Dr. Glory Palecek currently lives in Coronado, California with her husband, James, and their toy poodle, Contessa.   Their two grown children both live in San Diego and feel very fortunate to have them live so close.  In their spare time, Glory and James enjoy traveling and oil painting.  Glory originally moved to California with her parents from Rochester, New York at the age of fifteen.  Glory completed her undergraduate studies “Summa Cum Laude” at a Catholic woman’s college in Los Angeles with a major in Sociology and minors in Philosophy and Spanish.  After college Glory attended a one year program in child and family therapy at the Merrill-Palmer Institute in Detroit Michigan under the wonderful tutelage of Dr. Clark Moustakas, a renowned child therapist and humanist theoretician.   Her time at the Merrill-Palmer Institute proved to be a life altering experience. Returning to San Diego she completed a Master's Degree in Human Behavior at United States International University (now Alliant University).

 

Glory spent her first nine years as a counselor at Fallbrook High School, which she found very rewarding.  During this time, she was also busy starting a family and supporting her husband’s journey through law school.  She soon returned to USIU to work on a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.  Glory completed her Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology in 1979 after a tough and very rewarding pre-doctoral internship at Mercy Hospital in San Diego.   During her year at Mercy Hospital, she worked at the in-patient psychology unit. There Glory had extensive training in testing, counseled individual clients, participated in weekly case studies and participated in the day treatment program.  The program gave Glory comprehensive exposure to the field for which she always felt grateful.

After two years of post-doctoral work at a clinic for military families in Oceanside, California, Glory opened a private practice in Escondido, California.  The focus of Glory’s practice is working with children and families.  She has done extensive custody evaluations and expert witness work both for the private sector and for Child Protective Services. Throughout her many years of practice, Glory has served every level of client, from the chronically mentally ill to those with mild garden-variety neurotic issues.  As part of her extensive work and experience, Glory regularly performs complete psychological evaluations for adults and children.  She firmly believes that testing is a unique skill set that she as a psychologist with over twenty years of experience can offer her clients.  Testing provides another important tool in evaluating the nature of problems, their amenity to treatment, and the possible need for medication.

 

In Glory’s twenty years of private practice, she also had the opportunity to work part time at a ranch for delinquent teenage boys for two years.  This experience led Glory to a deeper insight into the difficulties of this population and greater understanding of their individual need.

During her career Glory has also been a clinical supervisor to both Masters Level and PhD Level interns at a non-profit community clinic in Escondido.  The experience of assisting the training of developing professionals in the field was a rewarding and reciprocal learning experience.  Glory strongly believes in the value of cooperative learning and the value of shared intellectual experiences to better train professionals in the field.

 

Dr. Palecek also served on the board of both the Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA in Escondido for several years.  Dr. Glory greatly appreciated and enjoyed contributing to her community through her work with these organizations.  She deeply believes in serving her community and giving of her time to those who can benefit from her knowledge and experience.

Dr. Palecek recently moved to Coronado, California with her husband who is a native of the small Navy town.  She is qualified with Tri Care West (through Blue Shield) to serve military and their dependents and has been licensed in the state of California since 1982.  She is currently working with new patients and looks forward to growing her practice in Coronado.

 

Dr. Glory’s philosophy of therapy is rooted in a deep respect for the individuality of the person; man’s innate desire to grow in self-congruence; and the absolute need of man to act in a joyous and harmonious way with others.  There are many ways that this truly human connection may be perverted in the process of our formations that must be acknowledged and worked through.  Most of us are a work in progress that can be nurtured through a trusting and challenging connection with a meaningful other.  Therapy happens all around us but in a more structured and intentional way in the therapeutic relationship.  Glory finds her connection to her clients an honor, a challenge, and a continuing enlightenment.