Licensed Psychologist
Field Research, Academic Papers and Publications
LeFan, James H.
Stressful Life Experiences and Life Satisfaction: An Examination of the Moderating Influence of Expressive and Instrumental Personality Attributes and Coping Skills. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Spring 1985.
Hood, D.E., LeFan, James H.
Audit Report of the U.S. Federal District Court Ordered Desegregation of the Dallas Independent School District, 1983-84. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, as requested by U.S. District Judge Harold Barefoot Sanders, July 1984.
Hood, D.E., LeFan, James H., Blue, J., West, J.
Audit Report of the U.S. Federal District Court Ordered Desegregation of the Dallas Independent School District, 1982-83. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, as requested by U.S. District Judge Harold Barefoot Sanders, July 1983.
LeFan, James H.
An Evaluation of Day Care Centers Based on a Model Established From an Investigation of the Relationship of the Father’s Personality Traits and His Interactional Involvement With His Child. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, May 1982.
LeFan, James H., Aronson, E., Helmreich, R. L.
“To Err is Humanizing…Sometimes: Effects of self-esteem, incompetence, and pratfall on interpersonal attractions.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 16, 1970, pp. 259-264.
LeFan, James H.
Behavior Observer’s Manual. Office of Naval Research Technical Report, 1970.
LeFan, James H.
University of Texas at Galveston Medical E.L. Bechman (ed.) School Report (in press), 1971.
LeFan, James H., Huber, C., Mach, R., Smith, M., and Ramhaut
“Determination of Total Daily Energy Expenditure Via High Density Time Sampling of Posture of Movement.” NASA Technical Report, 1971.
LeFan, James H., Helmreich, R.L., Bakerman, R., Radloff, R.
“The TEKTITE II Human Behavior Program.” JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 1972, 2, 13.
Research Papers
Professional Experience
Licensed Psychologist
June 1988 to Present
Private Practice, Austin, Texas
Provide individual psychotherapeutic counseling for children and adults; Provide psychotherapeutic counseling for couples regarding relationships and marriage; Provide group psychotherapeutic counseling for adults with common concerns and terminal illnesses; Conduct psychological evaluations and psycho-educational assessments for children, from six years of age through adolescents, and adults. This includes the evaluation of intellectual academic, and memory functions, as well as thorough assessments of personality and emotional functioning; Provide courtroom testimony as an expert witness; Provide contract psychotherapy through The Brown Schools/The Oaks Psychiatric Clinic (RTC); Community Supervision & Travis County D.O.C., Dept of Approved Sex-Offender Therapist; Victim Services Division, Austin Police Department; HIV Wellness Center; Texas Dept. of Mental Health & Mental Retardation/Living Centers of America Group Homes; Caring Family Network; Mary Wood Foster Homes. His hospital Privileges in Austin, Texas include Charter Psychiatric Hospital; Shoal Creek Hospital; The Pavilion at St. David’s Hospital; Texas State Hospital; Breckenridge Hospital
Clinical Director, Psychologist
October 1997 to June 2001
The Oaks Psychiatric Health System, Austin, Texas
Provide effective, efficient, and focused individual group and family psychotherapy to meet the needs of an adolescent and young adult population; Provide supervision of case progress through professional communication regarding the patient or resident’s planned course of treatment; Key responsibilities included to plan, deliver, and document clinically efficient and focused individual, group, family psychotherapy, and case management details; Deliver and document new patient or resident admissions, providing clinically appropriate diagnostic assessments, case formulations, and treatment recommendations; Coordinate and perform all clinically and administratively necessary functions to support admission, continued staff and discharge planning through effective and efficient case management; Attend, participate, and lead ‘Core Team’ and ‘Peer Supervision’ or other appropriate treatment team interface activities, including but not limited to training, staffing, and other duties; Provide all psychological and psycho-educational evaluations, and educational assessments on all medical model patients and residents.
Psychological Associate, Co-Therapist
August 1987 to May 1988
Private Practice with Sherry Payne, PhD, Austin, Texas
Post-doctoral supervised clinical experience in Austin, Texas to provide individual psychotherapeutic counseling for children and adults; Provide psychotherapist counseling for couples regarding relationships and marriage; Conduct psychological evaluations and assessments; Assist in the development of a therapeutic program to help sexually abused children, entitled Project S.E.Y. (Sexually Exploited Youth).
