About Morgan Jay
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I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor, and Certified Clinical Supervisor in the state of Connecticut.
I obtained my Bachelor's in Psychology from Butler University and my Master's in Social Work from the University of Connecticut. I worked as clinician and supervisor of mental health and addiction services for Hartford Dispensary for 16 years.
Traumatic experience seemed to evidence itself among my clients over these years, so I trained throughout these years at the Dispensary, learning Seeking Safety, TREM, M-TREM, and TARGET as interventions to support clients in their healing.
I am currently trained in, and am pursuing certification in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing, an innovative newer technique in enhancing process of unwanted emotion and memory.
I am serving as Vice President of the Executive Board of the Connecticut Certification Board,which certifies and monitors Addiction credentials here in Connecticut. I have served on the Rainbow Room's board at Hartford Gay & Lesbian Health Collective for gay youth, and on various behavioral health Boards, such as the Regional Mental Health Board for the Greater Hartford area, and the Housing and Fair Rent Commission for the town of Manchester.I am a current faculty member of Bear Your Soul, focusing upon positive body image, self-acceptance, and meditation, and adjunct faculty on various other retreats at Easton Mountain retreat center. I see my career as a journey of service to clients and am happy to review any questions or concerns you may have.
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As an undergrad, I was studying at Connecticut College to bring peace and hope to all people. I also came out to myself, and my family, as a gay man that year.
This didn’t sit well with my Georgetown University-educated parents, and they decided to neglect their respective career-regulatory bodies public statements on LGBT people, and send me to a conversion therapist in Boston.
This person used an old and outdated Freudian theory to stitch together a picture of a dysfunctional relationship with my father.
Which was not true and as it turned out, with further research on my part, debunked by the American Psychological Association.
My family eventually came around to tolerate and then accept me. However, I decided that my journey of stigma, pain, and self-acceptance could be beneficial to others in their search for peace and love.
So I left Connecticut College the following year, and began my journey of becoming a light in the darkness.
Years later on retreat, the poet Rumi shed light upon my calling to sit with people in their darkness, pain and suffering:
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
“What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.”
“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.”