Donald W. Welch, Ph.D., LMFT

A counselor for over thirty years and a veteran professor of twenty-eight years, Dr. Welch has been invited to lecture at four different universities and is in private practice and previously employed as a marriage and family therapist staff member at Charter Behavioral Health System of Kansas City, a psychiatric hospital.  For fourteen years, Don served as Professor of Christian Education and Family Studies at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas where he was honored as Teacher of the Year (voted by faculty and student body) and included in several Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.

He is a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a Kansas Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist and a Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor in the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.

For the past twelve years, Dr. Welch has served Point Loma Nazarene University as an adjunct psychology professor.  As a thirty-two year ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene, Dr. Welch has served as senior and associate pastor as well as the preaching/interim pastor at six rural and suburban churches in Kansas, Missouri, and California.  For the past twelve years, he continues at the Skyline Wesleyan Church in La Mesa, California as their part-time counseling pastor where he has produced 119 broadcasts of “My Therapist ‘Sez’…” a live-streamed production where medical doctors, psychotherapists, and other relationship specialists interact with a live audience while discussing relationship issues.

For years Dr. Welch owned and directed Family Counseling Services, San Diego’s first and oldest professional Christian Psychotherapy center.  Along with his wife, Robin, Don founded the Center for Enriching Relationships, a nonprofit professional Christian Psychotherapy center now partnering with Point Loma Nazarene University’s Master of Arts in Clinical Counseling program, where he gives leadership to 30 psychotherapists who are dedicated to serving San Diego’s under-resourced populations at 20 sites from North County to East County to South Bay.

As a prolific author, Dr. Welch has written extensively in books, magazines, biblical commentaries and methodologies, and newspapers including Point Loma Nazarene University’s Viewpoint Magazine, Group Publishing, The Preacher's Magazine, Bible Study Methodologies for Word Action Publishing, World Mission Magazine, the Kansas City Star newspaper, including the Evangelical Dictionary of Christian Education (Baker Books) and Introducing Christian Education (Baker Books), Nazarene Publishing House and Beacon Hill Press.  His most recent pending book is The Screen-Smart Kid: Equipping Children to Live in a Media-Saturated World. As a versatile and accomplished communicator, Dr. Welch has spoken about relational issues at academic conferences, revivals, churches, and retreats around the world.  

Dr. Welch and his wife, Robin, are happily married and have two adult children. Having a heart for ministry to the underserved, Don and Robin have led eight Work and Witness teams to places like Mexico, the Philippines, the former Soviet Union, and the Caribbean where evangelism was conducted, buildings constructed, relief supplies distributed, and medical assistance provided.