioch is also a local psychotherapist, co-founder of Highways Performance Space and of the Institute for Contemporary Uranian Psychoanalysis. Sadownick's most recent scholarly article, published in the June issue
of Arts and Humanities, was "Teaching Literature Gay-Affirmatively: A Homosexual Individuation Story." His dissertation for Pacifica Graduate Institute involved a homosexual analysis of Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. He published two books, Sacred Lips of
the Bronx, and Sex Between Men: An Intimate History of the Sex Lives of Gay Men, Postwar to Present and covered the gay-beat at the L.A. Weekly during the 1990s.

The LGBT specialization core curriculum will feature five core classes, including LGBT History and Mythology, LGBT Multicultural Counseling, LGBT Affirmative Psychotherapy; LGBT Clinical and Community Issues and LGBT Field Studies Workshops on bisexuality, lesbian identity, addiction recovery, youth, aging and transgenderism have been held.

For more information please contact: Douglas Sadownick, Ph.D., L.M.F.T. (310-578-1080, 309) or at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

For more information about Antioch University Los Angeles, please visit our website at www.antiochla.edu

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