Dr. Richard Balkin

8th Degree Black Belt

Dr. Rick Balkin is the highest-ranking student of Grand Master Hudson. He is an 8th Degree Black Belt and Internationally Certified Instructor. He began his training in the mid 70’s in Little Rock Arkansas and has trained under many instructors over the years. His training with Grand Master Hudson began in 1983, when Grand Master Hudson became the head instructor of Little Rock Taekwondo-Do academy, and continues to this day. He serves as an advisor to the Professional Black Belt Association.

Dr. Balkin, Ph.D., LPC, NCC is a Professor, Department Chair of Leadership and Counselor Education and Coordinator of Educational Research and Design in the School of Education at the University of Mississippi. Rick is a Fellow of the American Counseling Association; past president of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling; and former editor of the Journal of Counseling & Development, the flagship journal of the American Counseling Association. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for the International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling. Rick began practice as a professional counselor in 1993 and has worked in academia since 2003. Rick has over 100 publications, which include textbooks on assessment in counseling, research, and the counseling relationship, published tests, and technical manuals, peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and conference proceedings. His counseling experience with at-risk youth was formative to his research agenda, which includes understanding the role of counseling and relevant goals for adolescents in crisis and counseling outcomes. He has published in the areas of religious diversity and forgiveness and developed a model and measure for working through issues of forgiveness and conflict. He is the author of Practicing Forgiveness: A Path Toward Healing, published by Oxford University Press.