Professional Background.
Dr. Claiborn is a Counseling and Forensic Psychologist licensed in Kansas and Missouri. He received his M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Vanderbilt University in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1975. His graduate research topics included alcoholism and group therapy, and he specialized in family therapy, interpersonal influence, and hypnosis. Dr. Claiborn has worked with couples, families, and individuals for over 45 years–in hospitals, in universities, and in private practice. He has taught graduate courses in psychotherapy, family therapy, psychological assessment, and hypnosis at Iowa State University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He has taught advanced psychiatric residents at the University of Kansas Medical Center, served as Director of Training in a university internship program and Director of Psychology at Charter Hospital, and published on the psychological assessment of couples and families. He has presented locally and nationally on such topics as personality disorders, transgender issues, innovative psychotherapy, psychopaths and serial murderers, workplace issues, and forensic assessment.
 

Dr. Claiborn has three times served as President of the Kansas Association of Professional Psychologists (now the Practice Division of the Kansas Psychological Association), he is a Past President of the Greater Kansas City Marriage and Family Therapy Association, and he is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), the Psychology Section of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology (SCPC). He currently serves as the Ethics Chair of the Kansas Psychological Association.
 

Psychotherapy Background.
Dr. Claiborn has received training from many influential psychotherapists, including Milton Erickson, Jay Haley, Cloe Madanes, Frank Farrelly, Salvador Minuchin, Jacob Moreno, Carl Rogers, James Masterson, Irvin Yalom, Marsha Linehan, Gregory Bateson, Virginia Satir, Carl Whittaker, Will Schutz, John Gray, Albert Ellis, and many others. He has taught family therapy, hypnosis, and the therapies of Milton Erickson and Frank Farrelly. He lectures on personality disorders (borderline and narcissistic), psychopaths and serial murderers, hypnosis, stress, forensic psychology, marital therapy, and treating difficult couples. Dr. Claiborn’s special interest is in interpersonal dynamics and particularly the different relationship styles of men and women.
 

Dr. Claiborn’s therapy style is eclectic, educational, active, compassionate, positive, and encouraging. He believes people are not victims, but that they can and do influence their fate. He uses humor, openness, and directness with his clients and respects their ability to make choices.
 

Forensic Psychology and Police Psychology.
In addition to his private practice of psychotherapy and organizational development, Dr. Claiborn has specialized in Forensic and Police Psychology for 35 years. He has served as an expert witness in criminal and civil litigation, and as a police psychologist for over 60 law enforcement agencies. His law enforcement client departments include the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Highway Patrol, the Sheriff’s Offices of Johnson, Douglas, Wyandotte, and Shawnee Counties, and a number of Kansas and Missouri police departments, including Olathe, Leawood, Lee’s Summit, Raytown, Lenexa, Shawnee, Leavenworth, Topeka, Kansas City Kansas, and Prairie Village. His security practice, Forensic Psychology Associates, also serves fire departments in Olathe, Shawnee, Kansas City Kansas, Lenexa, and Topeka, as well as school districts and colleges.
 

Dr. Claiborn has presented numerous workshops for bar associations, police academies, and human resource managers on such topics as workplace violence, the criminal mind, emotional survival for law enforcement officers, detection of lying and deception, ethics, risk assessment, child custody evaluations, personality styles at work, and differences between men and women in the workplace. Dr. Claiborn was an invited participant at the 2nd World Conference of Police Psychology at the FBI Academy in Quantico, and he has received advanced training from the Laboratory for Scientific Interrogation in Phoenix. He has been an Instructor at the Johnson County Kansas Regional Police Academy among others, and he has served as a member of the Olathe, Kansas Police Department’s Hostage Negotiation Team. He is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Society for Criminal and Police Psychology.

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