Claudia Grauf-grounds

Biography

Education: BA, Stanford University, 1976; MA, Fuller Theological Seminary, 1978, PhD, University of Southern California, 1988. At SPU since 2000. Before coming to SPU, Dr. Claudia Grauf-Grounds taught for 10 years at the University of San Diego in the graduate Marriage and Family Therapy Department, as well as at Bethel Seminary San Diego. She has also helped to train family medicine physicians both in San Diego and at the University of Washington’s Department of Family Medicine. Licensed and active as a family therapist in both California and Washington since 1982, Dr. Grauf-Grounds says that her favorite part of her work is supervising and mentoring young clinicians in the field. She was named Washington State Association Marriage and Family Therapy Association’s Supervisor of the Year in 2007. Dr. Grauf-Grounds is inspired when she can add “a spiritual voice” to her professional field of study — a voice lacking in traditional family therapy and medical training programs. Most background beliefs of psychotherapy and mental health regard human beings as inherently good and capable of self-generated change and growth. However, a Christian perspective, although valuing persons, does not have illusions about our capacity for relational and personal neglect and destructiveness. A biopsychosocial-spiritual way of addressing human suffering and healing is central to her training and work. After her retirement from SPU in June 2017, Dr. Grauf-Grounds returned to San Diego where she continues to practice and teach.

Research Interest

Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy