Meet the Family Recovery Institute Clinical Team
Kenneth Perlmutter, Ph.D., President and Founder
Kenneth Perlmutter, PhD, Founder of the Family Recovery Institute and a licensed clinical psychologist (PSY25112), brings 30 years of experience working with individuals and families with complex psychological and behavioral health disorders. In 2008 he founded The Family Recovery Institute which provides multi-disciplinary treatment for individuals and families including dynamic therapy, family systems work, group therapies, healing workshops and clinician training. He has pioneered and validated a theory of family system woundedness with a corresponding recovery model he calls Stress-Induced Impaired Coping.
Freedom from Family Dysfunction: A Guide for Families Battling Addiction or Mental Illness was published in 2019 by Rowman & Littlefield. He wrote the book specifically for family members who love someone battling addiction or mental illness but “want to break the cycles of codependency and relapse plaguing their dysfunctional systems.” Claudia Black, noted author and family systems thought leader declared: “Kenneth is changing the way we thik about and approach families. His is a voice we all can and need to hear.”
He has overseen the design and installation of the family treatment program for Bayside Marin, Morningside Recovery, Safe Harbor Treatment Center for Women, Casa Capri/Windward Way and other national-level programs. In addition, he conducts a twice-monthly therapy group for parents of troubled teens and stuck young adults and has historically conducted an annual healing workshop for families of the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Whiteriver, AZ.
As a professional educator he has served on the graduate faculty for San Francisco State University’s Counseling Department and as Associate Professor of Chemical Dependency Studies at Cal State East Bay.
He has held executive clinical positions including founding Family Program and Clinical Director for Alta Mira Recovery Programs in Sausalito, CA, a 14-year tenure for the Boyer House Foundation including Clinical Milieu and Admissions Director, and received an in-depth look at the American treatment industry while serving on the Sierra Tucson Clinical Outreach Team.
Email Dr. Perlmutter: [email protected] or call 415-322-0939
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Dylan Kersh, MA, Director of Training
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Dylan spent over a decade teaching middle and high school students in Oakland, Maui, and Marin County. Although he found this career rewarding, he eventually realized that his greatest asset was the ability to connect with people and inspire them to do positive things in their lives. After a dozen years working as an educator, he went back to school to pursue his ambition of becoming a therapist. He is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT 107259).
After graduating from the Wright Institute in Berkeley and completing his training at Family Works in San Rafael, Dylan moved to the Mind Therapy Clinic in Corte Madera to work with individuals struggling with both severe mental illness and addiction. He also began working at A New Path Marin, a transitional program for men with substance abuse disorders which focused on recovery coaching as well as therapy. There, he cultivated a talent to connect with men and help them to identify and deepen their emotional experience. Since then, he has also worked as the Program Director at Shine a Light Addiction Specialists in San Rafael, Muir Wood Adolescent Outpatient Program, and the Foundations Recovery Network Outpatient Program in San Francisco.
Dylan is currently in private practice in San Rafael and supervises interns as the Director of Group Programs for the Community Institute for Psycho-therapy. In addition to working extensively in the addiction world, Dylan sees a variety of individuals and families in his practice. He works from a family systems, attachment theory, and psychodynamic model and incorporates mindfulness, EMDR, Internal Family Systems, CBT, and a variety of other evidence based practices.
To learn more about Dylan visit www.dylankersh.com
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Jacqueline Perlmutter, RAS, DASD, Addiction Specialist, Spiritual Director
Jacqueline Perlmutter serves as the Institute’s addiction specialist and spiritual director. She specializes in holistic, integrated care, incorporating evidence-based approaches including Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), Radical Self-Acceptance, Motivational Interviewing, family systems, and ecopsychology, to guide her clients toward greater health and sustainable recovery. She is also a certified ecotherapist.