Psychological Associate
January1987 to October 1987
Travis Co. State School for the Mentally Retarded, Austin, Texas
Post-doctoral experience supervised by Robert Mittank, PhD, in Austin, Texas to provide individual and group psychotherapeutic counseling; Attend and participate as part of the interdisciplinary team in meetings to develop programs for clients; Conduct psychological evaluations, including but not limited to diagnostic interviews, intelligence testing, personality testing, and neuropsychological testing.
Regional Monitoring Psychologist
January1986 to June 1988
Texas Dept. of Mental Health & Mental Retardation, Austin, Texas
Monitor and evaluate mental health and residential living programs of individuals who were relocated from State Hospitals and State Schools into communities throughout a six county region of Texas.
Psychologist
January 1982 to January 1986
Educational Testing Service, Austin, Texas
Participate as a member of Audit Team responsible for evaluation of the U.S. Federal District Court’s ordered desegregation of the Dallas Independent School District (DISD). Key Responsibilities included, but not limited to comprehensive evaluation of the talented and gifted program throughout the DISD; Determine the effects of busing students to desegregated facilities; Evaluate curriculum and instruction including the Bilingual or English-as-a-Second-Language programs; Evaluate longitudinal achievement trends in the DISD; Evaluate special programs implemented to assist students scoring below the 30th percentile on nationally standardized tests; Evaluate allocation of funds to facilitate desegregation; Evaluate the effects of personnel assignment, reassignment, and turnover due to budget cutbacks; Evaluate resources allocated for textbooks, supplies, and materials; Evaluate condition of facilities, including structural and acoustical conditions; Coordinate the federal court ordered evaluation with outside interest groups including the DISD Superintendent and other district administrators, DISD School Board, The Black Coalition to Maximize Education; The NAACP, parent organizations, as well as the general public. Responsible for marketing a computer-assisted career guidance system developed for colleges and universities called System of Interactive Guidance and Information(SIGI). Other duties include: collect, organize, code, transfer, and analyze data, coordinate discrete phases or research projects (e.g. budgeting, scheduling, testing, data collection, coding, and analysis of activities of support and field staff), and assist in arranging seminars and workshops.
Consulting Psychologist
January 1982 to January 1986
Gonzales Group Home for the Mentally Retarded, Gonzales, Texas
Duties include to Administer, score, and interpret appropriate psychometric testing (e.g. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Vineland Social Maturity Scale, and selected projective techniques such as Rorschach); Prepare written reports of test results and interviews, making recommendations for their treatment, care and training of individual clients in order to achieve maximum potential for development; Counsel with the client and/or family concerning behavioral problems in group home adjustment; Conduct staff development classes on behavior observation skills and communication skills.
Teaching Assistant
September 1980 to January 1982
The University of Texas, Austin, Texas
Serve in the psychology department with increasing responsibility. Independently performed data collection, analysis, and assisted in writing final report on investigation of sibling tutoring and learning; Participated in evaluation of community health centers throughout the United States; Assisted in preparing lectures and instructing undergraduate course in statistical methods in program evaluation; Assisted in preparing lecture and instructing graduate courses in mental health evaluation; Assisted in preparing lectures and instructing graduate courses in program evaluation techniques.
Assistant Director of Student Life and Training
September 1979 to September 1980
Travis State School, Austin, Texas
Qualified mental retardation professional duties included: daily monitoring of clients programs to insure compliance with ICF-MR standards, TDMHMR Commissioner’s Rules on MR code, and Behavior Characteristics Progression. Coordinated monitoring with the Director of Student Compliance, Campus Behavior Characteristic Progression Coordinator, and Assistant Superintendent. Acted as Department Head during absence of Unity Director. Reviewed and insured that all necessary reporting was done on all injuries. Completed surveys requested by Administration. Served as chairperson for interdisciplinary staffing. Interviewed and screened MHMR Aide applicants with authority to hire or reject these prospective employees. Organized and directed the Dorm Management Program for the proper care and treatment of all clients within the unit. Coordinated the operation of the Dorm Management Program with department heads of their representatives. Insured that all dorm personnel carried out all the procedures and regulations prescribed by the medical staff. Formulated and implemented approved policies, techniques, procedures, rules and regulations applicable to all phases of dorm management care in the Institution. Made regular dorm rounds to ensure compliance with policy. Developed and implemented adequate reporting systems to provide accurate information regarding all activities of the Dorm Management Program, relative to personnel and clients. Worked closely with Staff Development, as necessary, in the development, coordination, and presentation, of in-service training programs for direct care personnel, to ensure that proper techniques were employed to provide an acceptable standard of care and retreatment for all clients. Kept informed of latest developments in care and treatment in the field of mental retardation and implemented or recommended new techniques, methods, and procedures where indicated for the Institution. Assisted in preparation of an annual report of the activities of the Dorm Management Program. Provided direct supervision and guidance for Social Workers and Psychologists assigned to the Unit with regard to quality and quantity of work production. Studied and obtained all necessary statements and completed all preliminary investigation on employees to Administration for concurrence as to what action should be taken. Developed work schedules to ensure proper personnel coverage of all dormitories at all times. Serves as Coordinator of Diagnostic and Evaluation Assessment Team. The Assessment Team was composed of Psychologists, Social Workers, medical Personnel and Educational Personnel.
