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June 7, 2011

ULM’s Spyker Chairperson earns prestigious Nautilus Book Award

Dr. Brad Keeney, holder of the Hanna Spyker Endowed Chair in the ULM Marriage and Family Therapy Program, is a 2011 Silver winner of a Nautilus Book Award in the multicultural and indigenous category.

The national award recognizes imaginative works that promote spiritual growth, conscious living and positive social change, according to its web site.

Keeney joins a group of select previous winners including the Dalai Lama, Andrew Weil and Judy Collins, just to name a few.

The recognition is for his book, The Bushman Way of Tracking God, which presents Keeney's research on the Kalahari Bushmen of southern Africa, the world's oldest living culture.

The Kalahari Bushmen, whose culture has been in existence for over 60,000 years, have a healing tradition that has sustained in the face of innumerable crises.

"Their mental health practitioners, called n/om-kxaosi, have relied upon methods that have helped them cope and emotionally thrive during all their challenges. Yet their spiritual teachings, the source of their enduring healing wisdom, have never been fully presented outside the Kalahari," said Keeney

"I wrote the book to help others know about their unique ways of finding meaning, joy, and healing — what they have been successfully using for thousands of years."

Keeney has been featured in "American Shaman: an Odyssey of Global Healing Traditions," which won a Best Spiritual Book award from Spirituality & Health magazine.

He is also the author of numerous psychotherapy texts, including "Creative Therapy: The Art of Awakening a Session," "Improvisational Therapy, Resource Focused Therapy" (with ULM's Wendel Ray), and "Mind in Therapy."

Keeney is also co-editor of the biographical study, "Milton H. Erickson, M.D.: An American Healer," awarded Best Book in Psychology for 2006 by Spirituality & Health magazine.

Keeney previously worked as a professor of doctoral studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and as part-time supervisor of clinical cases at the Center for Children and Families in Monroe.

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