Allen Bergin
| Allen Eric Bergin | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
August 4, 1934 Spokane, Washington |
| Residence | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Clinical psychology, Psychotherapy Research, Religion and Mental Health |
Allen Eric Bergin (born, Spokane, Washington, August 4, 1934) is a clinical psychologist known for his research on psychotherapy outcome and on integrating psychotherapy and religion. His 1980 article on theistic values was ground-breaking in the field and elicited over 1,000 responses and requests for reprints, including those from luminaries such as Carl Rogers and Albert Bandura. Bergin is also noted for his interchanges with probabilistic atheist Albert Ellis.
Bergin was raised in a family that did not actively attend any religious services. He went to high school in Spokane, Washington, and began college at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then transferred to Reed College. The school had four Latter-day Saints in its student body that year, one of whom was Bergin's roommate and another of whom, Marian Shafer, he began dating. The following year Shafer decided to transfer to Brigham Young University (BYU) and Bergin decided to do the same. Through interactions with BYU professor and Reed alumnus Robert K. Thomas Bergin learned more about Mormonism and in March 1955 was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) by Thomas. After this, Bergin married Marian Shafer.
Bergin eventually earned a master's degree from BYU and then a Ph.D. from Stanford University under Albert Bandura followed by post-doctoral research at the University of Wisconsin under Carl Rogers. He then became a professor in the clinical psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. While on the Columbia faculty Bergin lived in New Jersey and served as a bishop for the LDS church and later as a counselor in the Eastern States Mission Presidency. It was also while at Columbia that Bergin co-edited the Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change with Sol Garfield; the book was named a social science citation classic.
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