A mercurial clinician and designer of behavioral health systems.
Philip embodies dualities; an artist and a gentleman, hunter and communitarian, and an old soul who likes to laugh. He is co-director of a behavioral health consultancy in Wisconsin that provides training, technical assistance, and program design for collaborative systems of care supporting vulnerable children and families, individuals, and persons struggling with addiction. His gift is bringing conflicting interest groups to the table to solve problems -- from single families to entire systems across the state -- reading the currents of motivation and bringing them into service.
PERSONAL HISTORY
Philip is from an old family in the deep South with a full array of Faulknerian characters, attuned, as his grandfather would say, to the thin veneer of civilization. He was raised by a mother who was an acclaimed artist and father was a military officer. His early years were spent in Turkey and then near Oxford, England where his father studied theology. This is where Philip acquired a taste for archaic religions, depth psychology, and a longing for a place to call home. His career path crystalized in middle school around analytical psychology.
He completed undergraduate studies in psychology and art, then graduate studies in psychology and religion at the Chicago Theological Seminary where he was mentored by Robert Moore, Ph.D. Jungian analysist and author of King, Magician Warrior, Lover; Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine. Researching the dimensions of mature masculinity, as well as ritual and rites of passage, they formed a men’s group, “The Brothers of Mary Magdeline.” Philip began his clinical work at the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago and picked up another degree in clinical social work at Loyola University. He was drawn to the way environments can be artfully cultivated to bring people into wholeness of Self.
Contact
➤ LOCATION
N727 County CH
Coloma, WI 54930
☎ CONTACT
philip.robinson@
whitepineconsulting.org
(920) 896-3353
PATH OF DISCOVERY & professional work
Remaining true to his application of Jungian dreamwork, he passed up his supervisor’s offer to inherit an established, thriving clinic in Highland Park, IL and moved to the wilderness of Wisconsin. The dreams he followed made no sense until his work came to fruition 15 years later. In the Sand Counties of Central WI, he found himself steeped in the land ethic of Aldo Leopold and spiritual vision of John Muir. This is where he began to cultivate multidimensional systems through impoverished communities, realigning scarce resources into programs and services to support behavioral health programs. His recovery vision for communities became the Greenhouse for the Mind.
Philip has served in leadership roles across county administrations, state agencies, and federally qualified health centers. He enjoys convening disparate groups that improve our continuum of behavioral health services to support thriving communities. He chairs the Children Come First Advisory Committee which leads systems change initiatives in WI and serves as board president of the Center for Community Regeneration, an NGO that focuses on sustainable, farmland restoration in Kenya. His philosophy and approach to program integration can be found in the document Autonomy and Recovery in Community; a Framework for the Integration of Community Mental Health Services. The legacy of this developmental model can be found in President Obama’s scrap book of accomplishments housed in the presidential library under “Promised Neighborhoods.” This framework has informed systems from county services to federally qualified health centers, from medication assisted treatment models for opiate addiction to integrative medicine programs as well as a Health and Economic Development Summit, and recently the Childrens Mental Health System of Care Summit where he was asked to present a first ever Annual System of Care Champion Award to recognize the best of public service in mental health innovation.
“Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient.
A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community.
It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”