Tiffani Kisler
Guide and Teacher
Dr. Tiffani Kisler is President of the Rhode Island Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. Dr. Kisler teaches courses in Assessment in Family Therapy, Theories of Couple and Family Therapy, Human Sexuality and Sex Therapy, and supervises clinical practicums for the Couple and Family Therapy graduate program. Dr. Kisler is the former Clinical Director & Co-Founder of the Center of Sexual Health in Providence, RI. Dr. Kisler has been working in the field of couple and family therapy for 20 years.
Dr. Kisler has published, as well as presented at national and international conferences on her clinical and research specialties which include relational and sexual satisfaction and functioning, sexual aggression, couple and family therapy training, and use of technology (i.e. sexting, texting, Facebook, Twitter) on sexual, relational, and physical health.
Tiffani earned a PHD in Family and Human Development with a specialization in couple and family therapy from the School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. Go Devils!
Tiffani finds blending being a professor and a therapist extremely rewarding.
As a therapist: “I really value the importance of a strong family, strong support networks and strong community on health and well-being. I went into the field of couple and family therapy because all too often our society tends to focus narrowly on the pathology within an individual. In couple and family therapy we recognize that we do not live in isolation. Focusing on an individual and sending them back into the same environment without addressing the environment can limit our success. Taking a wholistic approach to health gives us a better perspective on our experiences and opens many more pathways towards change.”
As core faculty of the Couple and Family Therapy Program at URI Tiffani believes it is of the utmost importance that her therapeutic and clinical work inspires her research and that her research supports Tiffani’s teaching, service, and outreach. As a result, Tiffani is very interested in couple and family therapy process and outcome research. In particular, Tiffani is interested in what makes therapy successful as well as identifying factors that lead to a successful training process. According to Tiffani, it is critical to impower the client’s voice in the therapeutic process. By using client feedback clinicians can customize their services to the unique needs of each client. As a systemic based therapist, Tiffani embraces the importance of taking a wholistic approach to health and recognizing the interrelationship of our psychological, physical, relational on our overall wellbeing.
As a professor: “To see my students from the moment they see their first client to later becoming leaders in the field themselves. It is amazing to be a part of their journey and witness their growth culminating in thriving private practices, supervisory positions at mental health agencies and advocacy efforts in our field.”
Tiffani’s priority is her twins. She enjoys spending time with her children and family, especially discovering new adventures, places to explore, and new things to try. One way that Tiffani Ignites her Passion, is by witnessing her children’s passion and interest in people and in nature.
As President and Founder of Pivot At Work, founded in 2002. Larry works with individuals and organizations to increase effectiveness. This is done in a variety of ways; individual and cohort coaching, outcome based experiential cohorts, and facilitated process work. Recently, he has dedicated his time to working with content creation with experts in various disciplines, coaching officers in the military, and advising organizations in learning architecture. Clients include Surest, Best Buy, Boston Scientific, Carlson Companies, CHS, Carlson School of Management, Williams Energy. In addition to Pivot At Work, Larry has worked inside organizations including UnitedHealth Group, CVS/MinuteClinic, Adaytum, Carlson School of Management. In 2012, his book “A.R.T.ful Leadership The Path to be Admired, Respected, and Trusted as a Leader” was published.
For two years, Larry went underground, producing a podcast to uncover the impact of individuals who experience trauma from being led by poor or abusive leaders in organizations. Through interviews, people came forward to describe how their experience impacted their professional lives, their financial lives, their home, and what recovery has looked like for them. Towards the end of this journey, Larry shifted his attention to focus on how leaders and organizations were responding to the Pandemic.
Larry’s approach to his work has been described by a colleague as “whole-person leadership”. “He understands that we are complex and multi-dimensional creatures. He often references that how we communicate is formed at age 3 – that means, how we respond to conflict, how we interact, how we engage in feedback, how we play in the sandbox has roots in our earliest experiences.”
When Larry works with people – whether individually or in groups, he often pushes them to explore family dynamics, self-awareness, self-confidence, and work. Each impact the other. Understanding each of the components is necessary to not only realize strengths, but to uncover barriers and challenges that exist.
In graduate school, Larry studied Marriage and Family Dynamics, Dyadic Communications, Management, Diffusion of Innovation, Group Dynamics, Organizational Communications, Interpersonal Communication, Nonverbal Communication, Economics, Marketing, and Public Relations. All of this was intentional, and he had to fight academia to make it happen. He never stopped looking at tackling issues from a multi-discipline approach. Looking at Leadership, or Teams, or Organizational Culture from a variety of perspectives – and collaborating with a variety of disciplines to solve a problem.
Being constantly curious is an amazing and wonderful thing.
Larry lives in Minneapolis area with his wife Nancy. They have two children, Alex and Kathryn who also live in the area.
