Reflections from Dr. Peter Goldblum
Few individuals have had as profound an impact on Palo Alto University’s institutional identity as Dr. Peter Goldblum (Ph.D. 1983). His ongoing legacy is evident in Palo Alto University’s academic culture, approach to training, commitment to inclusive excellence, and community impact. His leadership is also broadly celebrated within the field. In 2013, he was recognized with the American Psychological Association’s Division 44 Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training Award. It is telling, then, that Dr. Goldblum focuses most of his reflection on his relationships with others – and on the power of collaboration.
Goldblum’s own professional path started outside the Bay Area. His mentor during his Master’s work at Columbia University was Dr. Allen Bergin, one of the pioneers of evidence-based psychology and a devout Mormon. Goldblum remembers him as “perhaps the most brilliant teacher I ever had.” Yet, when Goldblum prepared to apply to PhD programs with a focus on homosexuality, Bergin urged him to go back into the closet as a gay man and abandon his research. Goldblum, who was invested in the importance of defining a “healthy gay identity” at a time when mainstream psychology still pathologized non-heterosexual sexualities, refused. Bergin recommended, instead, that Goldblum consider programs in California, where more “radical” ideas might be welcomed – which is how he wound up applying to Palo Alto University, then Pacific Graduate School of Psychology (PGSP). It was in the late 1970s, a time when interviews were still held on beanbag chairs, and he began his training as part of the university’s second class.
That isn’t to say that the university was a unilaterally welcoming environment. When Goldblum began at PGSP, it was still very much of its time, and he faced the same challenges that were common across the country in the 1970s and early 1980s. It wasn’t a perfect place, and Goldblum remembers both covert and overt resistance to his work, but Palo Alto University “leaned toward tolerance.” He recalls that one of the personal highlights of his career was being accepted into the PhD program as an openly gay student.
When he takes the long view of Palo Alto University’s history he begins, as so many of us do, with its origins. He cites its unique status as being founded by a group of students and also focuses on the impact of its first president, Dr. Robert Kantor: “Bob was the chief psychologist at the Menlo Park Veteran’s Administration,” Dr. Goldblum remembers. “The Menlo Park VA was a place that brought together some of the truly innovative people in the field of psychology at the time. Dr. Kantor had prestige that he brought to the school.” He was both a psychologist who had a hand in the origins of evidence-based psychology, and a practitioner with “edgier” interests in transpersonal and “new age” psychology. His deep professional competency, rigor, and legitimacy coupled with a willingness to explore new, nontraditional areas of scholarship is a legacy that continues to this day at Palo Alto University. “The school has always been trying to find the balance between pragmatism and idealism,” remarks Dr. Goldblum.
Goldblum returned briefly to Palo Alto University in 1989 to begin a new and innovative HIV Program that supported students financially who had an interest in HIV prevention. At the time there was substantial internal turmoil at the university. “For a university that began as a student-led institution there is an inherent tension between being a radically different school and fitting into the mold of an APA-accredited university,” Goldblum notes. As a result of philosophical differences within management about the direction of the school, half of the faculty walked out; moments such as these are a bellwether of the push-pull that has always defined a school at the forefront. In his view, the challenge and opportunity of Palo Alto University’s core identity is in seeking a hybrid balance between innovation and pragmatism.
After the faculty walk-out, Goldblum stepped in to direct the clinic with a promise from the school that he could begin an LGBTQ program. He left when the university reneged on that promise.
But times change and attitudes evolve. Goldblum again returned to Palo Alto University in 2004, having built a prominent career with work that made a tremendous impact during the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, including serving as co-founder of UCSF AIDS Health Project and authoring books on both AIDS self-care and bereavement. Dr. Goldblum had been recruited by Bruce Bongar and Larry Beutler — Palo Alto University faculty members and two of the most nationally recognized researchers in psychotherapy at the time. “Larry Beutler and I hit it off the moment we met,” Goldblum says. At a time when LGBTQ issues were still controversial, Beutler’s explicit support made it clear that any aggression toward Goldblum was “off limits.”
“I was surrounded by some of the best thinkers and most productive people in the field,” Goldblum says. “I had the support of the people I needed, including Lynn Waelde, Joyce Chu, Scott Hines, and Rowena Gomez, all of whom were great collaborators in the establishment of a culturally-competent institution.” And importantly, Goldblum emphasizes, Allen Calvin himself was “a great champion of this endeavor.”
“Our legacy is still under construction!” he notes with a smile. When Allen Calvin came on board, he asked an important question: what kind of school does Palo Alto University want to be? “We’ve answered a lot of that,” says Goldblum. The school maintains faculty and trains students of exceptional quality – “an embarrassment of riches.” And to this day, Palo Alto University still strives toward the hybrid approach of “taking the best of what is good” from current models, yet being open to alternative pathways when existing approaches don’t work.
“I will always be indebted to and hold affection for Palo Alto University,” Goldblum says. “[Palo Alto University] gave me a chance, gave me resources.” His legacy as a leader endures – his efforts are among those that define Palo Alto University as a university at the forefront of mental and behavioral health. Today, the LGBTQ+ program supports theoretical and clinical training in sexual and gender minority psychology. The Sexual and Gender Identities Clinic (SGIC) at Palo Alto University works to develop and provide evidence-based psychological treatment for at-risk clients. To Palo Alto University’s knowledge, 16 years after its founding by Dr. Goldblum, it remains the only dedicated clinic housed within a doctoral training program that provides specialized care to the LGBTQ+ community in the United States. “I hope that Palo Alto University will continue to be a leader in sexual and gender issues, to train compassionate, smart clinicians who don’t always go along with community notions of the day,” says Goldblum, as he reflects on the politics of today. “I hope my legacy is the promotion of collaboration, helping people come together to work creatively and innovatively.”
And on a personal level, he considers it a profound highlight to see his own students graduate and be successful in groundbreaking careers. It is notable that he still communicates with many of his past students, not only to offer his own counsel but also to keep abreast of new developments in psychology from their points of view.
It’s fitting that, like any visionary doer, and true to the culture of Palo Alto University, Goldblum constantly refers to the power of relationships in making an impact as profound as any scientific discovery. Take Dr. Allen Bergin, Goldblum’s mentor at Columbia. “In 2020, he apologized to the Mormon and LGBTQ communities for his anti-LGBTQ influence,” Goldblum notes. “His change of heart came about as the result of close relationships with several Queer family members, and I love the idea that one of the most prominent proponents of evidence-based psychological practice was swayed by love, not science.”
