Dr. Berger's background is best described in his own words:
My adult and professional life began in 1968 when, at age 24, I received my Doctorate in Psychology and began teaching at the University of Pittsburgh. I loved teaching and helping my
students learn and be excited about learning. But something was missing-- I did not feel I was helping people enough. So, I began working as a school psychologist with young adults and specialized in helping
pregnant teens in the Pittsburgh, PA school system. I quickly discovered that were no easy answers to the questions these young women had, no place for them to go and no one to talk to. Helping
these women was very challenging because in those days
there were no services for these young women and society was not yet accepting of unmarried and/or pregnant teens. I was horrified at the lack of counseling, options, and other services available to help
these young women. However, I was personally able to help so many of them and found the work so rewarding that after 7 years I decided to leave the University so I could devote more time to directly helping
others.
Putting my concern for, and experience with, pregnant teens and young women together with my desire to help others, in 1983 I started a private counseling practice and began the process
of creating an adoption agency. Not just any agency, but one that was dedicated to helping pregnant moms and dads with the option of adoption where they would get the best and
most comprehensive of services with never any pressure to proceed with an adoption. My goal was to help them whether they kept the child, placed the child for adoption, or even decided to work with another
agency.
After two years of effort and tons of required paperwork, in February of 1986 I was approved to operate Adoption Services, Inc as a fully licensed, private, non-profit agency. It was then that I really found what I wanted to do
for the rest of my life. I have loved, and still love, helping the birth mothers, birth fathers, and adopting families. I work 6 days a week and answer calls at all hours. The hours I put in are long but never hard, since I find so much joy and strength
in helping others.
I recently expanded the goals of Adoption Services to include the creation of the largest and best resource on the internet to assist pregnant women, parents and adopting families to find the information and help that they need. The
result is the website you are now looking at and the other eight websites shown under our phone number at the top of the page.
On the more personal side of enjoying life, I worked hard at raising two wonderful daughters to successful adulthood. I am very close to, and proud of, my two daughters and sons-in-law,
each of whom has been extremely successful in there own right. Each of them has established a successful personal and professional life. However, busy as they are, they still have the time and desire
to interact, without fail, with their "Dad",
several times each week. I have also been blessed with healthy and, of course beautiful and smart, granddaughters.
My pride in my children extends not only to who they are but also to what they do. There appears to be a driving force in my family's genes that leads us to help others. While I do my best to assist birth parents, adopting families
and children, my eldest daughter is a social worker who has specialized in working with abused and abandoned children and with the ill and dying through a hospice program. My youngest daughter reaches out to help others through her work in publishing
and editing and my brother and sister-in-law have taken on the task of helping the physically disabled; in fact they have developed a beautiful website designed to encourage the
physically handicapped to overcome some of their psychological limitations.
Thank you for taking time and allowing me to share a little of my personal life and pride with you.
Please feel free to contact us and let me or my staff help you. When you call you can talk to one of the adoption coordinators that I have personally trained, or you can always
ask for me directly.
For additional information about me and my background, please visit the website Psychologist Anywhere Anytime.
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