Ep. 32 - Speaking Of: Paul Bukovec

Paul Bukovec, LSW, was the Director of Menergy, a counseling center for men which he founded in 1994. In this capacity he served as chief clinician for a practice that specialized in the treatment of perpetrators of domestic abuse. As head of this treatment program for wife and partner abusers, he was responsible for programming, clinical supervision and the coordination of all direct service, including individual and group evaluation and treatment for offenders, and training and outreach presentations on domestic violence in a wide variety of settings. He served as a consultant and trainer for local and state wide domestic violence agencies and coalitions. To the service community-at-large, Mr. Bukovec served as a case consultant for domestic violence cases involving victims and perpetrators. He spoke at many national and regional professional conferences and was featured as a guest on local television and radio on numerous occasions. He was featured with his program on the ABC-TV news show "20/20," December 1987.

In 1984, Mr. Bukovec became the founder and director of Project RAP for Family Service of Philadelphia, designing the first abuser treatment program in the Philadelphia area. During his ten year tenure, Bukovec organized and chaired The Brown Bag Forum, a monthly professional training series featuring local experts speaking on a variety of subjects relating to family violence, which served hundreds of clinicians locally. In 1988, Mr. Bukovec coordinated and chaired a major two-day national conference: Violence in the Family, hosting over 400 professionals from around the U.S.

An active member of the state-wide Batterers Intervention Network, Mr. Bukovec was a co-author of Standards for Batterers Programs promulgated by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence. He also wrote a monograph, Psychotherapy for The Male Batterer published in The Renfrew Perspective.

Mr. Bukovec was a full time assistant professor for four and one-half years in the Child Care Department of Temple University, and a part time instructor for Community College of Philadelphia for several years. He has also been a field supervisor for graduate social work students from Smith College, Bryn Mawr School of Social Work and Social Research, the University of Pennsylvania, Allegheny University, Rutgers University, and Temple University. He guest lectured at most of the local colleges and graduate clinical programs.

Paul retired in December of 2013. He now spends his time cooking, writing, camping and hanging out with family.

Crusty Bits of Scrapple: Sketches, Scuffles and Tough Tales from Philly by Paul Bukovec

This is a collection of character sketches, vignettes and stories from the streets and neighborhoods of Philadelphia. Told from a wryly askance, ground level perspective, this anthology presents portrayals of gritty, everyday people. Some are quirky. Some obtuse. Some resistant. Some resilient. All real people. All scuffling to get by with a hard way to go.

These are narratives of relationship clashes, urban life struggles, hardscrabble conflicts and vivid personalities retold by a man who heard it all firsthand. The author, Paul Bukovec, spent forty-five years as a psychotherapist evaluating and treating a wide spectrum of the population in the City of Brotherly Love.  He worked at the local state mental hospital, a community mental health center, and as lead clinician/director for the city's first Batterers' Intervention Program. He engaged with folks at all levels of distress and conflict: evaluated court referrals, diagnosed cases at every level of disorder, and spoke intimately with thousands from all walks of life. 

Bukovec describes the poems in this volume as mosaics. He has taken fragments from hundreds of personalities and a myriad of stories he listened to over the years and pieced together composites that tell tales about real people you could encounter any day on Philly's always sunny streets.