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Returning fellow promotes focus on psychological well-being

David Kimweli

Returning fellow David Kimweli picked up where he left off two years ago, as a visiting assistant professor in the School of Education Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology.

Kimweli taught a summer-long graduate practicum in counseling psychology. He coached 11 students' counseling and therapy work in community hospitals, mental health institutions, and prisons.

Meanwhile, Kimweli gathered data from the IU Center for Human Growth for an upcoming book about psychological well-being. He hopes to publish in fall 2002, also using data collected from eastern Kentucky and other rural communities in the South.

Kimweli first taught the practicum as a visiting fellow in summer 1999. He said he was happy to return to IU, where mentoring colleagues have helped him to establish his career and welcomed his professional input.

"That's priceless," he said. "There is a very supportive environment here. I've been enriched very much and I've grown. Many of the professors in the department have taken time to help me and to make sure I was doing well."

Kimweli's students counseled clients in Bloomington, Indianapolis, Terre Haute, and as far away as Evansville. He reviewed their videotaped sessions and assigned written reports. They met one-on-one with him to discuss client issues and client-therapist relationships. As a supervisor, Kimweli drew from his own research in psychological well-being and prevention of mental illness.

He said his students were very smart. "They've challenged me and they keep me working hard. When you read their papers, you learn something."

Through all his research, Kimweli uses clinical data to determine how psychologists can improve therapy as a tool to maintain mental health. He has collected data from therapy sessions at the Psychological Testing Center in Lexington, Kentucky, since December 2000; and he has logged results from local children's IQ tests and standardization.

He did similar work at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana, from September to December 2000, where he established and directed the "Psychological Services Clinic," for the Psychology and Behavioral Science Department. While his dissertation work targeted community college attendees, the Louisiana Tech clinic serves the general public.

He tentatively plans to continue gathering data in Lexington this fall, but his well-being interests have become global. He wants to compare quality of life and psychological well-being in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the United States.

"We want to figure out which group is higher [in quality of life], and learn from them," he said. "People that are well can teach us a lot of how to be well. Psychology has lagged behind due to its focus on ill-being rather than well-being."

To that end, he has written a grant proposal to gather well-being data in Poland, beginning in summer 2002. He would take up to a one-year sabbatical to work there.

Kimweli credited mentors at the University of Kentucky in Lexington for guiding him into counseling studies. But he discovered his true calling while doing a pilot study for his dissertation, "Subjective well-being and gender-role development among Appalachians."

"I had an epiphany," he said. "I looked at the study and I said, 'this is what I am going to do.'"

Kimweli earned his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Kentucky last spring, following many years of related work in the United States, Europe, Africa, and South America.

He'd earned both a M.A. in counseling psychology and a M.P.A. from the State University of West Georgia in Carrolton, Georgia, in March 1989. His counseling psychology thesis, researched in Latin America, was titled "Spiritual Fulfillment: A Psychological Perspective."

This summer, Kimweli also kept busy studying for the counseling-psychologist licensure exam.

After teaching, counseling, grading and studying, he looked forward to promoting his own well-being by exploring Bloomington on foot.

He wanted to become familiar with Richmond, Indiana, too, where his daughter, Faith, will begin college this fall. The 16-year-old wants ultimately to study film production, but she plans to study English writing at Earlham College, for starters.

Faith's presence, in addition to her father's data gathering at IU Bloomington, ensures an ongoing Indiana connection to Kimweli. "So, I'll be coming back to visit Indiana a lot," he said.

He emphasized his gratitude toward IU mentors, Rex Stockton, Marianne H. Mitchell, Robert L. Gibson, Fritz Lieber, and Daniel Mueller, among others.

He also offered "nothing but accolades," for the IUB Faculty Fellows Program, saying he would recommend it to others. He appreciated having the opportunity to talk to other fellows at organized events. And, he said, he appreciated "the hospitality and the spirit of camaraderie that the FFP faculty and staff afforded the fellows."

"The willingness of FFP staff to mentor and to help, helped each of the fellows to adjust to IU campus life," he said. "I will always remember this program."

- Written by Regina Galer