In 1978, Jim was granted an AAMFT-approved Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from the newly formed Family Therapy program in the College of Human Development at Syracuse, one of the first programs in the nation to offer this. He received his Ph.D. in Child and Family Studies from the same institution in 1981 and later participated in a Summer Practicum at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic.

Jim and his wife Judy, who he had met at Franklin and Marshall, moved to Florida in 1978 where they have raised their two children of whom they are wildly, but not inordinately, proud. Jim co-developed the first family therapy training program in South Florida, the Commuter Family Therapy Training Program, while serving at a local agency. He then entered private practice in 1981 as a marriage and family therapist. In 1996 he began teaching in NSU’s Department of Family Therapy. Jim became a full-time faculty member in 1998. In addition to his faculty duties, he has served since 2000 as Executive Director of Academic Affairs for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and is the school’s current Director of Institutional Assessment, Planning and Relations.

Dr. Hibel’s ongoing teaching and research interests examine postmodern approaches to psychotherapy, particularly with adolescents, and underlying assumptions about the nature of psychotherapy and helping relationships, particularly as they impact students training to become family therapists. He has published and presented on these issues at a variety of regional and national conferences, as well as on issues relating to clinical supervision.

Dr. Hibel has also been performing assessments of student learning outcomes for the school and has been exploring ways to utilize learning objectives as ways of describing the transformative nature of the curricula in the programs.