Psychologist Trainee
June 1977 to July 1979
Organized Health Services Training in Psychology Internship at Travis State School, Austin, Texas
Assisted programming needs; formulated program proposal; implemented programs including the training of attendant personnel, procured supplies for training, and monitoring personnel performance, gathered information about program effectiveness based on the results of psychological testing and informal behavioral observation. Psychological Evaluations: administered, scored, and interpreted appropriate psychometric tests; prepared written reports of test results and interviews, making recommendations for the treatment, care, and training of the clients; counseled with the clients and/or family concerning behavioral problems in dormitory adjustment; conducted and participated in research projects using psychometric data; and insured that a sufficient number of clients were evaluated yearly. Participated in and contributed to regularly scheduled staffing meetings with representatives of other professional disciplines. Made specific recommendations for individual clients in order to achieve maximum potential for development. Evaluated emotional adjustment of clients. Determined level of adaptive behavior. Made recommendations on advisability of admission and on proper dormitory placement. Maintained professional standards by meeting with Coordinator of Psychological Services on a regularly scheduled basis, and by keeping informed of at latest developments in mental retardation. Member of the Behavior Therapy Modification Committee and of the Committee for Sex Education and Birth Control for the Mentally Retarded.
Vice-President/Director
June 1974 to July 1977
Cybersystems, Inc., Huntsville, Alabama
Developed and directed entire marketing division for growing corporation. Prepared all advertising brochures to accompany products developed by corporation. Conducted EEG/Biofeedback relation therapy with epileptic patients, under the auspices of licensed neurologist. Conducted biofeedback therapy (delta-temperature) with neurologist. Prepared program for deep muscle relaxation handbook to accompany relaxation recording. Developed concept for use of biofeedback devices as an adjunct to therapy in mental health centers. Developed Enuresis alarm system with disposable conductive matrix.
Human Factors Psychologist
June 1971 to June 1974
US/MATRIX Company, Huntsville, Alabama
Generated principles and guidelines for an artificial gravity environment in an orbiting space craft to insure maximum crew safety and minimize otolithic disorientation. Generated requirements for space suit pre-breathing for various cabin atmospheres. Prepared summary of state-of-the-art space tool, and aids for orbital extravehicular activity applications. Generated a description of space craft environmental facto which can be expected to influence work performance, including expected effect on work performance and the feasibility of ground testing. Developed means to identify tasks on which Observational Performance Testing can be used to measure the effects of the space craft environment on crew performance. Prepared crew activity analysis for Space Shuttle and Space Station-on-Orbit operations including piloting, off-duty and habitability functions. Examined experiment Shuttle, and Shuttle payload operations, for tasks to be monitored through Observation Performance Testing to meet the Objectives of proposed flight experiments. Conducted detailed review of documentation relating work performance to environmental and operational factors. Prepared classification and description (including performance characteristics) of zero gravity work aids. Designed a series of performance changes resulting from factors peculiar to the space environment.
Social Science Associate II
1970 to 1971
The University of Texas, Austin Texas
Conducted in-depth analysis of data collected during Project TEKTITE II.
Behavior Observer Supervisor
1969 to 1970
Project TEKTITE II, U.S. Virgin Islands
Supervised collection of behavioral data during underwater project sponsored by the Department of Interior, Office of Navy Research, NASA, and the University of Texas at Austin. Conducted aquanauts familiarization sessions of the TEKTITE II behavior program. Conducted pretesting of aquanauts prior to TEKTITE missions. Conducted debriefing of aquanauts following TEKTITE II missions.
Social Science Research Associate
1969 to 1970
The University of Texas, Austin Texas
Developed a behavior observer’s manual for comprehensive data collection of human behavior during project TEKTITE II. Assisted in design of study on energy expenditure during Project TEKTITE II. Established training program generated data collection requirements based on task taxonomy for general application to human behavior during TEKTITE II Minitat Program. Assisted in Final Analyses of Project TEKTITE II Behavioral data. Designed apparatus and facilities for assessment of behavioral interpersonal attraction.