Our Spotlight this month is on longtime resident, Marianne de Deughd, doctorate of ministry in psychology and counseling, avid reader, and author.
Marianne grew up in Dordrecht, Holland and had her education through secondary school there. She and her family later emigrated to Canada where they lived for twenty years. After moving to Ft. Myers, Marianne pursued her education in psychology earning her undergraduate and Master’s degrees. She began her counseling career here, and because of her insightful ability to connect so well with her clients, her colleagues encouraged her to study for her doctorate in psychology. And study she did.
Marianne continued her private counseling, but she took her skills to the next level-prisons! For several years, Marianne traveled between Hendry County Correctional, Charlotte County Correctional, and DeSoto Annex-State Prison, all men’s prisons. Her counseling was attended by small groups of 16 or so to 100 at a time depending on the topic and interests of the inmates. Marianne would ask what issues she could address and then developed plans on how to prepare and present them. Marianne found that a skit, a funny hat or cookies sometimes helped to break the ice. But it was her counseling techniques that touched the inmates’ hearts and souls and psyches.
Marianne also traveled to Broward County Correctional to counsel at the women’s prison there. She found that the women were angrier than the men and were not as receptive to her as were the more adaptable men. However, she persevered there as well.
Of course guards were always present at the sessions, but the inmates did not lose control while she was with them, and she was never afraid.
To further understand her clients’ needs, Dr. Deughd pursued another Master’s degree to gain more perspective on her counseling.
Marianne has published two books-Grazing the Fields of Plenty which deals with stress from too much of everything around us-too much food, noise, news, and excess in general. Her second book is 52 Mondays which helps one to deal with those Mondays (or Tuesdays, etc.) where everything seems to go wrong.
The diminutive Marianne can be seen walking early every morning. Stop and have a chat-you’ll be glad you did!
