Directory

Bethany Simmons, Ph.D. is currently an Associate Professor and Program Director of the M.S. Counseling Psychology Marital and Family Therapy (MFT) Program at California Lutheran University. She has been teaching graduate students for over 15 years. She is a Louisiana Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Board Approved Supervisor, Licensed Professional Counselor, and an AAMFT Approved Supervisor and Mentor.  Her current research and scholarship is focused on examining epistemological premises and clinical training practices by applying systemic, cybernetic and social constructionist theories to broader social/political/cultural contexts to understand and address social justice issues around social responsibility, power, privilege, social control, race relations, cultural diversity and mental health practices, particularly with oppressed, marginalized and vulnerable populations through conceptual, theoretical, clinical and qualitative research. Dr. Simmons also has clinical experience working in adult and juvenile inpatient psychiatric hospitals, intensive outpatient programs, and private practice clinical settings. She works with a diverse clientele seeking assistance with a range of life’s challenges. She believes in the potential and abilities of all human beings and their relationships, approaching therapy with hopefulness, resourcefulness, respect, and creativity. Recently, Dr. Simmons is the founder of the Big Systems Collective Consulting Group. The Big Systems Collective (BSC) is a diverse group of Marriage and Family Therapists from across the United States committed to creating systemic and structural change through cybernetic action.  These agents of social change, rather than social control, are reinventing the think tank to dismantle and reorganize larger social systems and contexts in society that perpetuate and maintain pathology and oppression.  Through individual action in practice at the local level and collectively combining efforts at a national scale, this group is activating change across micro and macro systems in the mental health care system, academic institutions, government systems and revolutionizing how the public makes sense of and participates in these systems.  

Fischbach, S., Simmons, B., Puls, C. & Hill, A. (2021). Consumer health and well-being: Case study on military couple financial resiliency. Peer reviewed paper