Jacqueline is a trained group facilitator for Seeking Safety™ trauma recovery groups, SMART Recovery™ and Centering Meditation™. She has served on many non-profit boards and advocacy coalitions including the Marin Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA) Coalition, the Sonoma County Advisory Board on Alcohol & Other Drug Problems, WAAT (Women’s Association for Addiction Treatment) and Ohlhoff House Treatment Programs in San Francisco.
Jacqueline draws upon her three decades of long-term recovery to inform her model and method for the spiritual journey of addiction recovery and/or her clients’ search for meaning and reconnection with their authentic, sacred self.
Our Founder, Dr Kenneth Perlmutter, describes being blessed to be married to her for the past 38 years.
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Katalin Szabo, Psy.D., Psychological Associate
Katalin is a pre-licensed professional, who has been working as a psychotherapist for over 10 years, both in the Bay Area and in her home country of Hungary. She earned her doctoral degree in clinical psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology in San Francisco and holds a Masters Degree in counseling psychology from Hungary. She is passionate about supporting the community, individuals, couples, and families, in uncovering their emotional and personal truth. She helps her clients in working through family relationship issues, identity challenges, and mitigates mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, or disordered eating.
She completed her pre-doctoral internship at the Community Institute for Psychotherapy (CIP) in San Rafael, where she currently serves as a post-doctoral fellow. She brings a strong psychodynamic clinical base with emphasis on the object relations and interpersonal development. In partnership with her clients, the main goal in therapy is to gain deeper understanding of the issues to make way for an increased self-awareness and self-acceptance.
Prior to CIP she worked at the Mission Mental Health Clinic of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, serving the culturally diverse residents of San Francisco. She supported her clients in LGBTQ+ issues, racial identity, immigration, complex trauma and substance abuse.
She sharpened her interviewing and diagnostic skills while working as a clinical researcher at a number of PTSD studies run by the San Francisco VA. She conducted clinical interviews with veterans dealing with mild to severe PTSD symptoms, coming from a diverse cultural and social background.
Prior to that she worked at various community mental health clinics in the Bay Area and in Hungary. She has treated clients in outpatient settings suffering from mental illnesses ranging from transient adjustment issues to more long-term chronic mental disorders. As a first generation immigrant herself, she experienced first hand the beauties and difficulties of adapting to a new culture while maintaining a connectedness to her Eastern European roots. She supports her immigrant clients by working through their immigration on an emotional level, understanding acculturation, and finding their true identity.
Katalin is a Registered Psychological Associate (PSB 94026582) working under the supervision of Dr. Kenneth Perlmutter (PSY25112).
To reach Katalin email [email protected] or call 628-265-2224
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Kevin Lecy, Psy.D., Staff Psychologist
A licensed clinical psychologist (PSY31987) Dr. Lecy earned his doctorate in clinical psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) in San Francisco. He is originally from “outdoorsy” Colorado, now in the Bay Area for more than 10 years. He has enjoyed a diverse set of clinical experiences in the mental health field.
He completed a pre-doctoral internship at San Quentin State Prison, providing individual and group psychotherapy for male inmates. Common psychological issues faced with these clients included PTSD and Complex PTSD, Substance Abuse, Depression, Anxiety, and Existential struggles. It was here that he learned the power of compassionate healing.
Prior to San Quentin he received intensive training at St. Helena Hospital Center for Behavioral Health (CBH), an acute, short-term inpatient behavioral health hospital. His patients included people of all ages, children to seniors, challenged by severe mental illness. Here he learned “to foster strength and safety in the face of sheer terror and pain.”
Prior to that he logged many years of clinical experience in East Bay school districts working with children and teenagers expressing emotional disturbance, along with their families. This included providing individual and family therapy, psychodiagnostic testing, group therapy, consultation and various multidisciplinary treatment team meetings including IEPs. It was here he says he “learned the strength of community.”
Lastly, he has worked with and researched the intersection of chronic physical illness/disability and mental health. His particular focus involves stress and pain management in autoimmune disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis.
Email Dr. Lecy at [email protected] or his direct voice mail 415-413-7072