Alicia Salmon, LCSW: Alicia Salmon, LCSW, has provided services to children, adolescents, and adults in a variety of settings since 1990. Alicia’s work focuses on helping families and couples resolve issues that interfere with a healthy lifestyle, improve overall communication skills, and develop stronger support systems to strengthen families and keep relationships intact. In working with families and individuals, Alicia utilizes Cognitive Behavioral strategies as well as concepts taken from DBT, family systems, and mindfulness to help people learn healthier thinking and coping strategies. She encourages the people she works with to develop the skills necessary to better care for themselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Education: Alicia completed a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology through Lycoming College. She then completed her Masters of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh with a concentration in physical and sexual abuse.
Work History: Alicia began her career as an inpatient social worker on the Adolescent Unit of Mercy Psychiatric Hospital, part of the Mercy Health System. She later served as the social worker at Southwood Psychiatric Hospital. Alicia furthered her career by providing therapy in an outpatient setting through Intercare Psychiatric Services and The Center for Counseling Arts. She eventually opened her own private practice in 2002 and continues to provide outpatient therapy to adolescents, adults, and families in that setting. She enjoys working with individuals, families, and couples.
Ministry: Alicia, along with her family, is an active member of her church. She and her husband, John Salmon, have worked together to build a ministry that supports families and individuals based on the concepts of honor, grace, and celebration. As families learn to share honor, grace, and celebration with one another, they discover greater joy and intimacy with God, family, and friends.
Personal: Alicia Salmon married her husband, John Salmon, in 1992. They continue to enjoy a wonderful marriage. They have two lovely daughters. Their oldest daughter is a classical pianist. Their youngest daughter is currently a freshman in college with passion for children and music. She hopes to teach music to children in Africa.
John Salmon, PHD: John Salmon, PHD, has worked with children and families since 1986 in settings as varied as church, community, school, and private practice. John currently sees children and families in an outpatient setting to help them identify the personal strengths and available resources that will enable them to more successfully navigate life’s struggles and transitions. He also assists children and families in developing the skills necessary to develop successful relationships and become involved in communities that will support them through life’s changes.
Education: He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Therapy and his Masters in Counseling Education from Duquesne University. John also earned his Doctorate from California Southern University. His dissertation focused on The Relationship between Attachment, Eating Disorders, & Other Deliberate Self-Harm in Female Undergraduate Students. John has also completed training in Gestalt Institute of New England, Brief Solution-Focused Therapy and Neurolinguistic Programming through the American Hypnosis Training Academy, Prepare/Enrich marriage/premarriage, and the Infancy & Early Childhood Training Course: The Basic Course on the DIR/Floortime Model.
Work History: John began his work in social services as a Music therapist in a long-term psychiatric facility before moving into community mental health and working with families through the Child/Adolescent Intensive Case Management Program (C/A ICM) at Mercy Behavioral Health. After supervising the C/A ICM program for several years, John transitioned into working as a school-based counselor through Mercy Behavioral Health. While working as a school-based therapist, John began consulting with several social service organizations that provided in-home services for children and families in need. He also began to serve as an Adjunct Faculty member at Carlow University. At this time, John has a private outpatient therapy practice and continues to serve as an Adjunct Faculty member at Carlow University.
Speaking: John regularly fills in for two ministers in the Pittsburgh area. In the past, he presented at several state training programs such as “Basic Intensive Case Management Training,” “Intensive Case Management Supervisor conference,” and two Annual Case Management Conferences (7th and 9th). John also was a regular presenter for trainings at Mercy Behavioral Health through 2008. In more recent years, John has spoken at two family weekend retreats at Camp Christian. He also offers two premarital training conferences a year in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh. John especially enjoys presenting and training on topics related to family, parenting, and marriage. He hopes that these presentations will better equip families to develop a healthy and happy family life.
Ministry: John has remained an active church member throughout his life. He served as a part-time youth minister during his twenties. Through his educational and work experiences in combination with his faith-based experiences, John has come to understand the importance of honor, grace, and celebration in a person’s life and family life. This culminated in writing and publishing a book, Family by God’s Design: A Celebrating Community of Honor and Grace in 2011. He believes that through the practice of honor, grace, and celebration, a person develops the healthiest and happiest of relationships with God, family, and friends. As a result, John and his wife, Alicia Salmon, have begun a ministry to teach the practice of honor, grace, and celebration to strengthen and promote health within the family.
Personal: John married his wife, Alicia, in 1992. They have two lovely daughters. Their oldest daughter is a classical pianist. Their youngest daughter is currently a freshman in college with passion for children and music. She hopes to teach music to children in Africa. When asked about his family, John replied, “A wise woman from church once told me I was richly blessed with family. These words are very true…so very true.”
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children! I don’t know about you, but I want to pass on a legacy better than “angry,” “gossip,” “selfish,” or any other negative label. I’d rather pass on a legacy of generosity, thoughtfulness, hospitality, gratitude, or kindness. I think I might like to begin the legacy with generosity. A study entitled “Give and You Shall Receive” found that giving generosity to one’s spouse led to greater happiness and marital quality. I like that idea. Moreover, giving generosity had a greater impact than receiving generosity. That finding stands in opposition to our cultural message that close relationships and even marriages “exist primarily to enhance individual happiness and [individual] growth”…in other words, to make me happy. Why would “freely and abundantly giving good things to one’s spouse” increase marital quality and happiness? I’m glad you asked.
ct on the knowledge we gain. We have to make practical use of that information. Having a “head knowledge” of what pleases our spouse does no good unless we put it to practical use…unless we act on it. Generosity involves the actual act of “giving” some gift “freely and abundantly.” In the end, “actions speak louder than words” when it comes to generosity.
c attitudes reduce happiness in marriage. With a plethora of advertisers spouting the “one with the most toys wins,” this study suggests the opposite. The researchers looked at over 1,700 couples and discovered that a focus on getting or spending money was associated with lower levels of responsiveness between spouses, less emotional maturity, more ineffective communication, higher levels of conflict, lower relationship satisfaction, and less marital stability. Perhaps, this focus on “material things” resulted in over-working in an effort to gain the “needed money;” and overworking led to less time with family and less opportunity to develop family relationships. Perhaps the focus on material things stemmed from a self-focus instead of a relational focus. Either way, a focus on monetary gain did not promote happiness and it interfered with family intimacy. This study brings to mind the wisdom of one ancient author who wrote, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” 
advertisements cater to our materialistic desires. Get her a diamond. Buy him a car. Satisfy your child’s need with an Ipad (by the way, how young is too young for an Ipad?). Buy this or buy that to find happiness. The 
