Meet the experts

Dr. Patrice Berry is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 15 years of clinical experience. She specializes in treating children, families, and adults with histories of trauma, adoption, depression, anxiety, and adjustment/life-stage issues. She provides outpatient therapy, psychological testing, life/business coaching, and her background includes overseeing a school-based therapeutic program for middle and high school students. Dr. Berry also has a YouTube channel where she provides educational videos for children and families. Her YouTube channel was born after noticing that many of her clients struggled to find time to read book recommendations but would follow through with watching brief YouTube videos.

Heide Rathbun has extensive experience working with active-duty service members, veterans, and their families. Upon graduating from  Baylor University’s MSW program, Heide worked as a research therapist for Strong Star at Ft. Hood through the University of Texas Health Science Center. Heide’s work at Ft. Hood focused on treating PTSD in an Active-Duty population and supporting a prevention program geared towards service members and their families during the cycle of deployment. As a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), Heide has worked in Chicago with Veterans/PTSD at the Road Home Program that is funded by the Wounded Warrior Project. Heide has clinical expertise in Prolonged Exposure Therapy for PTSD, Prolonged Exposure Therapy for PTSD using a Web-based Program, Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD, CBT for Insomnia, Complicated Grief Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and DBT.

David Schel is a nationally recognized figure in marriage strengthening and divorce reduction.
He’s the founder of Kids Against Divorce; through which he created The Marriage Education Act; legislation designed to treat a marriage license as most other state issued licenses and require a minimal level of education. The MEA has been discussed on national television news programs as well as in newspapers and on radio shows throughout the country. David has experienced divorce in all its forms - as a son, a brother, a nephew, an uncle, a husband, a stepfather, and father. His first novel, Without A Chair, is used as a companion to the textbook when discussing divorce in an upper-level Adolescent Development class at a major midwestern university. Along with Dr. Julie Campbell, David co-created the Difficult Discussions about Divorce Workshop for college students as well as a university class titled Divorce as a Phenomenon. He co-instructs both. Together, he and Dr. Campbell created Divorce As a Course, a community of educators with a shared goal of seeing divorce taught at every college and university. Guilty of Innocence, the sequel to Without a Chair, will be out in 2025. David’s latest project, GETWED, a socially responsible partnership between Engaged Couples, Marriage Education Providers & Wedding Vendors is in development and scheduled to launch in 2024.