Sam’s greatest joy is his family. He and his wife Lori share five children and nine grand children. Sam enjoys spending time with them and doing any of a variety activities with them. Sam enjoys almost anything outdoors including fishing, camping, back-backing and many water sport activities. In recent years he has been involved with long distance open water swimming and when he has time, he enjoys training triathletes to swim efficiently.
Sam brings many years of experience to the Daniels team. Sam started his path to becoming a therapist in a roundabout way. Sam’s desire to assist others and his interest in science lead him to the field of exercise physiology where after receiving a bachelor’s degree he completed course work toward a masters degree. Because of an injury he changed fields and received a second bachelor’s degree in an engineering field and worked in engineering in aerospace. After working in aerospace, for a few years, he discovered his true passion was not in that field and found that passion was in the field of family therapy and working with adolescents. Returning to graduate school Sam received a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Brigham Young University. Sam has also received intensive training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
Sam started his career as a therapist in residential treatment with adolescents in 1990. He worked in a variety of settings over the years including outpatient therapy, day treatment and acute inpatient treatment. Sam was a clinical director in a residential program for several years however he prefers and is most passionate about working directly with the students and their families. He has worked with a variety of individuals and families with a variety of challenges. Sam finds the most enjoyment in working with adolescents on the Autism Spectrum and their families and is very excited about the opportunity to work with the students and families at Daniel’s Academy.
