Tom Turner grew up in the South; a little coastal town in Northwest Florida. Some people say it’s actually extreme South Alabama but he does not agree. It was not what you would consider a “sleepy little town”. To refer to it in such terms would be far too poetic. It was just quiet.
Summer evenings, his family would spend hours sitting on the front porch. The children would ride their bicycles into the thick fog bank, maneuvering just as close as possible to the back of the mosquito spraying truck. The adults would smoke Lucky Strikes and Camels and tell stories about their life experiences. Aunts and Uncles, Cousins and Grandparents from the close-knit neighborhood would wander in to listen to the night’s entertainment. There were no air conditioners so, in the summer, it was actually cooler on the porch than inside the house. And, after their ride, the kids served as a repellent for the bugs.
Some amazing stories were told on that porch. Most were true, some were exaggerations and some were just flat out lies but “old sayings” were used in abundance. As an impressionable child, he always had a “moral of the story” to ponder as he slipped into his restless summer dreams.
So, he was not surprised when many years later, working in his private practice as a Psychotherapist, he found that old sayings came to mind as he listened to his clients talk about their struggles in life. Had they applied the wisdom in the sayings before they acted, they might well have avoided a lot of misery which followed their behavior.
Turner is a writer, a personal achievement coach and performance improvement consultant. He is a life long student of human behavior and has a rich experiential base from which he provides a unique and highly insightful view on human behavior. He has a Doctoral degree in Behavioral Science specializing in adult learning and a Master's Degree in Counseling. Tom has worked in administrative positions in the fields of Mental Health, Chemical Dependence and Disability Rehabilitation and he spent over twenty years in his private Mental Health Counseling practice. He has held numerous expert certifications and now lives on the Northern Gulf Coast of Florida with his wife and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Lily.