Contact Information

Biography

Will W. Adams completed a B.S. at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, an M.A. in Psychology at West Georgia College, and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Duquesne University. He previously worked as a Clinical Fellow in Psychology at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Adams now serves as an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Duquesne University. He practiced psychotherapy for 35 years, before letting it go for family reasons. Dr. Adams also teaches meditation and leads ecopsychology workshops at Duquesne and beyond.

Dr. Adams is the author of the ecopsychology/ecospirituality book A Wild and Sacred Call: Nature-Psyche-Spirit (SUNY Press). His articles have appeared in The Humanistic Psychologist, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, ReVision, Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, Existential Analysis, and Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the two journals listed first. He is currently working on a new book that explores contemplative/meditative responses to trauma. Dr. Adams' special interests include ecopsychology, contemplative/meditative/mystical spirituality, and psychotherapy.

Dr. Adams works from a theoretical perspective that integrates hermeneutic phenomenology, relational psychoanalysis, Gestalt therapy, transpersonal psychology and contemplative spirituality (especially Zen Buddhism and Christian mysticism). He is blessed with a wonderful wife, daughter, son, two four-legged (canine) kids, and a home in the woods.

Education

  • Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Duquesne University, 1993
  • Clinical Psychology Internship, McLean
  • Hospital/Harvard Medical School, 1991
  • M.A., Psychology, West Georgia College, 1985
  • B.S., Business, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 1980

School

Dr. Adams is currently completing a book on ecopsychology by way of phenomenology and contemplative, transpersonal spirituality (Zen Buddhism and Christian mysticism). It is tentatively entitled A Wild & Sacred Call: Nature, Psyche, Spirit.

Undergraduate Courses

  • Psychology, Religion & Spirituality
  • Psychology and Nature
  • Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology
  • Psychology and Spirituality: Christian-Buddhist Dialogue--Honors

Doctoral Courses

  • Introcution to Psychotherapy
  • Philosophical Psychology: Buber & Gadamer
  • Psychology and Spirituality
  • Ecopsychology

(Only recent publications are listed - a list of faculty publications prior to 2010 can be found here)

Adams, W.W. (2020). COVID-19s fierce subversion of our supposed separateness: Cultivating life with and for all others. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Special Issue: COVID-19.

Adams, W.W. (2019.) Living life, practicing psychology. Reflexive musings on something (not so) obvious. The Humanistic Psychologist.

Adams, W. W. (2019). Nature-healing-body-healing-nature...: Embodied, relational, gestalt ecopsychology. In M.C. Clemmens (Ed.), Embodied relational gestalt: Theories and applications. Santa Cruz, CA: Gestalt Press.


Adams, W.W. (2018). Ecological Breakdown and Psycho-Spiritual Breakthrough: Christian Mysticism and Transpersonal Ecopsychology. In Gerard Magill & Jordan Potter (Eds.), Integral Ecology. Protecting Our Common Home. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishers.


Adams, W.W. (2016). Ecopsychology by way of phenomenology. In Fischer, C., Laubscher, L., and Brooke, R. (Eds.), The qualitative vision for psychology. An invitation to a human science approach. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.


Adams, W. W. (2015). Healing our dissociation from body and nature: Gestalt, Levinas, and earth's ethical call. British Gestalt Journal, 24(1).


Adams, W. W. (2014). Intimate responsivity as essence-calling-path-fruition: Eco(psycho)logical ethics via Zen Buddhist phenomenology. In D. Vakoch & F. Castrillion (Eds.), Ecopsychology, Phenomenology, and the Environment: The Experience of Nature. New York: Springer.

Adams, W. W. (2010). Basho's therapy for Narcissus: Nature as intimate other and transpersonal self. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 50(1), 38-64.

Adams, W. W. (2010). Intimate participation as our essence, calling, and path: Nonduality, Buddhist Psychology, and our ecological imperative. Revision, 31(3&4), 48-53.

Adams, W. W. (2010). Nature's participatory Psyche: A study of consciousness in the shared earth community. The Humanistic Psychologist, 38(1), 15-39.