Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 4, Number 8, 1 August 1987 — Forest Has Strong Credentials [ARTICLE]

Forest Has Strong Credentials

The Forest Institute of Professional Psychology, whieh had its modest beginnings in 1981 at 2424 Pali Highway, is now firmly entrenched as the second largest trainer of pscyhologists in the country. Its Hawaii campus is now located in downtown Honolulu at 1088 Bishop St., Suite 912, telephone 523-2888. It was founded by Dr. Robert Woliver, 40, who has been a shipwright, boatbuilder, sailing instructor, tennis pro, charter boat operator, navigator, college professor, author, psychologist and psychotherapist.

Dr. Woliver is the son of a Cincinnati, Ohio, surgeon, Dr.Edward and Esther Woliver. He eame to Hawaii in 1974 after sailing his boat here and "I fell in love with the plaee." He and his wife, Akiko, whom he married in 1975, are professionals. She has a degree in accounting and he has a Ph.D in psychology from the University of Hawaii.

From the school's humble opening on Sept. 20, 1981, Dr. Woliver, his faculty and students faced incredible difficulties in establishing an accredited program in Hawaii. However, they managed to overcome these obstacles, including some resistance from the more established psychology program at UH, and merged their small school into the Forest system to subsequently become the second largest trainer of psychologists in the country. Being part of the Forest system affords many opportunities to loeal students that they would not otherwise have. This includes the ability to receive instruction from outstanding professors on the mainland and to even take part of their training on the mainland if they so desire.

For the first time in Hawaii, there is another plaee to obtain a doctorate in psychology. Training at Forest has a practitioner orientation rather than a scientist-researcher-practitioner orientation. Forest's PsyD degree denotes a professional psychologist trained to deliver services rather than the traditional PhD, Doctor of Philosophy trained to deliver services rather than the traditional PhD, Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology. The PhD has historically denoted a research degree that is awarded in many fields.

Dr. Woliver surrounded himself with a group of outstanding psychologists, including Dr. Raymond B. Cattell, the most published man in the field of psychology. The emphasis at Forest is to train loeal students to help solve loeal problems. The school is a private non-profit organization, meaning no cost to the taxpayer. Because of its tie-in with the Forest system, significant capital has been infused from and out of state business. Information for this story was provided by Conni Bradshaw, administrative assistant.