About the Founder of Morbrook Institute
Pro-bono Executive Director Lynn M. Jones, Ph.D. founded Morbrook Institutue in 1983.
Her tireless effort and selfless dedication
for twenty plus years immeasurably have made the City of Camarillo a better place
in which to live and work, and dramatically has improved the quality
of life for those who live and work here.
Nomination for Woman of the
Year, Camarillo Chamber of Commerce. January 2004.
Education
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Fielding Institute, 1989.
Masters in Counseling Psychology, LaVerne University, 1983.
Bachelors Degree in Pyschology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1981.
Licensure as a California Marriage, Family, Child Counselor (#MFC021739)
Certification in Hypnotherapy
Certification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming
Certification as an Approved Training Supervisor from the American Association of Marriage, Family Therapists
Approved Provider of Continuing Education Units for the California Board of Behavioral Sciences
Additional training in Gestalt therapy
Internships in each of the following:
- Child Abuse and Neglect
- Therapeutic Living for Children
- Seventh Day Adventist Hospital
- Private practice internship
Populations for her internships included :
- criminal adolescents
- abandoned children
- abused children
- incest survivors
- those with eating disorders
- clients and their families
- couples
- trauma survivors
- those who wanted to enhance the quality of their lives
Career
Dr. Jones has been a full-time therapist in private practice since
1983, while also serving as pro bono Executive Director of Morbrook Institute. She specializes in trauma therapy. She is also a speaker, writer, and therapist trainer and supervisor for Marriage Family Therapist interns. To date, she has trained and supervised nearly 200 interns.
Ventura County Star reporter Marjorie
Hernandez wrote of Dr. Jones:
When Lynn
Merrill Jones decided to open a women's domestic violence support group
in 1983, she had only two clients and an overwhelming desire to make a
difference.
Twenty years later, Jones' Morbrook Institute, a nonprofit
teaching facility for therapists that also provides pro bono and low-cost
counseling, helped more than 5,000 women, men and teens last year alone,
garnering its founder and executive director recognition as this year's
Camarillo Woman of the Year.
"It
was really phenomenal," said
Jones, 56. "It just blows my mind. I didn't mean for this to be as huge
as it is. I just wanted to help a few women and now it has expanded. I can't
believe how much it's grown."
--from "Chamber Names Ten to Receive Top Honors,"
Marjorie Hernandez, Ventura County Star. 31 January 2004
- Worked as director of the children's program at a YMCA. Started an after school program that included transportation.
- Hired by YMCA as a trainer for establishing after school programs across California.
- Worked with abused and criminal adolescents and their caretakers.
- Began low cost women’s support groups for battered, single mothers.
- Expanded low fee counseling services to trauma victims.
- Worked with survivors of physical and/or emotional trauma.
- Worked with adults having difficulty in relationships.
- Worked with troubled and/or abused children of all ages and their parents.
- Assisted in designing a government funded program to assist abused children.
- Served as an interventionist with families referred to protective services and developed programs for needed treatment services.
- Founded Morbrook Institute.
Upon learning of the traumatic events
of 9/11, Jones immediately offered
private sessions and group counseling sessions absolutely
free of charge, no strings attached, to all.
“Those who have been traumatized or who are fearful, should not have to work through theseissues alone
because of money problems,” she said.
Some of the many others who have been counseled for free or at low cost by Morbrook Institute therapists are:
- Survivors of the Northridge earthquake
- Relatives of victims of the Alaska Airlines crash
- Emergency Medical Technicians, Firefighters, Police Officers
- Children of divorced parents
- Those in mourning
- Victims of accidents, crimes, school violence, trauma. and tragedies
Awards
January 25, 2001 - Received “Ventura County Mental Health Professional of the Year” Award by the Camarillo Health Care District.
March 28, 2001 - Received the nationally recognized "Jefferson Award for Outstanding Community and Public Service" from the American Institute for Public Service, founded by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
March 7, 2004 - Received “Woman of the Year” Award from Camarillo Chamber of Commerce.
Life
Traumatized at birth that resulted in partial paralysis, Lynn Merrill Jones spent
the first thirteen years of her life in and out of Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles for corrective surgeries, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. She remains partially paralyzed.
She went on to overcome numerous other challenges and traumas throughout her life. These adversities have deepened her compassion for
and understanding of clients who are struggling to overcome their own adversities.
Says Jones:
"I know what it
is to climb up from the bottom, to do it on your own, to have everything
taken away, and come out the better for it. It’s
what I call ‘life reconstruction.’”
LA Times reporter David Kelly, in his feature story on Jones,
elaborated on her challenging formative years by quoting a childhood friend
of hers:
“She had a new cast every year, but I never saw her as handicapped. It
was a non-issue. Lynn didn't ever think she was handicapped. She's
a miraculous, wonderful person and she's still cool.”
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