John A. O'Malley
Clinical Professor and Director of the Counseling and Educational Services Clinic (CESC)
What I do
I direct the counseling and therapy services of the Counseling and Educational Services Clinic at the University of Denver, where master's and doctoral students see their first clients. I teach and supervise counselors-in-training, focusing on clinical supervision, counselor development, professional ethics, and multicultural and social justice counseling. My clinical work focuses on couples using Emotionally Focused Therapy, and I care deeply that the models we teach students are the ones outcome research supports. I maintain a private practice in Colorado at omalleycounseling.com.Professional Biography
John O'Malley is a Clinical Professor at the University of Denver's Morgridge College of Education, where he directs the counseling and therapy services of the Counseling and Educational Services Clinic. He has spent much of his career building programs and then handing them to the people who carry them forward. He founded the Applied Psychology undergraduate program at Johnson & Wales University, was one of two founding faculty for DU's online school counseling program, and, as Department Chair at Regis University, helped lead the launch of that university's first PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision, building across the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels.
His clinical practice focuses on couples, grounded in Emotionally Focused Therapy. That commitment to evidence-based psychotherapy shapes how he sees the clinic: as a place where students learn models backed by real outcome data, and where that practice can be studied. His scholarship uses narrative inquiry to center lived experience, which he carries out through the LEAN Lab (Lived Experience and Narrative), drawing on people's accounts of learning and mental health to improve practice in both settings.
Degree(s)
- Ph.D., Counseling Education and Supervision , University of Wyoming , 2018
- M.Ed., Community Counseling , University of Nebraska Kearney , 2009
Licensure / Accreditations
- Licensed Professional Counselor
- Special Services Provider- School Counselor
- National Certified Counselor
Professional Affiliations
- American Counseling Association
