Meet Jim

Jim is an experienced workshop leader and counselor, who developed his own practical techniques for improving communication and relationships. Among them are key tools – the Flat Brain Theory, the Talker Listener Card, and a collection of Listening Techniques – which will help you accept yourself and others and build your relationships.

Dr. Petersen’s material has benefited corporate clients, city governments, colleges and universities, the hearing-impaired community, students, teachers, parents, couples, individuals, and churches. His informal manner endears him to novices and experts alike.

He developed his counseling and teaching skills in forty years of pastoral ministry, which included counseling as a professional licensed in Oregon.

His degrees include Doctor of Ministry and Master of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California and a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

He is an avid fisherman, plays tennis, a mean game of ping-pong, and lives and travels with his writer wife, Sally.

When Jim retired he thought he’d relax, fish, travel, and putter. But people just kept showing up so he did too. He fishes less, sold a boat, let puttering tasks pile up around the house, and got wrapped up in this project. He says he’s not regretted it for a minute. Although he does say that he plans to fish more next year.